Thanksgiving with Pier 1’s Harvest Wheat collection and some unruly chargers

Good morning and I hope everything is going well out there in blogland!

In August 2018, Pier 1 brought in a lovely fall line of plates, soup tureens, chargers, and accessories in a blue, green, and ivory theme.  I loved the theme and thought that it would be perfect for Thanksgiving, and since I’m partial to blue/green/ivory combinations, you might say I went a bit overboard on my purchases.  As it turned out, my sister ended up hosting Thanksgiving, so the plates and tureens found a home in the china cabinet, and the chargers remained in the box that they had originally been packaged in.

I thought for sure that the charger plates would be mashed beyond repair after spending a year being boxed up.  But when I opened the box, they sprang back to life, so to speak.  It appears that they are quite resilient, and a little unruly, I might add.  After some firm pressing of acorns, pumpkins, and berry branches, they settled down a bit.  Sort of.  (Actually, not really).

Onto the table went the Harvest Wheat plates and soup tureens, the napkins, flatware, wine glasses, and table runner.  I was glad to see that Pier 1 returned with some green and blue items this year, and I happily added some glass pumpkins, some pumpkin vase fillers, and some blue leaf table scatter for the centerpiece.

As I stood back to critique the table, a thought struck me.  Would we actually be able to eat dinner with those chargers in place?  Now a little history for context.  When the kids come for dinner, I almost always set a full table.  But as soon as the boys are seated, off come the salad plates, the napkins, and the napkins rings, in one fell swoop.  Banished to the buffet table.  They don’t usually bother with the charger plates, but I feared that the same fate awaited these particular chargers as we sat down for Thanksgiving dinner.  Yep, banished to the buffet table.

Here is a bird’s eye view of the charger, plate, and soup tureen.

Here is a side view of the charger plate.  Hmm…

These unruly chargers started me thinking about charger plates more generally.  Did they have a purpose other than to look pretty?  Were you supposed to remove them as you sat down to dinner?  I’ve always left mine on.  A quick Google search and here is what Wikipedia had to say:  “Charger plates or service plates are large plates used at full course dinners or to dress up special events like parties and weddings. Charger plates have been in use since the 19th century.  Food is not actually served on chargers; they are often called underplates or chop plates.  The word “charger” originated around 1275–1325 from the Middle English “chargeour” (which means a large serving dish or plate).

As to whether they should or shouldn’t be removed:  “Charger plate etiquette and use vary. Some professional catering companies remove the decorative charger plate as soon as the guests are seated. In other instances, when the design of charger plates complements the design of dining plates, charger plates are left on the table throughout the course of the meal. Charger plates are always removed before serving desserts.”

Well, who knew, but it sounded like a win-win situation to me.  I can set the table as I please, and when we sit down to dinner, the chargers can be removed, if necessary, so that my guests can dine unencumbered.  The boys will be happy.

But back to the table.  The Harvest Wheat dinner plates are aptly named, and have both raised and depressed wheat sheaves on a background that appears to be imprinted with an almost burlap-type material.  To my eye, the color is somewhere between an ivory and a white.  More white, I think.

Here is a closer look.

The soup tureens have the same raised and depressed wheat sheaves, but are without the imprinted background.

The delicate pattern of the napkins provides a contrast to the larger-than-life chargers.

To the centerpiece, I added some fairy lights around the base of the pumpkins.  They underlight (is this even a word?) the display and I don’t feel the need for candles.  Oddly, I forgot to take a picture after they were lit, but I did have a picture from a few days earlier when I had quite a few more pumpkins in the centerpiece, and subsequently decided it was too many and they were obscuring the pattern of the table runner.  However, you can still see the effect of the lights.

I tried several different wine glasses, and settled on the teal crackle stemware.  They are darker than the blue pumpkins in the centerpiece, but I liked them best of the choices I had on hand.  The table runner continues the blue, green, and ivory theme.

The flatware has a gold rim around the edge, and I chose it to highlight the gold crackle in the small gourds on both sides of the centerpiece.

The gold crackle seems to stand out a bit more on the gourd in this photo.

A last look at the table.

All these soup tureens are making my mouth water for some fall soup, and a big squash is sitting on the kitchen counter awaiting my attention.  I haven’t made squash soup before, but I’ll post the recipe if it turns out well.

Update:  The week after I posted this tablescape to the website, my mom tripped and fell and broke her right wrist.  She has a cast up to her elbow.  It was so unfortunate for her, and she needed lots of help from us.  The following week, she, I, and my sister decided we were going on a previously scheduled trip to Palm Springs, broken arm and all.  The long and short of the story is that between the first week of the broken arm and the week away, by the time we got back, the squash was past its prime, to say the least.  So I never got to try out any of the squash soup recipes.   Life happens,  Next year, hopefully…

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving quite a while ago, but Happy Thanksgiving to all south of the border!

The table:

Harvest wheat plates, soup tureens, and pumpkin chargers: Pier 1 last year.

Glass pumpkins, napkins, and pumpkin filler: Pier 1 this year.

Teal crackle wine glasses: Pier 1 maybe four or five years ago but still available.

Flatware:  Pfaltzgraff, but I don’t know the name of the pattern.  They were from Wayfair about five years ago.

Table runner:  HomeSense last year.

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