Catherine’s Comments—Two Thanksgiving Table Settings from Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, Catherine's Comments, Holiday essay, Holiday table settings, Table decor, Thanksgiving decor, Turkey Table Decoration

A couple of weeks ago I posted four holiday table place settings using twenty mismatched dishes. Readers loved them and I received requests for more. So, just in time for Thanksgiving, I’m posting three place settings using the same dishes, but with some seasonal dishes, napkin rings, and different centerpieces. These items are another way to add pizazz to the table if you don’t have a whole set of seasonal dinnerware.

This time I chose white dishes because I wanted the centerpieces to shine. I added a tiny turkey dish to the mix, just big enough to hold some butter or a small roll.  When I found these in the grocery store a few years back, I couldn’t resist them. (Remember I said I had a dish fetish.) Even though they are a one-season item, they take up very little storage space. In my opinion they were well worth the cost for the seasonal zing they add to the table. If you have any Thanksgiving themed dishes you can add them to a single color palate and allow the seasonal dishes to shine in the place setting.

I also added my leaf napkin rings to the mix. And a fall colored tablecloth, since I didn’t have four fall placemats.

When looking for fabric tablecloths check both sides of the cloth. Sometimes, they are reversible, like the one I used. One side is a deeper, more vibrant colors the other side muted. By just flipping the tablecloth you can change the whole look of the table.

I’m calling the first two place settings below “It’s all about the Turkey” because the place setting and the centerpieces focus on the turkey.

The next place setting uses the same dishes, but I changed the turkey centerpiece. I filled a smaller turkey basket with buckeyes and placed a battery-operated candle on top of the buckeye nuts. . I like to use battery operated candles because they are safer and less messy than a wax candle. You could use acorns or marbles or any other material to raise your candle to the proper height, or just use a taller pillar candle. The important part here though is the turkey basket.  If you don’t have a turkey basket, but have other turkey décor, go ahead and use that in the centerpiece. Remember the theme is “It’s all about the Turkey.”  

The last setting, using the same dishes, has a pilgrim theme. In this setting I placed the buckeyes into a clear cylinder vase and placed a short battery operated votive candle on top of the nuts. I had this quirky set of pilgrim figurines I bought at a dollar store, so I set them on either side of the vase, back to back to both sides of the table could see them.  

If you don’t have pilgrim figurines, buckeyes or a clear cylinder vase, you, and the kiddos, could construct a pilgrim hat from black poster board. Make a hatband and buckle from colored construction paper and glue it to the hat. Leave the top of the hat open and fill with silk, fall leaves or short branches from brightly colored bushes from the yard. A piece of floral inside the hat will help hold the stems in place. Place battery-operated votive candles around the brim of the hat.

And there you have it. Three different table themes using the same dishes and different centerpieces.  If you liked these ideas, please sign up to follow the blog. I’ll be posting some Christmas table settings in December and other holiday settings throughout 2021.

Here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you need a break from your holiday preparations, take a look at Catherine’s award-winning romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama.

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.

The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.

A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.

Available from Amazon.

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. She also lays claim to over 300 internet articles written on a variety of subjects and several hundred poems. In addition to writing she loves reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog.

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Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Why is Christmas Green and Red by Catherine Castle

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Catherine Castle, Christmas, Christmas trees, Holiday essay, Musings for a Writer's Brain, the colours of Christmas

Well, dear readers, I’m back again.

You may have wondered where I’ve been for the past couple of months. The answer is recuperating. I fell—well, rather tripped—up an uneven step and broke my right arm. Yes, before you ask, it was my right arm, the same one on which I had shoulder replacement surgery on in February of this year. In my typical fashion, I did a big number on the break—a spiral break that required a plate in my arm from the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the upper arm. I’ve got a gnarly scar to show for it. The good news is that I didn’t mess up the prosthetic shoulder replacement. I can type rather easily on the computer keyboard now, so I decided it’s time to come back to the blog. I’ve been doing the minimum to keep up with my scheduled guests.

Christmas is coming, and I have a post I wanted to share, even though I won’t be doing my usual decorating. I’m still supposed to wear the sling when I’m up and about, and decorating an eight-foot tree with one arm isn’t easy. I’m the main Christmas decorator in my house.

I don’t know about you, but I love the familiar and colorful shades of red and green of Christmas. And I have a lot of different themed ornaments, but one of my favorites is my poinsettia Christmas tree shown below.

Recently, on an internet blog I saw a suggestion for a black Christmas tree trimmed in gold. The post called it a sleek, modern look for an adult gathering.

Really?

I get the gold part, and gold shows up a lot in my Christmas décor. After all one of the wise men brought the baby Jesus a gift of gold. Maybe if I stretch my imagination far enough I could say the black represents the sin Christ came to conquer. But, black will never be the new red and green in my house.

Have you ever wondered why the colors of Christmas are red and green? Here are a few possibilities I’ve dug up for you to ponder.

 

• The Paradise play, a drama recounting Genesis 3 —the fall of Adam and Eve into sin and God’s promise of a Redeemer born of a woman—was performed in medieval times during advent. The Tree of Knowledge, from which Adam and Eve ate, was often depicted using a pine tree with red apples pinned on it. The decorated tree that began as a prop for the Paradise play was so popular that people began to put pine trees up in their homes during the holiday, decorating them with red apples. The idea spread and both Christmas trees and the color combination of red and green began its transformation into the official colors of Christmas
• Red is also the color of Holly berries, which is said to represent the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross.
• Red is also the color of Bishops robes—robes that later became associated with St. Nicholas and later became the color of Santa’s suit.
• Dr Spike Bucklow from the University of Cambridge’s Hamilton Kerr Institute says “One can trace the roots of this colour coding (red and green) back through the centuries, to a time when the colours themselves had symbolic meaning, possibly as a way of accentuating a significant division or a boundary.” He also thinks, based on his research of the art history of medieval rood screens which date from the 14th to the 16th centuries and were used to separate the nave from the chancel of churches, the use of those red and green by the church may also been a question of pigment availability. Most of the screens he studied appeared to be painted in red and green. Over the years, modern humanity has lost the meaning of the colors, which would have been readily apparent to even the lowest of peasants.
• Green reminded the ancients that spring would come—a reminder they needed much more than we, with our bright electrically lit homes, would need during dark, clouded winter days.
• Green symbolizes the continuous life cycle, as does the birth of Christ who gives us hope of an eternal life.

So, you can put up a black tree, decorated in gold balls and tinsel, but for me and my house—we prefer red and green!

What about you? Do you decorate with red and green at Christmas? Or do you prefer the silver/white and blue—the colors of winter? Or something even farther out there?

When you’ve tired yourself out with the Christmas preparations, take a break with Catherine’s award winning romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama, available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

 

Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.

The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.

A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.

 

 

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. She also lays claim to over 300 internet articles written on a variety of subjects and several hundred poems. In addition to writing she loves reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog