Well, you could put together a bunch of different pickles...I personally would love a smorgasbord of Asian pickles with tsukemono (japanese) or assorted banchan (korean).

I agree--your tray could be quite a hit. Think pickles, make some real cranberry relish, etc. And fruit does not have to be out of season--what about quince, pears, apples, plus dried fruits. It's a fun challenge. Pickle your own radishes, make some marinated olives.
Check out Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Pickling book, also Quick Pickles by Schlesinger.
Many new preserving books and blogs out there for relish ideas.

I'm not sure how traditional our "relish tray" is - but we typically have homemade pepper jelly, homemade pickled garlic, homemade smoked salmon, radishes, carrots, olives, hot peppers, pickled vegetbales (like Giardinara), cream cheese, and a variety of crackers.

I love ALL of this and probably eat more than I should and don't leave enough room for turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole....

The relish tray is actually one of my favorite parts! We just had our annual pre-Thanksgiving feast with our friends. For the relish tray I had: cornichons, marinated artichokes hearts, olives (you can find them stuffed with all sorts of things), and peri peri peppers stuffed (by me) with the little fresh mozzarella balls and a teensy bit of basil paste (I couldn't find any good-looking fresh basil). There are so many interesting things being pickled now that this holiday staple doesn't have to be stale!

Relish trays can be awesome! The suggestions above are great. You could also model your relish tray after 'Bagna Cauda' like this one from Jamie Oliver http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-at-home/winter-crunch-salad-with-a-mind-blowing-sauce-recipe/index.html

It's really awesome!

It's really not that bad.. ours always includes sweet and dill pickles, green and black olives, baby corn, pickled califlower and pickled crabapples. What else are the kids going to play with if you don't have black olives to put on their fingers or baby corn to nibble "off the cob"?

I agree that bagna cauda could be wonderful -- we always eat ours with radishes and radish greens.

Another option is to do a "relish tray" of roasted veggies/crudites -- brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, broccoli. Add some aioli for dipping.

As far as the fruit salad goes, it's not the traditional canned-fruit-in-whipped-cream variety, but is way tastier:

apples, pears, and dried cranberries, tossed w/ a blue cheese/gorgonzola/stilton; i love adding arugula or radicchio and candied walnuts or pecans to this too; can also serve on endive leaves

I made a recipe last year that everyone simply fell in love with. Some say it's a salad others also called it a relish. It combines beets and pomegranates and the taste is out of this world good. I think you would totally knock your friends' socks off with my Beet and Pomegranate Salad!! I also made an appetizer out of it by serving it with homemade pita chips! Here is the link to the recipe!! http://mypersiankitchen.com/beet-pomegranate-salad/

All the options above sound delicious, and tangy items like cornichons are great with a rich meal.

On the fruit salad front, I have made the winter fruit salad from Smitten Kitchen, and people loved it. I thought it was on the sweet side, and would cut the sugar (and increase the lemon) if I made it again. I love pomegranate arils in a winter fruit salad. Smitten Kitchen also has a delicious roasted pear recipe, and you could just scatter the arils over that and call it a day.

ok I feel a little un-American right now, but I've never heard of a traditional "relish tray." It sounds like a pain in the butt to assemble but the kind of thing I'd absolutely love if someone else made it for me! What are the "stale" offerings yall are referring to, out of curiosity?
For fruit, you could try a light jicama salad with chili powder and lime juice. Or coconut and pomegranate... mmmm.

This is my favorite (and fall-appropriate!) antipasto plate: http://www.adinnerparty.net/2010/11/frankies-style-antipasto.html

If you wanted something more retro, I'd do a green goddess dip with crudite, deviled eggs, and blue cheese-stuffed pickled peppers/

Try a cranberry orange chutney! That could be tasty.

We always have a relish tray with a few different types of olives and pickled bits of love. I adore the cold, salty, briney bites between bites of hot turkey and dressing. :)

@KittyWrangler -- Depending on one's family, the "stale" and trite relish tray is either (a) spears of carrot, spears of celery, cauliflorets, and maybe bell pepper slices, with a creamy dip or (b) pickles, olives, and flavored almonds. I am a great fan of type (b), particularly the almonds.

Were I doing one -- and I might! -- I'd hie myself to the fancy grocery and load up on different varieties of olives and pickled peppers, plus maybe an unusual salami.

Turkey isn't turkey without garlic baby dills. :)

In my family, the relish tray was always baby dill pickles, sweet butter pickles, black olives, carrot spears, and celery. Mixed salted nuts, dinner mints, Norwegian flatbread, and cranberry sauce were always separate.

If I were to put it together? Juicy, garlicky, kosher dills, sweet crunchy carrots, radishes with salted butter, spicy nuts, roasted red pepper bits, some decent olives, and possibly some homemade crackers. *nom*

These are great ideas! I've done our relish tray/antipasto for two years now. This year's will have gorgeous baby radishes, multicolored carrots and thinly sliced fennel with Green Goddess dip, 3 different olives, and Orangette's Cheddar Crisps plus a homemade version of Raincoast Crisps.

I'd add that you can change up the presentation to make it more modern. I do mine as in the photo above-- on a big slate tile (from Home Depot, ya'll). The dip goes in a glass yogurt jar I brought back from Spain. The olives and the veg go in little piles all over the tile.

I love relish trays of pickled veggies of all kinds (but have to have beets because they're so pretty) and all kinds of stuffed olives. I usually use an old school relish tray I snagged from grandma and just pile it up.

I can't stand that green bean casserole and neither can my kids so we're always glad to see the veggie tray and fresh fruit platter. Those always stay out for nibbling after the other food goes away.

Does anyone know where the term "relish tray" came from? I'm from upstate NY and currently live in Seattle, and I've never heard of it.

@JCA, I'm from upstate too. We always HAD a relish tray but I don't remember hearing it CALLED a relish tray until I was in my 20s and living in NYC. Our "stale" tray always featured raw celery, black olives, and pickles. Other items would come and go, but those three were the essence of the tray. The pickles were always homemade (my grandparents were big home picklers and you couldn't do better). Raw celery is always a good foil for rich food. The only truly "stale" element was that back in the day, the olives were from a can.

And whoever said almonds, YES. Someone came back from Spain one year with marcona almonds and I'd make that a permanent 4th leg of the relish tray table!

As one component, these cream cheese olive penguins are hilarious, delicious, and one of my favorite things to make during the holidays - though I would recommend stuffing them with herb and garlic cream cheese for better flavor :)

I love ssmith's components (the third comment from the top) - they sound great!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/cream-cheese-penguins/Detail.aspx

I vote for pickles too. So many sizes and varieties, plus pickled okra, beets, and peppers. There's not a person in my family who can pass up a pickle. I personally love those tiny sweet pickles, about the size of a woman's pinkie finger.

I love the relish tray! We always had celery and spanish olives. So not fancy but really refreshing along with the huge, rich meal. When I was a kid, I once ate nothing but olives. Mmm...

-Arugula pesto
-Blue Cheese Stuffed olives
-Marcona Almonds
-Pickled Okra
-Caper Berries

I love the relish tray! Embrace it and make it your own with some of these wonderful suggestions above.

The traditional pickles/relish:
- Homemade mustard relish
- Sweet gerkins
- Pickled onions

Mine
- Garlic kosher dill spears
- pickled sweet onions (homemade & fresh)
- mustard pickles (homemade & canned)
- black olives stuffed with goat cheese

As to fruit salad, traditionally, my family made something more of a creamy gelatin with fruit in it called "Sea Foam Salad" (lime jello, canned pears & mixed fruit, and whipped cream). My in-laws make a fresh layered salad (clementines, ruby red grapefruit, apples & pears (diced), & strawberries) with a fair bit of brandy.

I don't do either. Instead I serve clementines (whole & not peeled) and have berries & whipping cream available as an option for desert.

We devour the relish tray at our thanksgiving ever year.

I still miss the crabapples, and the pickled peaches! There are loads of specialty pickles and veggies to cut up and the idea that they provide a crunchy, colorful foil to the rest of the menu is right on. I could nibble chutneys all day long. Try dressing up the carrots by making curls and putting them in ice water to really get curly. Same for celery. Radishes can get pretty artsy when cut into roses or such. Even though these may not the center of the show, they really do help make the meal. If anyone does not want their grandma's homemade bread and butter pickles, send them this way!!!

How about a cranberry-japalepo salsa on cream cheese, you could put it on bites of baguette?
As for the salad...what about a fruit sald with seasonal fruit--- pear, apple, persimmons?

My family never had a relish tray (and that includes the big extended family gatherings). Is it a regional thing? The closest we ever came was grapes to snack on. I think maybe we had deviled ham dip once too.

It does sound like a good idea though. Keeps people from picking at the side dishes as the turkey finishes cooking.

wow. i had never heard of a relish tray before!

Wisconsin supper clubs know how to do the "old school relish tray right"... still love it.

I'd say "crudites" for the creamy-dip-veggie-platter style tray and include pickled items in a true relish tray. AND it always has radishes. (sweeping generalizations, of course!)

I was always used to an antipasto platter around the holidays growing up in NY/italian family. Love the almond idea, too.

Relish trays are just enough to keep my family from killing each other in the pre-dinner fast. Though, there are always battles waged over who has had the most sweet pickles and where the last olive is going.