Decorating Your Table for the Holidays

Story and photographs by Caroline Carroll

The dining table is the center of most homes, where families and friends gather for good food, great conversation and other group activities. Its decorations set your home’s theme for the holiday season. With a little planning and imagination, you can create a magical venue for entertaining your guests during the holidays. Invite your family to join in the process and see what fun everyone can have creating a unique holiday themed centerpiece and table setting.

Step 1 ❄ Plan

Do you prefer a formal or informal look? What color scheme do you want to use? What table coverings, dinner and dessert plates, stemware and flatware do you own? Do you have napkins rings? What containers do you have around the house that you can use for holiday arrangements? What candlesticks and candles can you find? Do you have any flowers, vegetables, fruits, and foliage in your garden to use in your centerpiece?

Answering these questions and taking stock of what you have guides you in making decisions on how to proceed. Let the creative side of you blossom—take the ordinary and make it extraordinary, think unusual and unexpected, look for new ways to use your household items, observe on your daily walk what nature provides you in your garden, allow yourself to edit your ideas as you progress in your decorating endeavor. Enjoy the process!

Formal vs. Informal

A formal table setting is achieved by using table cloths and napkins with china, silver and crystal received as wedding gifts, inherited from your relatives or purchased at antique stores. Thanksgiving and Christmas are special occasions to take these treasures out of storage!

For an informal look, use place mats coordinated with napkins and runners, your everyday flatware, plates and stemware.

A centerpiece of crystal and silver vases of different shapes and heights filled with red roses and sprigs of holly placed on a mirror platform set on top of a white table cloth creates an elegant formal Christmas table. Add white napkins wrapped in silver napkins rings, silver flatware and your china (if it has a red and or green pattern otherwise use white) on red chargers. Include several silver and crystal candlesticks with red glitter candles around the table. Tuck in a few small crystal, silver and colorful sequin Christmas trees and you have created a centerpiece that glitters and sparkles, a wonderland to enjoy during the holidays.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time for using fall’s bounty in an informal rustic centerpiece—small orange pumpkins; green, orange, and white gourds; and deep red apples placed in and around a long wood bowl containing small potted yellow mums (cover pots with moss) invokes a warm, inviting feeling. You can easily obtain these flowers, fruits and vegetables by a trip to your garden or local store. Place the bowl (or bowls) on a long gold runner. Finish by adding coordinating place mats and napkins wrapped with raffia and decorated with small pine cones.

Color

Color is the key to ensuring your table has a coordinated look. Choose three main seasonal colors for the centerpiece and place settings. Shades of these colors can also be used as can the greens and browns of natural materials you include in the decorations. White can always be used. During holiday time, gold and silver are appropriate additions.

Consider the rich warm reds, oranges and yellows of fall for your Thanksgiving table. The autumn-colored leaves on the trees surrounding your home create a beautiful color-coordinated entry to your home.

Shades of red and green are great to use at Christmas since many complimenting natural materials are available for your table decorations (e.g. holly, evergreen boughs, magnolia leaves, nandina berries).

Table Coverings, Plates, Stemware, and Flatware

Think about layering when it comes to your table’s coverings and place settings. Refer to the examples given above under Formal vs. Informal.

For a Thanksgiving centerpiece, consider using a long piece of burlap under the gold runner. Add burlap strips to the raffia/pinecone napkins rings. The burlap’s coarse texture emphasizes the rustic natural look.

If your Christmas tablecloth has an open weave, underline it with smooth red or green material. You can also spread red or green organza over the tablecloth at the table’s center under the mirrors. Scrunch it around the edges.

Chargers under the dinner plates add another layer of color and detail. They can be glass, wood, wicker, whatever material a plate can be placed on. (I have used moss at Easter time!) Again make sure the color and the texture of the charger reflect your look.

White dinner and dessert plates can always be used. Formal plates include those made of porcelain and bone china, while informal plates are stoneware, glass, or wood.

Stemware can be glass (informal look) or crystal (formal look). I have used jelly jars for water glasses at a casual meal.

Use silver flatware for a formal place setting and your everyday flatware for an informal setting.

Combine plates and stemware of different colors and shapes as long as they fit into your color scheme and the look you want to achieve.

Napkins rings

Wrapping napkins adds interest to your place settings at an inexpensive cost. You can easily make napkin rings or purchase them in a gift store.

Raffia, ribbon, and burlap are good materials to use for napkin rings at your Thanksgiving meal. Decorate them with seasonal touches such as pinecones or berries and layer, layer, layer! Wood or wicker rings convey an informal rustic look.

Silver napkin rings are perfect for a formal Christmas dinner. For a casual meal, make napkin rings using small decorated grapevine wreaths or ribbons. Think about seasonal touches—tie in candy canes or small ornaments.

Containers

Containers for your arrangements are the main element of your centerpiece. Be innovative by using ordinary objects such as wood or metal boxes, baskets, sleighs, mason jars, sugar bowls, or crystal and silver bowls. Choose low containers so your final masterpiece allows your guests to see each other across the table. Remember to think about the look you are creating when making your selection.

Candlesticks and Candles

Lighting adds a magical touch to your table. Use candles of different sizes and styles (pillar, tapers) and various kinds of candlesticks (antler and pewter for an informal look; crystal and silver for a formal look.) Colored candles can be used if they are all the same color and are in your color scheme. Scatter votives around the table for added glow.

Flowers, Vegetables, Fruits, and Foliage

Choose arrangement materials that are plentiful in your garden or local store.

For Thanksgiving centerpeices, consider purchasing small pots of mums that can be planted in your garden later. Purchase extras to place at the sides of your front door. If using cut flowers, buy extras to place in arrangements throughout your home.

Gourds and pumpkins are great to use in decorating for the fall season. You can even spray paint them. One Thanksgiving I sprayed gold paint on pumpkins and rolled them in glitter. This had the impact of the unexpected and added pizzazz to the centerpiece. Apples, pears, and oranges can be used in your centerpiece decoration.

At Christmas, use holly with berries, evergreen boughs, magnolia leaves or nandina berries. At this time of year, paper whites and small poinsettias are plentiful. Pomegranates and tangerines are great fruit additions. Do not forget the holiday nuts!

Step 2 ❄ Create

After you have planned and taken stock of what to use in your table decorations, it is time to make your table decorations come alive.

First, see how they will look. Place the container(s) on the table coverings you have chosen. Check for proportions and color. Visualize the arrangement you plan to make. Lay one place setting complete with tableware. Be open to modifying your planned design. Try different ideas.

Make a list of the items to purchase, including centerpiece arrangement materials, table coverings, napkins rings, candles, etc.

Make your purchases a week before you begin decorating. This will ensure you have what you need.

Create your centerpiece by layering:

1. Begin with your table covers
2. Add the platform on which to place your arrangement (optional)
3. Arrange the flowers, fruits, vegetables, and foliage in the containers; place on the platform
4. Place candlesticks with candles on either side of the arrangement; scatter votives on the table
5. Make napkin rings (optional).

Set the table a few days in advance of a dinner party. This allows you to concentrate on food preparation.

1. Lay placemats (if using)
2. Add chargers with dinner plates on top
3. Place napkins wrapped with a ring, on top of, or to the left of, the plate
4. Finish by placing flatware and stemware at each setting.

Step 3 ❄ Celebrate!

Your table decorations are unique to you and your family. They allow you to express yourself and provide great enjoyment. Taking time to plan and create a memorable holiday display creates a warm inviting place to share your time, good food, and great conversation with your family and friends. Relax, and celebrate the holidays!

Hints

• Wash all silver, crystal, plates, flatware, stemware, and containers, and launder all table coverings and napkins so everything looks fresh and clean.
• Coordinate serving bowls and platters with your dinner plates.
• Invest in white dinner, dessert plates, and serving bowls. They can be used anytime.
• Invest in tablecloths, runners, place mats, and napkins in seasonal colors. They can be purchased at your local stores during the holiday season.
• Search antique stores for unusual containers and trays that can be used in your centerpiece decorations.
• Start a folder of centerpieces and place setting pictures clipped from magazines and catalogs. Take photos of what you see at dinner parties, restaurants, hotels, etc.
• You can use a tall centerpiece if you do not intend to have a seated meal at the table.
• Leave space on the table for serving dishes and platters if you are serving from the table.
• Spray paint natural materials (pine cones, gourds, pumpkins, leaves) to add pizzazz.
• Use candy to add color and seasonal touches.
• Use herbs in your arrangements.

M! ON 2012