If you decorate for Halloween, most of it comes down on November 1 and the entry sits bare until Christmas. A harvest look instead, with pumpkins, dried leaves, wheat and warm wood, looks right all through October and November. Then for Thanksgiving week you just add a few things rather than starting over.
The porch and door
Pumpkins in a group. Three or five, in a loose triangle: one big, two medium, two small. Mix colors, a white one next to orange next to a blue-green heirloom. Odd numbers and different heights look like a harvest; even numbers look like a store display.
A dried wreath. Dried grasses, wheat, eucalyptus and preserved leaves in amber, rust and cream. Skip black, purple and anything plastic, and it’ll suit Thanksgiving as well as October. About 20 to 24 inches for a standard 36-inch door. Dried materials don’t wilt, so it looks the same in late November as it did on the first of October.
Two doormats. A patterned outdoor rug (on Amazon) with a smaller coir mat (on Amazon) centered on top. For Thanksgiving, swap only the top mat.
Lanterns. A pair (on Amazon) by the door with battery candles on a timer (most have a six-hour cycle) and three or four mini pumpkins and gourds around each base. The porch glows every evening with no effort.
The console inside
A tray. Round or rectangular, 14 to 18 inches across, holding a candle, two mini pumpkins (on Amazon) and a sprig of dried wheat in a bud vase. On Thanksgiving morning you can lift the whole tray, add a card, and put it back.
A branch in a tall vase. A fallen branch 2 to 3 feet tall, bare or with a few dried leaves still on it. It adds height that pumpkins can’t and costs nothing. Only take branches that have already fallen, and shake them outside before bringing them in.
Books, a pumpkin and a candle. Three hardcovers stacked flat with a small pumpkin on top and a candle beside them: three heights in about 10 inches of table. Warm-colored spines, or turn them spine-in for a neutral look.
Leaves along the mirror. Drape a dried leaf or eucalyptus garland along the top of the mirror and let it fall down one side, held with two removable hooks. It frames the mirror without covering the reflection.
Thanksgiving week
These take under an hour together.
A gratitude bowl. Take one pumpkin off the tray or porch and put a low bowl of small cards and a pen in its place. Guests write one thing they’re thankful for and drop it in. By dessert you have a bowl of notes worth keeping.
Wheat or corn husks. A bundle of dried wheat (on Amazon) about 24 inches tall, tied with twine, in a tall vase or an umbrella stand by the door. Probably the clearest Thanksgiving signal there is.
A harvest runner. Swap the everyday console runner for burlap, plaid, or something in rust or ochre, about 12 inches wide. Everything sitting on it suddenly looks like Thanksgiving.
A small chalkboard. About 10 by 12 inches, propped on the console or hung by the door, with the menu or a simple “give thanks.” Write it the night before, when you have time to make it neat.