Create a Beautiful Christmas Tablescape

3 Parts:

Step-By-Step Towards a Christmas Tablescape

A Buffet Table to Serve the Food

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During the Christmas season, houses usually get treated to wreaths, tinsel and Christmas trees, while yards usually get a Yuletide pick-me-up with blinking lights. Some homes give their tables a special look with Christmas tablecloths, plates, platters, and glasses. Some will even make sure that there is a plate of Christmas cookies or a bowl of ripe red apples for an unmistakably Christmas ambiance throughout the season. Not everyone has table trimmings meant for the season alone, but a Christmas table can look just as festive, even without store-bought décor. A little creativity combined with an eye for system is all it takes for a person to be able to create a beautiful Christmas tablescape that will allow people to feast with their eyes.

If you are hosting a dinner during the season, you are going to have a lot of fun setting a table that will shout the word Christmas from end to end. You can do this by choosing a Yuletide color scheme and repeating it through your table's centerpiece, placemats, napkin holders, and glassware jackets or coasters.

1. 1
   Start with a theme.

   

   Choosing a color scheme for your table will help you come up with a unified look. Make sure that your tablescape does not jar with colors and decorations in the rest of the house. For example, if your house or apartment has a decidedly modern, black and white streamlined theme, go slow on crocheted Victorian doilies.

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   1. If you decide to go natural or rustic, you might want to decorate your table with natural and organic items that have a charm all their own. This is where you can put together a basket of orange and clove pomanders as your centerpiece, use a touch of metallic bronze or copper here and there to make a few pine cones come alive, or just arrange a basket of holly and pinecones, and nuts.
   2. If you look on the bright side, however, you will see that most classic Christmas decorations are not only timeless, but they also magically blend into all types of architecture and interior design. A few unifying touches here and there will allow your table to enhance and be enhanced by the rest of your house.

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2. 2
   Get your tablecloth ready.

   

   A plain white table cloth will do very well to serve as background for your Christmas feast. On top of this, if your table is rectangular or square, you can always place a solid green cloth running down throughout its length. Or, if your table is round, you can put a round cloth in solid green at the center. A white tablecloth is cool and elegant. Moreover, if the little ones happen to drop bits of food on a white tablecloth, clean up is never a problem. Load it into the washer, apply a little bleach, and voila! Your tablecloth is as good as new.

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   1. If you are ready for some drama, a solid red tablecloth will present your table with a bang. These two colors are rich and strong representations of the season, and neither are as vulnerable to dirt as a white table cloth is.
   2. The tablecloth is like a canvas. With this piece of cloth in place, you are ready to display your centerpiece and all the other special touches that will tell the world that you put love and care into making people around you enjoy the Christmas atmosphere.

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3. 3
   Decide on a centerpiece.

   

   Your centerpiece is the focus of your table, and it should succeed in attracting everyone. Some centerpieces give your table height by drawing the eyes upward.  

   1. A miniature Christmas tree, a candelabra, or red flowers in a tall vase adorned by a silver ribbon would do very well to provide such an effect. Just make sure that your centerpiece is neither too tall nor too bulky. This may result in people having to play peek-a-boo to see the person they are talking to.
   2. If you choose to have a low lying centerpiece, that will be fine too, especially if you have a big table. Just make sure your centerpiece does not take over the space you will need for food.

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4. 4
   Spread some pretty placemats.

   

   If you have placemats with a Christmas theme, you can just lay them out on the table, and that's that. If you don't have any Christmas placemats, you can perhaps perk up old ones by wrapping them in red or green cloth. One of the most creative Christmas placemat ideas involves cutting out old Christmas cards and plastering them all over old placemats.  

   1. These were protected from spills and other stains by a sheet of plastic.
   2. Still another hobbyist taped ribbons over an old placemat to give it a Christmassy look.
   3. However, if you don't have time, or any of those tricks is too much trouble for you, hunt for bargains at dollar stores.

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5. 5
   Christmas jackets for your glassware.

   

   Some households have glasses that are used only during the Christmas season, and you have to admit these glasses do look nice. However, you can still have glasses that look like; they are especially meant for Christmas if you can make jackets for them. Green and red or white crocheted jackets will definitely add a distinctively Yuletide touch to each place setting.

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6. 6
   Create place settings that say "Merry Christmas".

   

   A place setting can do more than inform people where they are to be seated; these tiny pieces of paper can actually be a greeting in themselves. One of the fun ways to seat a person is to put a large Christmas cookie with his name on it on his plate. Another whimsical way to create a place setting would be to fold colored paper into a tiny Christmas tree and stick the guest's name on a slit at its top.

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7. 7
   Have fun with some napkin holders.

   

   Even if you just use plain white plates, plain glass tumblers, and plain white cloth napkins, you can give your place settings a real lift by having some fun with your napkin holders. A pretty red ribbon made of polka-dotted material will be an attractive way to emphasize a red color scheme. Large fake pearls strung on fine wire and accented by a silver ribbon will evoke memories of a snowy Christmas evenings.

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8. 8
   Place tiny special touches here and there.

   

   If your table can take it without looking cluttered, you can put special Christmas touches in several places. For example, on either side of your centerpiece, you can put two trees made of chocolate kisses. Or, you can place large goblets around the centerpiece and fill these with candy. Have fun and remember that letting your imagination run free will allow you to think of new ways to make your dining table a beautiful sight to behold.

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One of the best ways to serve a Christmas dinner is to put up a separate buffet table and then arrange tables for seating your guests. This way your guests can sit down comfortably at well arranged tables of their own, and all the food will be conveniently set on a separate table for them to help themselves from. If this is how you will proceed, remember three things:

1. 1
   Arrange your buffet table and your desserts artistically. If you are arranging the food buffet style, make each dish look like a work of art and then set the dishes at different heights so that each one can be seen. Put your highest serving dish at the center of your buffet table and organize the succeeding plates with this as point of reference.

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2. 2
   Decide on your menu and choose your containers. Once you have decided on your menu, choose the serving plates and trays you will be using. Position them on your table so that you are able to arrange and rearrange them until you get everything right.

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3. 3
   Don't forget to have fun. The decorations on your table are only half of the equation. The other (and possibly more important half) is your presence as a relaxed hostess who is having a blast with her friends and family.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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