The holiday season is here and that likely means you’ll be welcoming guests into your home. Whether it’s for cocktails or dinner there is plenty of planning to do. And who has time to come up with fancy table decor after creating a menu of mouth-watering offerings? We recently teamed up with KJM Lettering and put together three Christmas tables to wow your guests this holiday season. Kat from KJM Lettering does impeccable work, lettering all the place cards for this project and helping us come up with these ideas.
You can DIY these table ideas for your parties this holiday season and we show you how below. We begin with the simplest and cheapest option and move up the difficulty scale to our metallic glam table (though only slightly more difficult). So let’s get right to it.
Rustic Holiday Table
This rustic table is inexpensive and is the easiest option of the bunch with almost all items being purchased from your local grocery store. We started out by using a thin holiday blanket as our tablecloth. No need to purchase a fancy tablecloth that you will bring out twice a year. The soft fabric sets the wintery mood nicely. (Just make sure the blanket is machine washable) Then we filled the bottom of six large mason jars with epsom salts. We added candles to four of them and topped the other four with whole cranberries. We lined these up down the table as our main centrepiece.
We took oranges and inserted whole cloves into the skin in a variety of patterns. Then we scattered these oranges and some pine cones around the jars to add dimension and height variety to our centrepieces.
We used a neutral linen napkin that complimented one of the taupe shades in the blanket and placed them on top of our everyday white plates. We added holiday spirit to each place setting with candy canes. We glued three candy canes together at the top, creating a tripod with space to hold our place cards. Tall wine glasses would have interfered with the centrepieces, so we used beautiful cut glass tumblers that we picked up at none other than Value Village.
So many of the items in this table display are easy to find at a grocery store and some of them you may event have lying around your house right now. It’s so easy to brighten up your dining space for the holidays with these tricks.
Simple Natural Table
Our second table incorporates greenery on an otherwise pretty sparse table to create an elegant look. We chose to keep the table bare as it was neutral and would allow our decor to pop on top. We then placed greenery down the centre, ensuring that it hung over each end. We used a fake garland that you might place on your banister but fresh greens would also work. If using fresh greens, attached each bough discreetly using floral wire or floral tape before laying them down the centre of the table. Place pinecones on and surrounding the greenery for a natural feel.
I found minimalist glass candle holders at Value Village – they don’t all match perfectly but still go well together. Each is a different height which is important when creating centrepieces because variety is pleasing to the eye. We placed pillar candles on each pedestal (we used white but you could also try an accent colour like burgundy). At each end of the table I placed cinnamon stick candle holders, made by hot glueing cinnamon sticks around the outside of a jam jar.
Each place setting is super simple, consisting of our everyday white plates, cutlery and a plain wine glass. The simplicity allows the place cards to truly shine on this table. We created little wreaths out of fresh rosemary and hot glued red and white bows to the top of each. Craft paper cut into ribbon-like strips was added in the centre of each wreath for the names.
Metallic Glam
This look is the complete opposite of the earthy, natural and rustic elements seen on the last two tables. White and gold is the name of the game here.
We started with a plain white tablecloth to make each gold element really pop. Then we created the centrepiece by screwing together ¾” x 2.5” painted boards to create a rectangular frame. This can be any size based on the table you are using, but make sure that guests can see one another over top of it when seated. We added eyelet screws into the underside of the top board so that each ornament could hang easily. Hang each ornament on the eyelet screw creating symmetry on either side of your midpoint.
After placing the frame down the centre of the table, we filled around it with numerous candles and gold snowflake ornaments. You can use a simple white plate like in the photos above for a more understated look, but to really amp up the metallic you can use gold chargers. Chargers are the giant dinner plates used for decor that you place a regular dinner plate on top of when eating. These can be seen in the photo below. Gold patterned tumbler glasses were great additions in place of plain glasses.
On each place setting was a lightbulb that Kat from KJM Lettering wrote on in gold – these acted as the place cards. We placed these on top of white napkins so that each name would stand out. Finally a metallic Christmas cracker was placed below the place card ready for the feast.
DIY trick: instead of purchasing Christmas crackers that often have terrible jokes and junk inside – make your own. Take empty toilet paper rolls and insert whatever items you would like – wrapped chocolates, fun trivia, you name it! Cover with wrapping paper leaving about 3 inches extra on either end. Tie each end closed with ribbon close to the end of the toilet paper roll and you have your very own crackers that will perfectly match your table.
There you have it! Three decor styles that create three very different tables for a holiday party. What other decor styles do you love using at Christmas? Having trouble creating the perfect centrepiece? Leave a comment and we can help!
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