Decorate Your Thanksgiving Table for Less than $20

Holidays are stressful enough—what with the dinner prep and corralling the entire family under one roof for the celebrations—that decorating shouldn't be an added burden. And guess what: it doesn't have to be!

When it comes to table presentation for your holiday dinner, you can use everyday items from around the house to make it easy on the mind and the wallet.

Let's start with the table runner. For our table, we used a roll of craft paper. Normally, this paper is used for watercolors and the kids' magical creations. But, today, we're rolling it out across the table. Because this paper inexpensive, it can be ruined without worry — or colored on by the kids in the event you need an instant activity!

Next, we looked for leaves and glitter, two things that go together perfectly. You can pick up artificial leaves at your local store if you do not have real leaves available. Then, cover or spray-paint in glitter or other metallics for effect.

Third, we picked up a few pie pumpkins in the produce section. These pumpkins are the perfect size for decorating! Perhaps the most costly part of our display was the $5 can of metallic gold spray paint used to paint these beautiful pumpkins but, it was well worth it.

Votive candles give the perfect lighting for your Thanksgiving dinner no matter what time of day. Candles can be picked up almost anywhere if you don't already have a few hiding around the house.

For some height, grab a vase and fill it with small pumpkins or pine cones. You could spray paint or glitter these items as well. If you do not have pine cones, corn kernels or fall candies would work perfect as well.

Lastly, we created the perfect table setting with a large plastic gold plate and smaller white plastic plate, folding inexpensive cloth napkins (you could use paper) and wrapping with raffia. This place setting is on top of burlap which is very easy to purchase and changes form so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Our Thanksgiving table was only $17 when all said and done. The best part? You can simply throw it all away when you're finished. Clean up is a breeze! Don't forget to get the kids involved, this is a great project during Thanksgiving break!