Thanksgiving Pilgrims Started A Classic Tradition

By Gail Leino

What could be more timeless than Thanksgiving Pilgrims as a decorating motif for this uniquely American holiday? Other countries have a similar fall banquet custom but this one is filled with the history of our country's founding.

Thanksgiving pilgrims are attractive on cakes, candles, table cloths, plates and napkins. Together with the cornucopia they form the most common symbols of the fall harvest. Theirs is a slim form that celebrates what has become the homage to gluttony. Statuesque forms dressed in simple 17th century garb and typically pictured with a hunting musket; they adorn tables that bear little resemblance to that austere past.

It is for this reason that the Thanksgiving Pilgrims are often pictured in comic or satiric rather than always completely serious effigy. Their harsh existence is a distant memory to the American tables that they now adorn. Just as the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving celebrated their bountiful harvest, Americans now use their image as a reminder of how the nation has prospered since its humble beginnings.

Now a fun and happy occasion, the Thanksgiving pilgrims can be carefree and comically depicted. A typical rendition allows a turkey to stand between the hunter and his musket preventing dinner. Another possibility is the image of the pilgrim wives preparing turkey TV dinners in a microwave. Anachronisms abound in the rich tapestry of imaginative renditions of the tongue-in-cheek Thanksgiving pilgrims.

Of course formal dinner parties call for the more austere image of Thanksgiving pilgrims. Wooden carvings of their tall beleaguered forms stand in stolid virtue on simple country kitchens while their porcelain counterparts adorn formal dining rooms in mansions.

Practical hostesses will probably opt for disposable party goods with either the more serious or the comic versions of Thanksgiving pilgrims depicted. These are easily thrown out and replaced preventing cleaning or storage issues.

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