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I start fussing with the buffet table around the second week of November, long before anyone needs to. My aunt thinks this is funny. She showed up early one year, caught me rearranging little paper pumpkins at nine in the morning, and just made herself coffee and watched.
The doorway is where it always starts for me. I hang something the day the air turns, and by the time the in-laws arrive the whole entry has been redone twice and most of it began as a file I printed at home on a tired inkjet. Burgundy and brass is the lane I keep coming back to. Deep red prints, a couple of brass candlesticks I never put away, done.
A few of these files I actually used this year, and yes, some of the links below are affiliate links, so if you grab one I might get a small cut. Costs you nothing extra. Here is what worked.
The Laser-Cut Piece That Made My Doorway Look Planned
This one is a laser-cut design, so it shines if you have a cutting machine, but I am stubborn and I printed the layout onto heavy cardstock and cut the outline by hand with a craft knife. Took me a whole evening and a true-crime podcast. Worth it. I propped it against the door frame and the in-laws actually asked where I bought it.
The brass in my entry plays well with the cut shapes, especially with a warm bulb behind it throwing little shadows. If you do run it through a machine it is faster, obviously.
One nitpick: the fine connecting bits are thin, and on my hand-cut version one snapped while I was peeling it off the mat. I dabbed a bit of glue and nobody could tell, but go slow on the skinny parts.
Brushstroke Prints For The Bare Wall By The Buffet
The brushstroke set saved a sad empty spot above my buffet table. I printed three of them, slid them into brass frames I already owned, and leaned them in a row instead of hanging, because I commit to nothing.
The reds in these lean burgundy, which is exactly my November color, so they did not fight the rest of the table. My aunt parked the pie right under them and the whole corner finally looked like I meant it.
Nitpick: the brushstroke edges are loose and painterly, which I love, but my inkjet left a faint banding in the darkest red wash. On matte paper it mostly disappeared. On glossy it showed, so go matte.
The Little Bear That Wins Over The Kids’ Corner
I print one cute thing every year for the youngest guests, and this little feasting bear was the pick. Ran it off small, taped one to the back of each kid’s chair near the doorway so they could find their seat.
The cheerful round bear does not match my burgundy-and-brass thing at all, and I do not care, because a four year old pointed at it and gasped. That is the only review that matters at the small table.
Nitpick: it is bright and very saturated, so it drinks ink. I printed five and watched my color cartridge tap out on the last one, which came out a little pale. Print these first while the tank is full.
A Whole Tablescape Bundle When You Want Matching Everything
This is a bundle, so it is the lazy-genius move when you want the buffet and the main table to look like they belong together. I pulled the place cards and a couple of the smaller toppers out of it and left the rest for next year.
Because it is built for a cutting machine, the assembled pieces stand up on their own, which looked great clustered near the brass candlesticks. I had little folded tents marching down the runner and it read as effort I did not fully put in.
Nitpick: it is a lot of pieces, and the first time I opened it I felt a bit lost about what went with what. I made myself a sticky note of which ones I was using and ignored the rest.
Whimsical Turkeys For Place Cards The Kids Make
Here is my favorite kids’ activity: I print the whimsical turkey art big and light, hand the little ones markers, and let them color their own place card. The buffet table becomes their gallery for the night.
The turkeys are loose and silly, so there are no lines to stay inside and nobody cries about doing it wrong. My aunt ended up coloring one too, fully invested, tongue out and everything.
Nitpick: print these at maybe 30 percent gray so the kids’ marker shows on top. The first batch I ran at full color and a determined six year old just scribbled over the printed feathers and you could not see either.
The Cornucopia Print That Anchors The Buffet End
I wanted one bigger image to anchor the far end of the buffet table, and the cornucopia did it. Printed it at full page, slid it into the largest brass frame I had, propped it dead center behind the rolls.
The harvest colors hold a lot of warm reds, so it sat right in my burgundy palette without me fussing. It became the thing people looked at while they waited for the line to move.
Nitpick: it is detailed and dense, so a small print loses all the little fruit. At 4×6 it turned to mush. Give this one room, half page or bigger, or the cornucopia just looks like a smudge.
A Faux Wood Sign For The Door, No Saw Required
This is a wood-sign style print, and it is the cheat for a doorway greeting when you do not own a single power tool. I printed it, glued it to a scrap of foam board, and hung it on the door with a ribbon loop.
The sunflower leans more golden than burgundy, so I balanced it with a deep red ribbon and it played nice. The in-laws read it on the way in and it set the whole tone before they even took their coats off.
Nitpick: the faux wood grain looks convincing from a step back, but up close on glossy paper it looks like exactly what it is, a photo of wood. Matte paper sells the texture much better.
Sublimation Pumpkins For The Napkins And The Table
This one is built for sublimation, so the real play is pressing it onto fabric. I did exactly that on plain napkins for the table and tucked one at each setting near the buffet.
The pumpkin tones run rusty and deep, close enough to my burgundy that the napkins did not clash with the brass. Folded by each plate, they looked bought, and I will absolutely reuse them next year.
Nitpick: if you do not have a press, this is the wrong file for paper, because sublimation art is made to come alive on a transfer, not an inkjet sheet. On regular paper my test print looked flat and a little washed out.
Soft Watercolor Turkey For The Grown-Up Table
Where the kawaii bear handled the kids, this watercolor turkey handled the adults. Softer, a little fancy, the kind of thing I put at the in-laws’ end of the table so they feel fussed over.
The washy reds and golds drift right into burgundy territory, so it matched the brass candlesticks without any effort from me. I used it as a place card topper and propped a couple more along the buffet.
Nitpick: watercolor lives or dies on paper. On thin copy stock the pale edges vanished into the white and the turkey looked half there. On heavier matte it held, so do not skimp on the cardstock for this one.
Plain Pumpkins When You Just Need More On The Table
Sometimes I do not need clever, I need filler that looks intentional, and these simple pumpkins are that. I printed a strip of them, cut them out, and scattered them down the buffet runner between the brass candlesticks.
The colors sit warm and a little rusty, easy to slot into a burgundy table without thinking. They cost me three sheets of paper and ten minutes with scissors and they closed every awkward gap on the table.
Nitpick: my plan was a paper banner across the doorway, and the pre-strung version came out too short for my wide frame. I knotted two together and the seam pulled crooked and sagged in the middle. Cut them as separate pumpkins and tape your own string to length, learn from me.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make thanksgiving place cards?
My fastest route: print a place card file onto heavy cardstock, fold it into a little tent, and write the name by hand. If I want the kids involved, I print a light turkey outline and let them color and sign their own. Done in an afternoon, no craft store run.
Can I print these at home?
Most of them, yes, and I do, on a tired old inkjet. Use matte cardstock around 110 lb so nothing wilts when the gravy comes around. The sublimation pumpkins are the exception, since those are made to press onto fabric, not paper.
What file formats do these designs come in?
It varies by file. The PNG ones print straight from your photo software with no fuss. The laser-cut and bundle files are set up for cutting machines, though I have hand-cut a printed version of those when I was feeling stubborn. The product page lists what is inside before you buy.
Do I need a Cricut or Silhouette to use these?
For the print files, no, an inkjet and some scissors cover it. For the laser-cut design and the tablescape bundle a cutting machine makes life much easier, since those are built to be cut. I have faked it by hand with a craft knife, but it ate an evening, so a machine is the comfortable way.
Before You Print
By the end of the night the doorway sign had slid a little, the kids’ colored turkeys were taped at toddler height, and somebody had set a glass right on my watercolor place card. I left it. That is what the table is supposed to look like by dessert.
If you only grab one file, make it whatever fits the spot that is currently bugging you, the bare wall or the empty runner or the door with nothing on it. Print it, prop it crooked, and do not knot two short banners together hoping nobody notices the sag in the middle. I noticed. They will too.
