Creating a Welcoming Entry Space for Thanksgiving

Creating a Welcoming Entry Space for Thanksgiving

Family, friends, food, and gratitude make the fourth Thursday in November one of the most cherished days of the year. Creating a welcoming entry space for Thanksgiving sets the mood for a warm and wonderful day.

Use Natural Elements

Your guests will get in the holiday spirit long before they set foot inside your house. Thanksgiving is about gratitude for nature’s bounty; acknowledge Mother Nature’s role by decorating your front door space with seasonal items.

Use fall corn, cornstalks, mums, gourds, and decorative dried grasses in vintage planters. Add items that evoke the harvest, like farm milk pails, wheelbarrows (if your porch is big enough), or cornucopias overflowing with mums.

Include Pumpkins Past Halloween

Pumpkin season is just getting started with Halloween. After you heave the jack-o’-lanterns into the compost, use colorful pumpkins to represent the harvest bounty. Stencil and scrape fall leaves onto a pumpkin, or use non-toxic markers or paints to add a message of welcome or gratitude in calligraphic script to the outside of a pumpkin.

A mound of pumpkins of different sizes and colors makes a festive display on front porch steps. You can even carve out some pumpkins and use them as vessels for pillar candles, real or LED, inside or outside the house.

Don’t Forget Door Décor

Your guests will be standing before your front door for at least a few moments before you open it to greet them. Don’t leave them staring at a blank, unwelcoming panel; add door décor to enhance the fall mood. You can create swags or wreaths from natural materials like twigs, mini pumpkins, acorns, and gourds.

Alternatively, you can hang a door decoration made from found materials, like a watering can or a hat decorated with fall leaves and flowers. It’s also nice to use a framed welcome message on a chalkboard or a piece of wood to greet your guests.

Watch Your Feet

Whatever the weather on the fourth Thursday in November, your guests will want to wipe their feet before stepping into your home. Provide a surface to clean their feet with a doormat that suits your home and the holiday season.

Inside your home, add a thin rug featuring seasonal colors and images in your foyer. Include a boot tray for guests to leave their muddy boots as they change into their indoor shoes.

Mirror It

You probably have a bench or small side table in your front hall. Add a mirror on the wall above for guests to check their looks when they come in from the cold.

Mirrored trays also add ambience. For Thanksgiving, fill one with mini-pumpkins or gourds and other natural elements, like cranberries and nuts. On a bench, add a holiday-themed throw pillow for comfort as guests sit to remove their boots.

Creating a welcoming entry space takes a little imagination, but not huge expense. Your guests are coming for the fellowship and the food, so the best welcome is the heavenly smell that’s wafting from the kitchen, with scents of roasting turkey and pumpkin pie!

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