Easy and Affordable Thanksgiving Decorations

Want to decorate for your Thanksgiving but you're on a budget? Luckily there are some simple and affordable ways to add some festive cheer to your holiday get together!

Hi friends!

If you had read my post last week on how to host your first Friendsgiving then you may know that I'm in the process of hosting a Friendsgiving of my own this weekend! I pretty much have everything set up as far as the guest list, seating, menu and now I get to do the fun part, decorating! I love any excuse to have a themed party and I've been all over Pinterest for party ideas.

As much as I want to have a full-on extravagant decked out apartment filled with festive decor, I just can't justify spending that much money for one day. Today I'm sharing some easy and affordable ways to add some festive touches to your holiday gathering! These can work for both your upcoming Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving gathering as well!

Thanksgiving Backdrop
This little backdrop would be perfect behind a buffet styled table for your food, in the dining area like I've done so here, or even as a photo booth styled backdrop for your guests! Since I actually already had the curtains and the fairy lights (I just took the set up from my bedroom and moved it to our dining area!), I only spent $12 on the balloon banner, but even if you don't already have everything else, you can easily put this whole thing together for about $35 and can easily be switched out for other occasions!

What you'll need:

2 Command strips - $6
Curtain rod -$7
2 White Curtains - $10
Balloon banner - $12
Fairy lights - $8 (optional, but adds a fun little touch!)

Basically, all you need to do is hang up the command strips, hang up the fairy lights so it'll fall behind the curtains, hang up your curtains and blow up the balloon banner. Pretty self-explanatory and easy, but adds a fun little touch to your event!

There are tons of options when it comes to festive banners. I've linked a few of my favorites below!

Table Decor:
Since our table is rather small, our table decor is pretty minimal. Adding a table cloth can easily dress up any table and add a nice pop of color to your space. You can get the super affordable route with getting the disposable plastic ones from a Dollar Tree or a nicer cloth one and just machine wash it for the next gathering. I chose to go the plastic route since I wanted a pretty maroon table cloth for a pop of color and it's an easier cleanup at the end of the event.

I had picked up a pack of mini pumpkins from Target at the beginning of fall to decorate my apartment and just rounded them up to scatter on my table. A fun and affordable idea for a tablescape would be to get a festive piece of garland from Michael's or Hobby Lobby to lay on the table and string some fairy lights! You can get these for a pretty affordable price, especially with the 40% coupon they always offer.

Letterboard:
As a little cute housewarming gift from our apartment, they had left us one of those cute little letterboards and it's been so fun changing it out to match the seasons. These letterboards are about $12 and add such a fun little touch to any space. Ours currently say "Get your fat pants ready" for our Friendsgiving party, but I've found some other cute quotes that would be fun to use as well:

"Let's get basted"
"Leftovers are for quitters"
"May your turkey be moist, and may no one ever use that word to describe it"
"Talk Turkey to Me"

Tassel Banner
Since college, I've been a big fan of tassel banners. They're super easy (but a little time consuming) to put together and add a fun touch of color to any occasion. We went for a maroon and rose gold color theme for our Friendsgiving and I found this tassel banner on Amazon for about $10. I was debating on whether it was cheaper to buy tissue paper individually and put them together myself or to buy the pre-cut banner, but I found with the colors I wanted it was actually cheaper to buy the pre-cut version. To assemble all you have to do is just separate each piece of tissue paper, roll it up longwise, fold it in half and twist together to form the tassel.

Dining room sign:

This little piece of decor wasn't necessarily made for Friendsgiving/Thanksgiving but thought I'd share it anyway since it is food-themed and was super easy to put together. Plus it only cost me about $8 to make!

For this you'll need:

Poster frame - $8 from Hobby Lobby on sale
Posterboard - $0.50
Marker
Pencil

You can really put any saying you like, but I had seen a print that said: "Eat Good Food" and thought it'd be perfect for our dining area. First I took a pencil and traced out the words to make sure I had them aligned and placed exactly where I wanted it. Afterward, I just took a marker to trace over it. I chose a marker instead of black paint because I knew I would have a better result / more control with it versus a paintbrush. Plus you don't have to wait for drying time!

Other affordable decor ideas:

Here are some other ideas that would be super affordable and easy, but I just didn't have the time to get around to doing them!

Chalkboard signs - you can easily thrift these from Goodwill for a few bucks and use it as a bar menu to list out the drinks that are available or even to write down your menu for the day to have it displayed. Not wanting to go the menu route? You can also search on Pinterest for some cute quotes and sayings to add to it! You can also get a little chalkboard table/signs to label each dish as well.

Gold dip pinecones - Barrow from Mother Nature and head out to scoop up some pinecones to add some fall decor to your space! I think painting the tips of them in gold would add a fun little touch to them as well!

Need some more inspo? I created a whole Pinterest board just for Friendsgiving filled with some of my favorite pins! Whether you're hosting a Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving (or both!) I hope you all found some inspiration and ideas to add some festive cheer to your gathering. Thank you all so much for stopping by!

xoxo,
Amy