The Strange Decor Item Martha Stewart Always Has on Her Thanksgiving Table
Home cooking multi-hyphenate icon Martha Stewart is known as something of a holiday decorator extraordinaire — but she has one specific hosting habit we can’t quite get over. In an exclusive interview with The Kitchn, she told us the decor item she goes all out on for Thanksgiving: turkeys. And a whole lot of them.
It might not sound so strange (the turkey is the star of the holiday, after all), but it gets … interesting. When asked how she’d be decorating her Thanksgiving table this year, she got right to it. “Well, I have quite a collection of turkeys. I have taxidermy turkeys and I have glass turkeys and I have pottery turkeys,” Stewart said. “And probably a lot of those will be put on my long table, and then I have other tables in a smaller dining room and I have a porch now that we can eat in.”
So not just cute little ceramic turkeys, but stuffed taxidermy ones, too. Stewart, who has a partnership with Pure Leaf, actually has quite a history with the big-feathered bird.
“I used to live on Turkey Hill Road and my house was called Turkey Hill, and I started my big turkey collection then,” Stewart said. “And it will continue to come out on Thanksgiving time. And I have many. Watch my show on Roku — I have a gigantic mold, a great big old chocolate mold, and we’ve made two big chocolate turkeys this year and I have them ready to go on the table — very large, beautiful chocolate turkeys. The glass and pottery turkeys, all that stuff, will be out.”
Of course, we’d never knock anyone’s decor preference — we just have to say we weren’t expecting this from Miss Martha. In an Instagram post from last November, she noted that the most recent turkey count at the time was 112 turkeys, thanks to the kids at the party. I’d be shocked if that wasn’t a world record!
Although she recently announced she’s canceling her at-home Thanksgiving celebration this year because she’s “all turkeyed out” and nine of her guests have gotten sick, we’re sure her large (and growing) turkey collection will be on display next November. And we just hope we get a photo!
Although they don’t sell taxidermy turkeys on Amazon (you’ll have to try Etsy or eBay), there are plenty of other turkey decorations to love, from turkey platters to turkey-shaped foods, plus plenty of other Thanksgiving table decor ideas you’ll want to try. Happy Thanksgiving to all, but especially to Martha Stewart’s turkey collection!