Since no festival can ever be celebrated without good food and feasting, the dining room table and the way that it is decorated becomes very important in the holiday celebrations. Beautifully set and decorated dining tables are perhaps the single most important facet of creating a festive and celebratory ambiance.
Here are some more tips for setting dining room tables for the holidays:
The Place Settings – Now this is not just the plates, the knives, and the forks but a lot else besides. The plates and other serving bowls that you use can look festive if they have a holiday theme, such as berries, holly, and so on. Festive motifs such as Christmas trees, striped bows, poinsettias, holly, and ivy are very popular. In the alternative, you can just go with some classic styles that look elegant at any time, such as ivory white with gold trim, or even a plaid trim.
The cutlery you use and the number of items you will require depends upon the number of courses you have planned and upon how formal or informal you want your dining room table to look. It is a good idea to have a set of cutlery that you use only for special occasions, which you can bring out at this time. A sparkling, perfectly matched set of cutlery can enhance the dining room tables’ look. If you plan to light candles then these will look even more sparkly and attractive.
Consider the glassware if you will be serving wine and in particular, more than one wine can consider whether you have sufficient space on the dining table for placing everything. Clear glass goblets are best, whether for serving water or to bring out the color of the wine.
Also consider whether you want to have individual placemats for each person, or whether you prefer not to crowd up the tablecloth with that addition. You can choose to place the plates on the tablecloth directly if you so wish. Either way, you can still add some festive touches to each plate – you can surround each dish with some holly or greens, add a small Christmas bauble to the side of each dish, and so on. However, placemats can enhance and complement your table cloth as well.
Napkins – The napkins that you use for the place setting should be properly coordinated with the tablecloth, or with the crockery you use. Remember it doesn’t have to match perfectly, but it should not clash either – the result should be attractive and coordinated. Consider whether you will be placing the napkins on the center of the plate and in which case how you wish them to be folded.
Runner – Consider whether you want to place a runner over the table cloth. In some cases, a runner could be superfluous and if it is going to clash with the table cloth or the wood color of the dining tables, then skip it. However, a correctly coordinated or even contrasting table runner can enhance the look of the dining room table.
