8 Ways to Host Thanksgiving in Style—and with Ease!

This annual feast can feel like a holiday for everyone except the host. But our savvy strategies deliver major style with minor effort. You can thank us later.

1. Give centerpieces a new home. Free up prime dinner-table real estate by moving oversize arrangements to the buffet. And don't bother with elaborate floral fantasies: Just go "shopping" in your backyard for branches of holly, crab apple, or bittersweet berries.

2. Embrace the idea of a kids' table. To accommodate your youngest guests' abbreviated attention spans (and your desire to linger over dessert), cover the children's dining surface with kraft paper and set out pots of crayons for tic-tac-toe.

3. Label the dishes. Nuts, jalapeños, sausage: Your menu can't please everyone all the time, but you can allow for a caveat emptor. Spare vegetarians, picky eaters, and friends with food allergies the awkwardness of asking you to rattle off ingredients by labeling dishes clearly-we used parchment-paper leaves.

Plus: 18 Complete Thanksgiving Menus to Try »

4. Upgrade the standard placecard. Create a clever picture ID by starting with a two- to three-inch-tall image of each guest. Photocopy, then use a glue stick to attach a piece of card stock to the back of the copied image. Once the glue's dry, cut out the guest's silhouette with an X-Acto knife. Finally, use a kitchen knife to make a one-inch vertical slit in a pear and slide in the image.

5. Think outside the circle. Not all DIY front-door decor requires a foam wreath form. To make AN elegant cluster, we selected 8 four- to six-inch pinecones and 8 two-foot-long pieces of silk ribbon. Use a hot-glue gun to adhere the last two inches of each ribbon to the base of a cone. After the glue dries, collect all the ribbon ends and stagger them so that the cones fall at varying lengths. Tie the ribbon ends together in a knot, trim the tips so they are uniform, and slip the knot over a finishing nail.

Plus: 30+ Pro Tips to Host a Stress-Free Thanksgiving Dinner »

6. Don't bake it-fake it. With its to-die-for icing, Caroline's Seven-Layer Caramel Cake is so rich that your guests might want just a sliver - luckily, this dessert freezes well. (carolinescakes.com)

7. Reinvent "game day." Post dinner, fight the tryptophan sleep urge with a round of old-school parlor pursuits-from charades to A Weekend in the Country, this Old Maid-like card game.

8. Teach doggie bags a new trick. Buy yourself some fridge space by sending guests home with leftovers that look - yep - good enough to eat. These takeout boxes are sold only in bulk, but trust us: You'll find a million uses for such handy containers.

See more from CountryLiving.com:

74 Classic Thanksgiving Side Dishes »
Traditionally Southern Thanksgiving Recipes from Carrie Morey »
Recipe Box: 43 Best Thanksgiving Recipes »
5 Celebrity Chefs Tackle Thanksgiving Classics »

14 Tips to Throw a Festive Fall Party »

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.