Dollar-store turkey day

Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) (MCT) - Did I remember to clean out the turkey? Is the stuffing burning? There's enough to worry about on Thanksgiving Day without adding the stress of a Martha Stewart table setting. But there is a way to have your cranberry sauce and display it beautifully, too.

A short trip to a dollar store or drugstore and a stop in the backyard can create a festive, yet easy and affordable, table setting. We put together this spread for about $20, and the kid's table was even less at $4. Here's how:

THE ELEGANT LOOK

To save time, as well as money, we got everything we needed from one store _ The Dollar Tree.

To start, we found the green, satin-like place mats, which were a surprise find included in the store's fall collection. We already had cloth napkins, but the store has matching linens in a package of two for $1. To dress up the napkins, we purchased a plain set of four napkin rings ($1), and covered them with one of the paper napkins purchased for the kid's table. Then, we used a hot glue gun to secure acorns on the top of the ring. For future holidays or themed dinners, just tear off the paper napkin and cover the ring with a different themed napkin or ribbon.

For the centerpiece, we used a globe-shaped vase we already had, but you can purchase one from Wal-Mart or other discount retailers for less than $10. In fact, we found a few smaller versions for as little as $3. If you want something a little fancier, the home-ware store Tuesday Morning is one that has name-brand glass and dishware for 50 to 75 percent off of the retail price. On a recent shopping trip, we found several Pfaltzgraff platters for less than $20.

For Thanksgiving, we filled the vase with fresh gourds from the grocery store. But this centerpiece can be used for every holiday by filling it with themed goodies, such as decorative balls at Christmas, floating candles on Valentine's Day, or tiny pumpkins on Halloween.

The orange votive candleholders are also a part of the store's fall collection. We finished off the centerpiece's look with leaves, but you should be careful if you decide to light the candles. The leaves we used were wet from rain, and we never left the room unattended.

To polish the look at each place setting, we used leaf-shaped candleholders to hold the wine glasses and scattered colorful tree leaves around the plates. We also found leaf-shaped platters, which make good butter or cranberry sauce dishes and play into the theme.

You want to leave some room on the table, though, because it's really all about the food.

FOR THE LITTLE TURKEYS

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Before dinner, keep the kids out of the kitchen by asking them to collect the leaves and acorns you'll need to decorate. To make the task last a little longer, have them each pick out the four best acorns and the 10 best leaves from their collection. You won't need more than that, and it saves you from sifting through mounds of tree leaves.

Depending on the age of the kids, they'll probably need something to keep them occupied during dinner, as well. With that in mind, we decorated the gourds left over from the main table's centerpiece and placed one at each child's seat. This is the food the kids are allowed to play with.

Since we used permanent markers to draw the funny faces, it's best to do the decorating beforehand. But, we used pieces of white computer paper for place mats and put a few crayons at each seat as another play option.

A scarecrow doll can also serve as an after-dinner diversion.

Paper plates, napkins, cups and the scarecrow doll were the only things we bought, and each cost $1.

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Main table

Cost: $22

Time spent: 2 hours, 15 minutes. 1 hour shopping, 15 minutes gathering leaves and acorns, 1 hour setup

Kids' table

Cost: $4

Time spent: 20 minutes setup. Gathered materials during the shopping trip for the main table.

You can limit the time you spend shopping by being flexible with your decorating ideas. Using generic themes such as leaf shapes and fall colors means you can shop outside of the holiday section.

On the cheap

The Dollar General recently launched a new Holiday Home section on its Web site, dollargeneral.com, that features toys for less than $10, decorations, Christmas trees and gift wrap.

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© 2008, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).