A Thanksgiving Table Inspired by Nature

San Diego doesn’t do fall in the traditional sense. The autumn leaves aren’t quite as brilliant (although they’re here), the nip in the air is more subtle, and the smokey smell that floats in around sundown is usually from someone’s barbeque, not a chimney. But when you grow up in a place “without seasons,” you get attuned to the subtle signals each one brings. Fall here means golden sunsets and yellow hills, moss growing on granite near the local creek, and a faint scent of pinion (possibly my favorite smell in the world). It means rock collecting and bonfires on the beach. I guess that’s my version of pumpkin spice, and it’s damn cozy.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our (relatively) new house, and I wanted to create a tablescape that captured autumn in San Diego. That meant an earthy palette of greens, soft yellows, wood accents, mineral textures, and touches of gold. I bought several bunches of hydrangeas and mums (and a few other flowers I can’t identify) from Traders Joe’s and arranged them in tortoise-finished vases from West Elm (along with a few other containers I had around the house). The flatware is a vintage 1930’s Bavarian china set that my mom found secondhand (thanks Mom!), and the gold bark-textured napkins and table runner are also from West Elm. The rest of the ‘scape includes souvenirs from hikes and flea markets: rocks, bits of moss, rattan pumpkins, and some antlers for good measure.

For appetizers, we embraced a more lively palette with persimmons, blood oranges, apples, blackberries, cranberries, mandarin oranges, walnuts, dates, and kiwi. Some local honeycomb and brie topped it off, along with mint and rose petal garnishes. It was all too pretty not to document—as was the company, of course!