20 Thanksgiving Decorations You Can (and Should!) Thrift

This holiday season, purchase preloved items to give your home a festive fall refresh while also saving the planet and a few $$$. From table-setting essentials to autumn accents to dress up your front porch or cozy up every room in your home, we've got you covered. So, round up your bargain-hunting besties, slip into your most comfortable sneaks and let's go thrifting!

Up First: Designer Erinn Valencich leaned into the moody, saturated shades of fall for this cozy table setting that pairs rich aubergine with pops of plum, burgundy and chartreuse. While her holiday table certainly looks pricey, Erinn saved by purchasing vintage stemware in a hard-to-find smoky plum to perfectly fit the jewel tone palette. Online secondhand sites, like Etsy and Ebay, are a great place to search for rare vintage items but they tend to be more expensive than shopping local charity shops or antique stores — so shop local, when possible.

Let's face it: The turkey is the culinary star of the show. Whether this is your first year cooking the bird or you're a seasoned pro, serving it up on a large enough platter is key to giving Thanksgiving's star its proper stage. Oversized, ceramic and porcelain platters, many featuring a hand-painted or transferware turkey detail, have been a popular holiday fixture for decades so they're easy to find at estate and garage sales.

Planters and pots and urns — oh my! From baskets to buckets and bins, thrifted containers are the designer trick for styling a festive fall front porch for less. When thrifting containers to use as a cachepot or jardiniere (the ornamental outer container), select items that can handle a bit of moisture from the inner nursery pot (or add a waterproof liner) and are large enough to conceal the plastic nursery pot you plan to slide inside.

For many holiday hosts, Thanksgiving means overnight guests. If your guest room could use a freshen-up before friends and family arrive, head to your local thrift store, charity shop or estate sale to score decorative items, like a vintage lamp or old books, or practical pretties, like a foot-of-the-bed stool, to make your guest room a bit more welcoming.

A lifelong lover of beautiful old things, designer Sarah Richardson haunts auctions and local antique shops to find vintage goodies, like these perfectly aged brass candlesticks. No need to polish them, Sarah leaves the metal's mellowed patina as-is to lend a timeworn touch of warmth to her home's decor.

Natural beeswax candles, like these, can cost a pretty penny when purchased new but dedicated thrifters can find them very inexpensively at estate, garage and moving sales. Personally, I've thrifted many candles over the years at estate sales — usually priced just 50 cents to a dollar each. Before purchasing, inspect each candle to make sure your new/old candles aren't warped or broken to ensure they'll burn evenly, and safely, when lit.

A favorite find among china collectors, ironstone (also known as stoneware) is an incredibly durable glazed earthenware that has been a favorite of pottery and dishware collectors for more than two centuries. At one time, there were more than 200 manufacturers of this dishware in both Europe and America. So, finding pretty pieces, like the vintage cake plates and low, footed dish seen here, is pretty easy to do, given ironstone's enduring popularity and how many pieces were manufactured. When thrifting, be sure to check for cracks and large chips that could make your bargain finds feel like less of a bargain.

You can set a table that looks expensive without breaking the bank. Timelessly on-trend, blue is the most readily available transferware color on the market, making it easy to snap up these vintage beauties at estate or garage sales, charity shops, flea markets and thrift stores for a fraction of the cost of new dishware. And, don't worry if you can't find enough of a single pattern to create a set, mix and match vintage dishware patterns for a collected-over-time look.

Thanksgiving is a special occasion, after all. So, while you're out thrifting all the elements for a guest-impressing Thanksgiving table setting, don't forget the cutlery. And, don't let a little tarnish scare you away from a great deal on antique or vintage silver or silverplate. These tips will teach you how to safely and cheaply remove even the most stubborn tarnish — without damaging your new/old utensils.

Want to delight Thanksgiving guests on arrival? Treat them to a crowd-pleasing charcuterie and cheese spread. And, to save a little cash on the serveware needed — like a large wood board to serve as the base — go thrifting. Even an old cutting board that has seen better days can be easily revived; first, thoroughly sand the surface to remove any nicks and cuts, then seal the raw wood with food-grade mineral oil. It's that easy! This tutorial breaks down each step to give a used cutting board new life.

From the Latin cornu copiae, meaning horn of plenty, a cornucopia is a time-honored symbol of the harvest. Filled with a variety of seasonal produce, like small pumpkins, gourds, fruit, nuts and dried grasses and corn, the woven horns make a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece. Their enduring popularity also makes them easy to score on the cheap by scouring local thrift stores, charity shops and estate sales.

As a lifelong thrifter, I can promise you that secondhand pillows are plentiful at yard and estate sales. Personally, I've picked up everything from velvet shams filled with goose down to playful, holiday-themed pillows for a fraction of what I would have paid retail. When buying secondhand linens, condition is key. Give all sides a good look-over, checking for signs of water damage and stains, then subject it to the sniff test to ensure the pillow wasn't exposed to smoke or any other offending odors. Then, at home, remove the cover (if possible) and run it through the wash. If the pillow's insert isn't stained and seems in good condition, just run it through the dryer to freshen it up.

Yes, you can find gorgeous, hand-stitched antique quilts at estate and garage sales, charity shops, antique auctions, flea markets and vintage fairs — but be prepared to pay more for quilts in pristine condition, like this blue-and-white beauty. Quilts showing a bit more wear and tear are more common but if you're handy with a needle and thread, you can easily repair any small tears.

Vintage wine goblets are a beautiful addition your Thanksgiving guests won't soon forget. Don't worry if you didn't inherit gorgeous glassware — you can always buy them. In my experience, estate sales are far and away the best place to score vintage dishware. Orphaned or mismatched glasses are especially good buys (often less than a dollar each) but complete sets are also a steal. Bonus: Many estate sale companies dramatically discount remaining items on the last day so, if you're a gambler, you may be able to pick up a complete set of the antique stemware you wish you'd inherited for a song.

Vases are so easy to inexpensively buy secondhand that it just doesn't make sense (or cents!) to ever purchase them new. Clear, florist-style vases are easiest to thrift but keep your eye open for rarer handblown glass, earthenware jugs, pressed milk glass and handpainted porcelain. Fill your new/old find with grocery store or backyard blooms for a fresh touch of fall. Seen here, sunflowers and alstromeria are great picks because they'll remain beautiful for up to a week. The trick to keeping cut flowers looking their best is to remove all leaves below the water line and replace the water every few days.

Are your outdoor areas looking a little barren? Before Thanksgiving guests arrive, get your front porch, deck or patio ready to rock with a few rocking chairs, arranged with post-feast lazy lounging and catching-up convos in mind. When thrifting your new/old chairs, also keep an eye out for a small table to place between them to serve as handy spot to set down your hot cocoa or fall-flavored cocktail. Outdoor furniture can be a little harder to thrift than indoor furnishings; consignment and antique stores are a good place to start. If you strike out there, flea markets and antique fairs are another good spot for sourcing preloved outdoor furniture.

Buying a new fall wreath can get pricey, which makes dressing up an existing wreath both an eco- and budget-friendly idea. Charity shops, yard sales and local resale groups are a great place to find a dated seasonal wreath that you can remake to better fit your personal style. Just remove any decorative bits you don't love and replace them with either dried or faux fall leaves and blooms.

Antiques, like this perfectly patinated, hand-hammered copper pitcher I picked up at an estate sale, look right at home as part of a fall display. To preserve the copper's timeworn finish, slide a water-filled container inside the pitcher before adding fresh flowers, like these PeeGee hydrangeas.

In living areas, where Thanksgiving guests will gather, go thrifting to scoop up additional chairs so everyone will have a spot to relax post-feast. Estate sales and consignment shops are an excellent place to buy upholstered furniture for a fraction of what a similar chair would cost new. Before bringing your new/old chair home, really inspect the upholstery, including removing the seat cushion, to look for any tears or stains. Also, give it the sniff test to ensure there are no lingering smells. At home, use your vacuum's upholstery attachment to make the old fabric look like new.