People are talking about how close Christmas is and the stores are hauling in all the Christmas stuff. We are bombarded from all directions by it with just a small section left for Thanksgiving. I know...it is an American holiday. For me it conjures up images of turkeys. Here's a cute one from Sweet Rice. Cute little turkey planter that could be filled with some of those autumn flowers or maybe a bunch of colorful leaves! The first Thanksgiving probably did not have turkey but goose, codfish and lobster!
I remember making cornucopias when I was a kid. It was another tradition for Thanksgiving. We used a big horn shaped wicker basket and arranged all of our favorite holiday fruits and vegetables. It was referred to as a horn of plenty or horn of abundance. This is a pretty depiction by Clinging Images.
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to be the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. We think of the colonists dressing in clothes similar to these cute candles found at By The Wayside.
On the table might have been found bowls made from gourds such as this one from Yarrow1, probably not as pretty but just as useful.
Fall harvest brings us lots of pumpkins! The Lord's Living World has this nice pumpkin basket that can be used throughout the fall season.
And from Aroma Fields we can get this great candle to fill our homes with the smell we associate with Thanksgiving...pumpkin pie!
You might think about sending a package to someone, thanking them for being a part of your life. A good one to start with might be this from Vintage Legacy Studio. What a lovely thing to receive in the mail!
We all have memories of Thanksgiving growing up. Sixsisters has this ACEO depicting one of her memories of Thanksgiving. Why not share one of yours with us on the thread?
Take a few minutes and browse the BBEST shops. Be thankful for living in a time where we can so quickly share our thoughts with others, can sell our wares to the world and never leave our chairs.
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10 comments:
What a lovely post Dayna, thank you!
The first time I experienced 'Thanks giving'in US was a few years ago at my late SIL's house. We all placed ourselves in a circle holding hands whilst each person recounted their reasons for being thankful. I look back on this occasion with poignant feelings since it was the last time my dear SIL was in a position to look after us all. BTW, my DH metioned his reason to be thankful.... thanked all our boys and girls whom we have sent abroad to fight our battles. Amen.
Lovely post Dayna. We all have so much to be
thankful for. I always love looking around the table at all the young faces and all the smiles and little jokes
we tell. It is my favorite time of year.
Amen, Pat.
Wonderful post, Dayna with lovely BBEST items.
Growing up Thanksgiving was always a wonderful day. Thanksgiving was eating, talking, playing games and laughing. We all shared what we were most thankful for before the prayer and Daddy thanked God for all those things in his prayer for the meal. Lovely memories!
Loved this feature and all the items also. One of my favorite holidays, includes family, delicious food and wonderful memories.
A most wonderful post! I remember Thanksgivings at our house when I was young. We would have 25 to 30 relatives and of course, I sat at the kids' table! Always wanted the turkey leg and still do - had one yesterday. We were all thankful for being in the US and not in Russia, and not having been in the camps.
We were mighty thankful!
Great nostalgic memory-sparker, Dayna! One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is of my Grandmother's place card favors. She would start with sugared orange slices, toothpick them together to make a round turkey "body" and then with raisins on toothpicks, form a fanned tail. The neck of the turkey was similarly made, with a marshmallow for the head, on which she "painted" eyes with food coloring. The beak was another toothpick painted orange, with a teeny sliver of red licorice for the wattle. Our place card would be leaned against the fan of the turkey's tail.
We always had family around for Thanksgiving too. I remember one Thanksgiving we had sat down to eat...Just us....no relatives. My Mom started to cry as she missed everyone. Dad said....wrap it up and get in the car. We did just that....called my grandparents in Maine (we lived in Connecticut) and drove up, heated things back up and had Thanksgiving with my Dad's parents. At the time it was about a 10 hour drive as highways had not been built yet.
We too always had a children's table.
For almost my entire life, Thanksgiving has been a time when just our immediate family got together, and often it was just my husband and me. We would have liked to have had others at the table, but our family is very small. Relatives live either out of state or across the ocean in Germany. Whether you have a small gathering like ours, or one of the larger ones that some of the other commenters have described, we all seem to have fond memories and traditions to recall of this special day! Thank you, Dayna, for sharing a little bit about the history of Thanksgiving.
I really enjoyed reading this, and checking out the items that you featured here! And reading the comments from the boomers, about their T-day traditions, made me smile. Thanks for that!
Thanks for a great blog about Thanksgiving. So many people think the first Thanksgiving is the way is it depicted in pictures with the Pilgrims and Indians sitting having a big dinner. Your re-creation of the events is very accurate.
I love your choices, I actually have those Pilgrim candles, which were given to me when I was six - so I admit they are antiques now! and every year since I received them they have graced our table during the Thanksgiving season.
Glad to see my favorite little "neighborhood girl" is enjoying her Thanksgiving also!
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