It is totally possible and even beautiful to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early while having a home that is festive, magical, and exudes thankfulness for the Thanksgiving holiday!  In fact, using early Christmas decorations to set the backdrop for a beautiful Thanksgiving style is my favorite way to decorate in November.  Join me for 10 easy tips that can help you start to prepare and decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early!

You are probably reading this blog post today because you fall into one of two camps.  1. You want to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early but need a little help.  Or, 2. you want to find ways to take stress off of decorating for the holiday season in general and wonder if you can decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time to save yourself some work.

I have GREAT news for you!  Decorating for Thanksgiving and preparing for Christmas early is my favorite way to decorate in early November.  While decorating with Christmas things before Thanksgiving Day is widely accepted now, I’ll admit that I’ve been decorating extra early for Christmas for many, many years.  I’ve even taken some pointed criticism before for rushing past Thanksgiving with my Christmas decorations.

Is it okay to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving?

If I’ve written it once in a blog post, I’ve written it 50 times.  You get to decorate YOUR home however and whenever you want.  Truly, there isn’t a right or wrong answer.  We should all feel free to do what we want or need to in our own homes free of any judgement from other people!

My husband and I have been very involved in music for our entire married lives.  I taught music and drama for 15 years and we both do a lot of church music.  Now, our kids are also very involved in music activities.  As you would suspect, the first couple weeks of December are incredibly hectic with rehearsals and performances.  It is totally normal that for at least those first two weeks, more than one of us are gone every evening for some kind of event.

Because of how our schedule has been for so many years, we found that decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving allowed us to enjoy the decorating process rather than be stressed about it.  Plus, it is so nice to come home from a Christmas performance to our home that feels festive and peaceful instead of Christmas decor totes scattered around and half decorated trees blinking at us!

Why I do I explain all of this?  Well, it’s just my personal example of how you don’t have to rely on Google or your neighbor to tell you when you can put your Christmas tree up!  You get to do whatever is best for your family and just enjoy it!  Make the most of every happy moment during the holiday season!

It is perfectly okay to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving if that is what works best for you and your family or even if that is just what you want to do!

How to decorate for fall and Christmas at the same time?

In this post, we will look at examples of my top 10 favorite ways to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time!

• Mix fall foliage and winter greenery
• Use lots of cozy candles
• Incorporate metallic colors such as brass, silver, and/or copper
• Add mercury glass accessories
• Set up Christmas trees in advance
• Decorate with a neutral color palette
• Use lots of natural elements, such as pine cones
• Mix twinkle lights with fall and winter decor
• Add a lot of cozy textures such as fur
• Create a sensory experience for a festive spirit
• ​

Can you decorate for Christmas if hosting Thanksgiving?

Typically, I do not host for Thanksgiving.  However, when I do, I still have a lot of my Christmas decorating completed and our home is basically ready for the Christmas season.  However, I love mixing Thanksgiving decorations with winter decor to create a beautiful table for Thanksgiving dinner.

I’ll show you some examples today of how you can mix fall foliage with Christmas greenery to create a magical look with a beautiful centerpiece and Thanksgiving table settings for your Thanksgiving feast!

Today, we are going to chat about some ways to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time by mixing decor.  This can help decorating during the busy time of year a little easier as well as help everyone feel the holiday spirit with festive decorations during these special months of the year!

10 Easy Tips to Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early

1. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Winter Greenery

The number one way that you can decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time is with the use of winter greenery.  Since we live in South Florida, we have green grass and palm trees all year.  However, many places up north are looking at bare trees by Thanksgiving, except for the trees that stay green all winter, such as evergreens, cedar, pine, and juniper.

No matter the season, taking cues from nature is always a beautiful way to decorate!  So, I love bringing my winter greenery out in early November to start mixing with Thanksgiving decorations.

Even if you do not any other Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, you’ll be helping yourself out a lot by having your winter greenery and small trees all fluffed and placed throughout your home!

One of my favorite Thanksgiving decorations was this mantel I decorated a couple of years ago.  I mixed THIS super realistic Norfolk pine garland with another very realistic eucalyptus garland.  Then, I layered in fall decorations like dried gourds and THESE pheasant feathers.  

You could also add colorful fall leaves, pretty white pumpkins, mini pumpkins in warm autumn tones, or any other fall accents that fit your Thanksgiving decor aesthetic!

Another place where I love to mix winter greenery in with more Thanksgiving-specific decorations is on the dining room table!  Especially when I host Thanksgiving, I want my dining table to really feel like it has the feeling of abundant thankfulness.  One of the best ways to do that is by using a simple style with repetition to create a lush and festive table setting.

Below, you can see a couple of examples of Thanksgiving dinner table settings.  In all of them, I have mixed winter greenery in with fall accents.  Even though they all have an easy Thanksgiving centerpiece, the tables have a sense of abundance with natural elements, greenery, and fall color.

Even if you decorate for Christmas and Thanksgiving early at the same time,  you’ll want to add specific Thanksgiving touches to your dinner table, such as fall accents, turkey-themed decor, seasonally appropriate greenery and flowers, and touches of warm, autumn hues.

Pro Tip:  Adding winter greenery to your Thanksgiving decor helps you in two ways:

1. Decorating with cues from nature and what is actually green outside
2. Getting all of that greenery out of storage, fluffed, and placed throughout your home saves a ton of time when you’re ready for Christmas decorations

Favorite Winter Greenery:

• THESE cedar branches
• THIS Norfolk pine garland
• THESE Norfolk pine stems
• THESE beautiful magnolia leaves
• THIS realistic eucalyptus garland

​2. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Candles

To me, one of the things that makes Thanksgiving decor feel special is when it is focused on an inviting atmosphere.  This is less about the actual decorations and more about the feeling of the space.  A really great way to bring an inviting atmosphere into any space is with cozy candlelight.

While I do use some real candles for scent, I mostly use flameless candles for decoration.  I love having them on a timer so they conveniently flicker on each evening.  Especially with the end of daylight savings time in November, it is really nice to have that cozy candlelight throughout our home!

I use a lot of candles in my fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor.  When I decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early, I go ahead and create beautiful vignettes with my flameless candles.  It is an easy way to start creating a backdrop for Christmas-specific decorations where I can quickly and simply swap out a pumpkin for a nutcracker, for example!

Candles will add a cozy glow that helps everyone feel peaceful and festive at the same time!

Here are some of my favorite flameless candles:

• THESE tea lights are perfect for votives on a holiday tablescape
• THESE taper candles are what I use on my dining room table and mantel
• THIS chunky pillar candle is perfect for a vignette on a coffee table or console table in the living room
• Shop my other favorite flameless candle ideas HERE!

3. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Mixed Metal Accessories

Metallic colors and finishes are classic for Thanksgiving table settings and Christmas tablescapes alike.  Hostesses have been pulling out their silver candlesticks for generations, after all!  I love using mixed metals to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time for a few reasons.

First of all, with the cozy candlelight glowing, the reflective nature of the metal finishes bounces around the light and looks so beautiful.

Secondly, since brass and silver are both a big part of my Christmas ornaments and decorations, bringing out my brass candlesticks and silver chalice collections in the late fall, for example, are another great idea to start setting up for Christmas without even adding any Christmas specific decorations.

Brass candlesticks mix perfectly with Thanksgiving or Christmas decorations.  At the same time, I can quickly swap out mini pumpkins from an easy Thanksgiving centerpiece for small trees in early December in my vintage silver chalices.

The time consuming part of this beautiful centerpiece is the time spent arranging the silver chalices and winter greenery.  I can’t think of a better way to help make holiday decorating less stressful than to invest quality time in holiday decorating that can serve me as I decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time!

Besides candle holders, small figures and decorative accents like THESE gold deer are perfect to use as you decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early.

Deer are a common fall animal as well as a beloved Christmas symbol so you might as well add a few beautiful deer decorative accents to decorate for both of these beautiful holidays at the same time!

4. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Mercury Glass Accents

In addition to mixed metals, I love using decorative accessories made of mercury glass.  Mercury glass also adds beautiful sparkle as it reflects candles and twinkle lights throughout a room.

At the same time, mercury glass is in neutral tones, meaning you can easily mix it with warm autumn colors for Thanksgiving and then quickly swap out the color scheme for whatever your Christmas aesthetic will be.

The general vignette styling with your mercury glass and mixed metals doesn’t have to change.  Instead you just remove the fall accent and replace it with a Christmas-specific decorative item.

For example, on these dining room shelves, I have a lot of Christmas ornaments in mercury glass and white tones.  What makes this scene particularly Christmas-y, though, is the wreath with the gold bell.  So, I could set up these shelves the same way and put a beautiful glass turkey figure in place of the wreath with the bell for Thanksgiving.  It would take a quick second to swap out the turkey for the wreath with the bell.

Are Christmas ornaments very Christmas-y?  Of course!  However, in a neutral color scheme and with the reflective finish of the mercury glass, the emphasis is more on the sparkle rather than the ornaments themselves.

Here are a few favorites for mercury glass decorative items:

• THESE mercury glass mini ornaments
• THIS mercury glass garland

5. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Naked Trees

Have you heard of a Thanksgiving Christmas tree?  I’ll be honest; I’ve never decorated one myself.  However, the concept is so beautiful.  Especially if you decorate it with a simple style, the hardest part of setting up and fluffing the tree is done!  Then, after Thanksgiving dinner, you can just swap out the ornaments!

Instead of a tree decorated for Thanksgiving, I’ve often had naked trees in the month of November.  A naked tree is simple a Christmas tree that is beautifully set up and fluffed with just the lights and no ornaments!

Since evergreen trees are green after the fall trees have shed their leaves, these winter greens are perfectly appropriate to have set up along with Thanksgiving decorations.  After all, it is what is actually green outside at Thanksgiving!

As with many of the other ideas in this post, the hard work of setting up the tree is complete.  Then, whenever you’re ready, you can just add your Christmas ornaments.

The twinkle of the lights is oh-so-cozy and I promise it will make your Thanksgiving Day feel even more festive and magical, ornaments or not!

6. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Twinkle Lights

Speaking of twinkle lights, they are another way you can get some of the grunt work of Christmas decorating done early.  When I say grunt work, I mean that surely I’m not the only one who pulls out strands of Christmas lights from storage only to find that a third of the strand is no longer working?!?!  Who can relate???

Getting your string lights out in early November allows you to get one of the more stressful parts of decorating done ahead of time.  Since I use white lights for the Christmas season, they mix in perfectly with my Thanksgiving decor.

The soft twinkle of the string lights only makes our home feel more cozy throughout the month of November as we kick off the beautiful holiday season (which, to me, is a combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year).

Even if you don’t want to pull out the larger Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, do try adding twinkling fairy lights to vignettes around your home.  THESE look perfect along a mantel, down the middle of the dining room table, under a cloche, or wrapped around small trees.  With the end of daylight savings time, November is the perfect time to add a cozy twinkle throughout your home!

7. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with a Neutral Color Scheme

These tips and ideas are in no particular order.  However, a great way to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time is by incorporating a neutral color scheme.  If you’ve been following along with me for very long at all, you know I find neutral colors to be particularly calming and relaxing so I enjoy them year round.  That being said, the holiday season is a beautiful time to add seasonal colors.

The best way to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early is to have a base with neutral tones and simply swap out your autumn hues for Christmas colors whenever you’re ready.

For example, if you love using traditional holiday colors, trade out colorful fall leaves for red berries after Thanksgiving.  Or, tie a beautiful rust colored ribbon to THIS Norfolk pine wreath on the front door for Thanksgiving.  After Thanksgiving is over, change the ribbon to a traditional red velvet.

Pro Tip:  You don’t have to stick with neutral colors when you decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early, unless you just want to.  However, create a base of decor with neutral tones where you can accent with a holiday-specific color scheme instead of completely redecorating between fall/Thanksgiving and Christmas!

8. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Natural Elements

There are so many beautiful decorative elements that come from nature and I love using them as I decorate our home for the different seasons.  Another really great way to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early is to use some of these natural elements.

After all, in the short weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, much of nature is the same for the two holidays!

This simple table centerpiece using a large bowl, gold glass flameless pillar candles, and pine cones is an an example of a way to enjoy an easy Thanksgiving table setting that flows right into Christmas and New Year’s without trading any decor around between the holidays!

Pine cones are one of my favorite natural elements to use to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early because they are seasonally appropriate for both holidays.  Plus, pine cones add so much texture to home decor.

I enjoyed using large pine cones for simple place settings at Thanksgiving one year.  After Thanksgiving was over, I could leave the place cards and just swap out the fall-colored flowers for winter greenery!

9. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early with Cozy Textures

A great place to start to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early is with soft textures like throw pillows, blankets, and rugs.  Even though there are a lot of really fun holiday-specific throw pillows out there, you don’t need more than one or two of them, if any, to make your home feel cozy for the fall season or for the Christmas season.

What I love to do is bring in really soft textures with throw pillows, like fur, combined with a neutral color scheme that I can also leave out for Christmas and winter.

Then, if I decide to add my favorite pumpkin pillow, all I have to do to transform our sectional from Thanksgiving to Christmas is swap out the pumpkin pillow for a simple Christmas one.  It takes less than a minute during the busiest time of the year!

The time spent in early November, deep cleaning the sofa, switching out light-weight summer pillow covers for deeper and warmer neutrals and fluffy textures, saves me a lot of time later on in the season when life gets a lot more hectic!

You can also add heavier throw blankets around your home for the cozy, longer evenings.  Rugs are another way you can completely transform a room!

Even adding a smaller fur rug layered over your everyday, year-round rug can make the whole room feel like it’s ready to be cozy for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Plus, you can leave the cozy rug out for the winter season too!

10. Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas Early by Incorporating the 5 Senses

The most wonderful time of the year, which I think really incorporates all of November and December, is not just about holiday decorations.  It is also about creating a space where family members and friends feel welcome, peaceful, and loved.  I love trying to fill our home with holiday cheer.  However, I cannot create the holiday mood just with decorations!  

Pro Tip:  Creating an inviting atmosphere is best done when we incorporate all of our 5 senses in a space: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch.

Thoughtful things like peaceful holiday music playing throughout the day or favorite candles with scents like pumpkin pie or evergreen trees are great ways to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early.

Over on THIS post, you can find my free Thanksgiving playlists.  I hope you enjoy them to help you create a cozy and peaceful atmosphere during the fall months!

​The fall and Christmas season is also the holiday time when most of us pull out our baking supplies and have some extra fun!  Certainly, you can use your favorite recipes and traditional seasonal treats to help create an inviting atmosphere.  After all, is there anything more delightful than walking into your home to the smell of freshly baked pumpkin or apple anything​?!

Favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas Simmer Pot Recipe:

• ​Fill dutch oven 3/4 full with apple cider. (Shop my favorite one HERE!)
• ​Slice one apple and add to the cider.
• Slice one orange and add to the cider.
• Add 1 or 2 cups of fresh cranberries.
• Add 4-5 cinnamon sticks.
• Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon powder.
• ​(Optional: Add 3-4 fresh rosemary stems)
• Bring cider to a boil for a few minutes.
• ​Turn to simmer and let it simmer away for an hour before your guests arrive.
• Your home will smell amazing and your guests will enjoy the delicious hot cider!

​Are you convinced to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early at the same time?  As you can see, it is completely possible to blend the two in a way that pushes the bulk of the work to early November when you likely have more time to spend decorating and are less stressed.

As the month of November progresses, you can slowly transition from fall decor to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early with any or all of these 10 tips.  

Speaking from personal experience, I find so much more pleasure in decorating during the holiday time when I am less rushed.  Plus, since Thanksgiving is so late in the fall, it is only natural to start moving toward more of the winter look and less of a “scarecrow and corn stalk” vibe.

I have curated some favorite decor pieces to help you gather inspiration for Thanksgiving decor HERE on my storefront.  Then, you can find curated Christmas decor chosen HERE just for you!

I hope you’ll enjoy using some of these tips and ideas as you plan your holiday decorating this year and maybe even try to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early!  Let me know what you think and if you’re going to give it a try!!!

You may also enjoy these posts to help you prepare to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas early:

• Beautiful Ideas for Vintage Thanksgiving Decorations
• 15 of the Best Thanksgiving Decor Ideas and Inspirations
• 13 Best Ideas for Decorating a Sparse Christmas Tree
• 15 Festive and Easy Christmas Gift Wrap Ideas
• How to Use Christmas Ornaments for Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating
• How to Make Beautiful After Christmas Winter Mantel Decor
• Easy Ideas to Use Feathers for Thanksgiving Decor
• Best Classical Music Playlist for Thanksgiving Day
• Easy Ways to Choose a Christmas Theme for Holiday Decorating

I’d love for you to follow me on social media!  You can find my home decor inspiration on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!  

Blessings,

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