Christmas table decorations: 13 ideas for a spectacular setting
Many of the most important parts of Christmas day take place around the table. It is here that the family sits together, sharing jokes, games and stories all the while enjoying a lovingly cooked Christmas dinner. As such, it is important that the table is as jolly as the guests, so don’t forget to factor your table into your Christmas decoration plans. After all, what’s the point of whipping up all those Christmas recipes if they won’t be displayed to their full advantage?
The maximalists out there will have plans to include plentiful winter foliage, twinkling lights and even some more playful Christmas table decorations like streamers and paper stars. Colourful candles are a simple yet effective addition to such a scheme, and are best paired with antique candlesticks. If you are more of a minimalist at Christmas time, or simply don’t have the space to go all-out, you may want to heed the advice of florist Graeme Corbett, who creates small but elegant floral displays to decorate the table in his former cowshed in Kent. For Graeme, the key is to avoid overwhelming the table, since there is nothing more frustrating than trying to speak to someone across from you only to have your conversation stunted by a large mound of foliage. He uses foraged ingredients to create his arrangements, which can then be repurposed as a coffee table centrepiece or bedside table adornment, bringing festive cheer to every space in the house. If just such a scheme appeals to you, Graeme has shared his tips on creating festive arrangements here.
Whether your style is pared-back and serene or bold and brilliant, there is a Christmas table in the House & Garden archive to inspire. Scroll on for the very best Christmas table decorations to copy this year.
Mark Fox1/13Luke Edward Hall and Duncan Campbell's Cotswold cottage is Christmas maximalism at its finest. The table, which is decorated with large bowls of crab apples, includes glittery mushrooms from Choosing Keeping and Cutter Brooks. The tablecloth is Summerill & Bishop, the cutlery is Sabre via Cutter Brooks and the marble crackers are from Tavola by Skye McAlpine.
Elena Bazu2/13At home in Kent, florist Graeme Corbett creates small arrangements of seasonal, foraged flowers to add to his Christmas table. Portable and unobtrusive, the arrangements are designed to help conversation flow around the table, as well as to leave plenty of space for food. Here, a simple arrangement made using hellebores, rose hips, crabapples and sea holly adds a focal point to the table, while tucking some leftover rosehips into the napkin is, as Graeme says, a ‘lovely little gesture’.
3/13For a less formal setting, forgo the tablecloth in favour of an un-dressed wooden dining table, as Alex Lewis, co-founder of Compton Marbling has done. Miniature Christmas trees and animal figurines are interspersed with brass candlesticks – the effect is playful and suitably jolly.
Mark Anthony Fox4/13At her home in Turin, food writer Mimi Thorisson sticks to a traditional tablescape. ‘I love decorating with fruit; it feels so natural and convivial,’ she says. The hand-painted dinner service with playful monkey motifs is by Milanese makers Laboratorio Paravicini.
Dean Hearne5/13Christmas in the vaulted halls of Lulu Benson's 14th-century Scottish castle means a beautifully decorated dining room. Family portraits, including one of Matthew and Lulu by Jonathan Freemantle above the chimneypiece, hang on the walls. A traditional green and red centrepiece made using pine, fir, rosehips and poinsettias anchors the table, which is otherwise set with a pretty pink tablecloth and matching napkins.
Paul Massey6/13This dining area in an historic house on the Stockholm archipelago has been left largely untouched, with the flaking original paint on its tongue-and-groove panelling adding charming patina. Silk ‘Lampshade Sewn 2538’ pendants from Svenskt Tenn hang above the rustic wooden dining table and chairs, which were bought from the previous owners. A festive floral arrangement picks up on the red candelabra from Svensk Hemslöjd.
Helen Cathcart7/13Christmas lunch at interior designer Flora Soames' house in Norfolk centres around the kitchen, a large and busy space with a long table at one end. ‘The kitchen table is rather thrown together last minute, and it's an accumulation of things that have caught my eye on my travels and been brought home. There's that hint of Christmas, that hint of colour, but it's slotting in around all these lovely old things that are reappearing year after year, such as a set of napkins I bought from a dealer years ago, all dyed in jewel colours and tied together with a wonderful, gaudy metallic ribbon. More is more on the table for me, gives it that real sense of the feast that you're going to have. I like candles at different heights, flowers at different heights, and plenty of fruit on the table – it's an abundant, easy, inexpensive way to decorate,’ she says.
Owen Gale8/13Amanda Brooks' charming Cotswold guest cottage is a wonderland of Christmas cheer. The table is laid with Indian placemats and candle holders by Jess Wheeler, all available from Cutter Brooks. Small rosemary bushes add an element of greenery to the calm setting.
Owen Gale9/13Christmas breakfast is, for some, just as important as the main meal later in the day. So don't forget to pay attention to your table decoration in the morning, too. In her Venetian palazzo, Syke McAlpine sets the breakfast table with a cheerful green gingham tablecloth and a selection of ‘Frutti di Bosco’ tableware from her own Tavola line.
Owen Gale10/13The large portrait gallery at the end of the apartment is used as a more formal dining room. ‘More is 100% more,’ says Skye. ‘I don't think you can go too overboard or put too much on the table. And everyone looks more glamorous by candlelight.’ Thus, colourful candles, sweets and fruit adorn her joyful Christmas table.
Michael Sinclair11/13At Christmas, the owners of this Victorian rectory in the West Country gathers pine cones and branches of old man’s beard to decorate this room at the front of the house, which has walls painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’. The white flower makes for a delicately striking centrepiece atop a dark grey tablecloth and surrounded by brass candlesticks.
Christopher Horwood12/13The dining room in House & Garden's former editor Hatta Byng's house is the ideal place for Christmas lunch, festooned with colourful candlesticks, paperwhites and a festive garland on the mantlepiece. A simple white tablecloth allows the joyful scheme to sing.
Rachel Whiting13/13'The dining room is my theatre.' says designer Francis Sultana. 'Christmas dinner should be playful and I like using props. Indoor fireworks make a decadent replacement for Christmas crackers - I bought some glorious Hermès ones, made for the company's one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary - or try laying your table with a runner of brown paper that your guests can decorate and write messages on. For the centrepiece I painted some twigs red with a flock spray, and fixed them with Blu-tack to a bed of moss scattered with ornamental eggs and crystals. Black candles and the sculpture in the middle by André Dubreuil add a masculine, geometric edge. The overall effect is like gazing through an enchanted forest.'
