Holiday Tablescapes

.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The Christmas trees are out, the holiday music has been playing, shopping is in full swing and party planning is in the works. If you will be the one hosting this year, we hope to make your job a little easier! 

.

You may or may not have thought about your holiday table settings. While the menu, guest list and holiday home decor may take priority on most lists, we want to encourage you to spend a few moments preparing the table where your guests will eat. Gathering with friends and family enjoying meaningful conversations will be happening around your table, and creating an inviting table will make your guests feel welcome.

.

Creating a beautiful and unique holiday tablescape is not as overwhelming as you might think! Let us walk you through a simple, yet inviting, holiday table setting:

.

1. Choose your color palette 

We encourage you to choose your palette based on what you already have. There is no need to purchase brand new settings and decor for this. Here at Whimsy we like to create tablescapes with neutral color palettes and add our vintage finds and fancy goods for character. However, if you enjoy a bolder more traditional holiday approach then find pieces that fit your style.

.

For the sake of our process our color palette of choice would be cream, antiqued silver and gold with pine green and burgundy accents. 

.

 .

2. Table Linens

Using a table cloth dresses up your table, preserves your table from heavy use, and makes for easy clean up. Choose a table cloth that compliments your color palette and your dinnerware style. If your dinnerware set has no pattern, try choosing a table cloth with a classic pattern and complimenting colors.

.

In this tablescape, we used solid gold chargers and our guests were using solid cream dinner plates - so we chose a classic plaid pattern with cream and burgundy coloring to offset the dinnerware. If your dinnerware has a pattern and/or color, try pairing it with a solid colored tablecloth, such as cream or burgundy. 

.

If you choose to use cloth napkins, we are partial to keeping them neutral, such as cream. 

.

3. Place Settings

You don't have to get fancy or formal with your flatware and dinnerware. Follow these steps for a charming place setting:

.

-Start with placing your charger (if you are using one, they are not necessary, but definitely make a statement) in the very middle of the place setting. 

.

-Next add the dinner plate on top of the charger (again if you are using one) and then on top of the dinner plate place the salad plate. 

.

-Lay your napkin across the salad plate

.

-To the right of the dinnerware place your knife first and to the right of the knife place the spoon. 

.

-To the left of the dinnerware place your dinner fork first and to the right of the dinner fork place the salad fork.

.

-Add a wine glass above the spoon

.

-Add a water glass above the knife

.

You are finished! Setting the table for your guests dresses up your party and adds interest to your table. Instead of placing all the dinnerware and flatware near the food, give your holiday party a touch of elegance by creating place settings for your guests.

.

Tip: If you prefer to keep the plates near the food, place your chargers, flatware and drinkware at each place setting to keep the same look!

.

4. Centerpieces 

Our favorite part! The most important idea to remember here is to opt for long and low arrangements so your guests can easily engage with each other across the table. 

.

-Place your larger items first. If you have one large decor item place it in the center, such as a floral or greenery arrangement. If you have two of the same decor item, anchor near the ends of the table to create balance. Here we used two gold lanterns with candles to anchor the table. 

.

-Next, we added greenery because our large items to anchor the table were decor pieces. We used low antiqued silver vases and filled them with glittery pine sprigs with pine cone accents. Here's a affordable and easy way to get this look - purchase a few of these glittery faux winter greens and line them up across the midline of your table. Keep them close together for a continuous look like ours! 

.

-Lastly, add your vintage decor accents to add charm and character. Here we used our antiqued silver vases, mini antique boxes and vintage style ornaments. Don't overuse these items. Simply create a few vignettes throughout your centerpiece to add interest and offset the greenery. 

.

.

Like we said! Simple! Whimsy makes it easy to recreate this look:

-Faux-floral arrangements: Group two or three of the same color in a single vase for a center focal point or choose two of the same color and add each one to a small vase to place as anchors at your table ends like we did here.

.

-Large Pine Vase filler - if you don't want to go with florals, use this gorgeous pine vase filler as a centerpiece or use two in small low vases to anchor your table. What is so nice about this faux-arrangement is that it is stemless which makes it easy to lay atop any vase you have.  

.

-Mini faux green trees - use an odd number of trees to line the center of your table. Keep the trees as close together as you can to create a continuous look.

.

-Small vintage boxes and ornaments - tuck these sweet little boxes and ornaments near each other throughout your center arrangement to create sweet and simple vignettes. These holiday jars and/or bottle brush trees would also be perfect to add to your centerpiece.

.

4. Place setting gifts

One of our favorite touches to add to any party we are hosting is to add a small gift to adorn each place setting. It offers such a nice and thoughtful touch to your party! At this particular party we used a few items to add to each place setting - a mini winter candle, mini bottle brush tree and gourmet toasted marshmallow.  Each item matched the theme and color palette of the party! 

.

Your gift doesn't have to be expensive. Our mini Merry Christmas script ornaments would be the perfect little touch to each plate, and at $1 each, they do not break the bank. They come in sets of 10. Our bottle brush trees would also be a sweet little touch to lay on each plate, and are sold in sets of 6. 

.

.

We hope you feel inspired to create an inviting and beautiful holiday table this year! Enjoy the season, enjoy your family and friends, and happy hosting! 

.

.

Should you use any of these holiday tablescape tips and/or Whimsy decor items, please tag us #wednesdayswithwhimsy , @Whimsy on Facebook or @whimsy.fancygoods on Instagram. We would just love to see what gorgeous tablescapes you create! 

.

Stay fancy friends, 

xo The Whimsy Team