Pilgrims on a Thanksgiving Tablescape

For a few years I collected pilgrim figures mostly salt and pepper sets because both my husband and I have pilgrim ancestors who came over on the Mayflower. He is a direct descendent of Governor William Bradford, eight generations ago. The kids used to have fun telling their classmates about it when they were young. Actually if you have ancestors who lived in New England in the 1600’s and 1700’s you probably have some pilgrim ancestors too. There are hundreds of thousands of Mayflower descendents. I decided it was time to do a Pilgrim tablescape instead of the usual Turkey theme but it wasn’t easy to pull this one together. The cream tablecloth probably came from HomeGoods or Amazon a few years ago.

I bought these pilgrim salad plates one or two at a time as I found them online on Ebay and Mercari over several months. They are actually collector plates (we would never eat on them) that were made by Bing and Grondahl in 1987. Because of my husband’s ancestors I decided we needed them!

A few years ago I was looking for a basic cream colored dinner plate and I found this one. It is Mason Stoneware made by Pottery Barn. I think this color was called Wheat. It comes in other colors as well. It is a great size (10 3/4”) for a dinner plate and large enough that it could be used as a charger with smaller dinner plates.

These bronze hammered charger plates came from Williams Sonoma on sale several years ago. I really like the hammered design and they are a nice weight. To read about what you should be considering when you are buying chargers click here.

This flatware is a smoky brown color. The camera makes them look much darker in color than they really are. The handles are some kind of plastic material. They are marked SR Showroom Italy. The set was made by Zaffiro and I think I bought it on sale online at Horchow several years ago. The color is called Smoky and it looks like this pattern has been discontinued. I really liked the simple design so I bought it in other colors as well. It is 18/10 stainless and a nice heavy set. The pieces are really longer in length than normal flatware. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

The brown cotton napkins probably came from HomeGoods or Pier 1 several years ago. I bought the pilgrim couple napkin rings either on Poshmark or Ebay online a few years ago.

I couldn’t find any pilgrim place card holders so I improvised and put a pilgrim napkin ring on top of one of my square crystal place card holders. I think he looks pretty cute! I found these pilgrim napkin rings on Mercari a few years ago.

The bright blue goblet on the left came from HomeGoods a few years ago. When I saw the blue on the salad plates I knew this goblet would be a perfect match and it was. The brown glass goblet on the right was made by Lenox between 1966 and 1985. It was called Antique Brown. I bought them on Ebay several years ago. Ebay still has this pattern for sale. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets (including the colors I use the most) for your tablescaping collection here.

I found these Jim Shore Pilgrim figures on Ebay a few years ago. She was made in 2009 and was called “Give Thanks for the Bounty”. He was made the same year and was called “Abundant Blessings”. I set them on a wood stand that Hubby found at Hobby Lobby and painted brown for me. He actually cut the box in half because it was too tall. It is so wonderful to have a hubby who can do these kind of things! I scattered some faux leaves and pumpkins and gourds around the bottom of the stand.

I added a couple pilgrim salt and pepper sets to the table. This vintage set was made by Lefton. I probably bought them on Ebay several years ago.

This pilgrim set is labeled Grasslands Road. I think I found this set at a gift shop somewhere a few years ago.

It was fun to set a Thanksgiving table without turkeys!

To see 260+ other tablescapes that I have created including seven different Thanksgiving Tablescapes please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post (or here) for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!