Christmas Tips

Christmas table decoration is a central issue in your decorating plans. That’s where you’ll be seating your guests for Christmas dinner, so you want your table to look it’s best. Many people have parties during December and there’s Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the New Year’s Eve finale, so you have multiple opportunities to dress that table to the nines!

It helps you give a different look if you have several tablecloths. If not, don’t worry. There are runners, centerpieces, placemats, napkin rings and candle holders with which you can put together many different and spectacular looks. With the possible exception of candleholders, you can make all of these Christmas table decorations yourself. They also make good projects to do with kids, which adds to the fun of the season. Kids are very visual and may surprise you with some very creative ideas.

Start your Christmas table decoration project with a color scheme. For example, a white tablecloth topped with a gold lace tablecloth makes an elegant and sparkling impression. You can purchase gold lace at a fabric store and make your own for a fraction of the price of a purchased tablecloth. White and gold are neutral in the sense that they look well with most traditional Christmas colors.

Runners can put pizzazz in your Christmas table decorations all by themselves. Show off a fine wood dining table with a runner. The possibilities are limited only by the number or combinations of fabrics you can find. Decide on a look that pleases you. Satins, plaids and quilted fabrics are popular choices. Smaller gift shops offer some unusual runners, if you decide to purchase.

Centerpieces for the table offer lots of creative latitude for your Christmas table decorations. A jewel-toned glass bowl with floating candles and flower petals gives a romantic magical look. Several small Poinsettias can be spaced down the center of the table. Miniature roses also look good with candlesticks between each plant. Just don’t make your centerpiece so tall that guests at the table cannot see one another!

Placemats may be used directly on the table, or in a layered look on top of a tablecloth. It is possible for your project to get out of hand, producing a too-busy or overdone effect. When planning your Christmas table decorations, do a dry run, placing each element as you go along. Don’t rely on imaging the result in your mind.

Napkin rings come in many different materials to suit your theme. Brass, silver, rattan, plastic, tortoise shell and even ceramic ones are some of the many choices you’ll find.

Candle holders are a must for the well-dressed Christmas table. Silver and gold are always popular. Hand-painted ceramic candlesticks give a comfortable feel, with a less formal look. Gear your choice to your theme.

With a little careful planning, your Christmas table decorations may draw as many compliments as your food. Merry Christmas!

My husband hates when I ask him to drag out the Christmas decorations every year. It continually is a fiasco because we never store them correctly or in an organized way, and they are never in a convenient place. The Christmas decorations generally end up behind all of the summer items that were brought into the basement from outside, so I usually have to set aside an entire day for him to drag everything up to the main floor.

I love Christmas decorations, which doesn’t help the situation. We have boxes and boxes full, and we’re only had our own place to decorate for about four years. I really don’t know where all of our decorations came from but I love all of them. I know we inherited some of my grandmother’s Christmas decorations, which of course are my most cherished. They may not be the most beautiful Christmas decorations, but they hold special meaning and many childhood memories so they are displayed most prominently. Then there are the decorations that my mother purchased for us, or that his mother purchased, or even that friends and extended family purchased. We have a huge amount of Christmas decorations, but they are always tastefully displayed.

Now, my mother in law’s house looks like Santa threw up in it every time Christmas rolls around. She is a total craft nut, so she has countless Christmas decorations that are just scattered everywhere around the house. And I mean everywhere. I don’t think there is one inch in that house that is not covered in red, green or gold during the holiday season. There are knitted tissue box covers, toilet seat covers, wall hangings, quilts; you name it and it is there. So many Christmas decorations that you can’t even distinguish where one ends and where another begins. But she loves them, so I suppose that is all that matters.

Then there is my family. Hardly any decorations because they clutter the house, and they even started using an artificial tree the past few years. There are a few poinsettias, a few spatterings of gold bows and green wreaths but nowhere near the explosion of my mother in laws home. I am now seeing that the home my husband and I have created is certainly a mixture of both of our backgrounds, melding into the perfect display of Christmas decorations. I don’t think we’d have it any other way.