November 12, 2013
Simple Thanksgiving Centerpiece
Last year I hosted Thanksgiving at my house. We had a new house, a new baby, 14 people, and no dining room. As much as I wanted to go all out and overboard with the Thanksgiving decor and made from scratch food, I knew that my reality demanded I keep it simple. So that’s what we did. Everyone who came brought a dish or two to share, so I was left to only worry about the turkey and just a couple side dishes. A few weekends before the big day my sisters helped me come up with some decorations that would add a nice festive touch to the table without being too time consuming or expensive. This simple layered bean candle holder was just what I needed.
We started with some glass drinking glasses. I knew that we would be using plastic cups for everyone on Thanksgiving (remember, we were keeping it simple) so my normal drinking glasses would be available.
Then we found some beans. Thanksgiving really lends itself to natural and muted colors, so brown and white beans with some green lentils worked well with the color scheme we were going for.
From there we simply layered the beans in the glass. You want to make sure to make each layer thick enough to be distinct from the other layers. Depending on the height of your glass you may need more or less layers.
Once you have your layers done, just nestle a little tea light into the top of the beans.
These candle holders come together in just a few minutes and can be used in a number of places. We made several to line up along the middle of our long table, but you could also group glasses of different heights together for a true centerpiece, or intersperse them with the serving dishes if you have a separate buffet area for all the food.
P.S. Making these candle holders is also pretty kid friendly. While I was putting one together for this post, Charlie really enjoyed helping me scoop up the beans to pour into the glass. Older kids could probably do it all themselves (except for lighting the candle, of course).
[…] Layered Bean Candleholder […]