Are you ready for Christmas yet? Of course not! Well now is the time to pin down the finer details of our Christmas entertaining. So, are you organising a cosy Christmas for two, a grand, gargantuan feast for friends and family, or cocktails and canapés with clients? If you saw our Christmas Dining Inspiration post a few weeks ago, you should have plenty of ideas for your festive dining room. Well, now we’ve teamed up with another of our favourite bloggers – Antonia from #tidylife – to look at all those finishing touches that will take your entertaining from average to amazing. All Juliettes products in this post are in stock and ready for immediate dispatch. Order by 16th December for UK Christmas delivery.
*** Fabulous Christmas Giveaway ***
Finishing Touches by #tidylife
Antonia’s style is laid back, elegant and chic. Her entertaining seems equally effortless – but we all know just how much goes on behind the scenes to create something as relaxed as this. With a wonderfully eclectic selection of last-minute pieces, Antonia shows us how to use a few favourite pieces to transform your Christmas.
Finishing Touches by Juliette
All the Juliettes products featured in this post are in stock and ready to wing their way to you in time for Christmas. Quantities are limited and when they’re gone, they’re gone so don’t delay. Make sure you check out all our In Stock items, plus Ex-Display pieces too, where you’ll find even more items for your festive season. What are you waiting for? Make this Christmas the one where you up your game and have everything on hand to make the whole season go with a swing. You could even impress the in-laws into the bargain.
Finishing Touches : First Things First
If you haven’t sorted out your dining table yet (or you would simply love a beautiful new one), fear not. We have two of these delicious dining sets in stock, each with a sleek bevelled top, finished in a gloss walnut veneer. One set has six ivory nubuck dining chairs as shown above, the other comes with six taupe nubuck chairs with walnut veneer legs and gold-finished glides (see below). Perfect for family, friends or cosy gatherings.
Christmas Tableware
A beautiful table deserves beautiful tableware. Le Creuset always adds a touch of class and is stylish enough to go from oven to table. Their wide range of colours means you can find something to suit every colour scheme. We’ve gone for a traditional Christmas red with pops of cool blue for our seafood starters but you can build your own set in whichever colours take your fancy.
If you remember our Classic White Christmas dining room, you’ll know that we styled everything round a similar table to the one above but with a glamorous gold base and glass top. To keep things simple, but still opulent, we have chosen the lovely monochrome Manufacture Rock tableware set by Villeroy & Boch. Ultra-stylish and sleek, combine textured charcoal with pristine white to create your own place settings. We’ve continued our gold theme with soft gold cutlery, MetroChic D’Or, again by Villeroy & Boch.
Sideboards & Buffets
Every Christmas dinner needs a sideboard (or a buffet, call it what you will). This is the place to store all your special tableware – those exquisite pieces that you don’t use all year round. A good luxury sideboard has plenty of space for crockery, glassware and cutlery, tablecloths, runners and all those uber-kitsch items that only ever come out at Christmas. If you don’t have a cocktail cabinet or drinks trolley (or they are simply overflowing at this time of year), a sideboard top is just the place to keep all your drinks and glassware to hand. Or, if your table top is already jam packed with festive foliage, a sideboard is the ideal place to serve your Christmas dinner – but do make sure you protect the top.
Console Tables
A console is a wonderfully versatile piece of luxury furniture – and perfect at Christmas. Display drinks or serve Christmas dinner (much the same as a sideboard but without the storage). Decorate it with striking winter foliage, a host of twinkling fairy lights or eye-catching ornaments. Or pile it high with presents for family and guests. Whether it takes pride of place in the hallway or complements your dining or living room, a console table is a great multi-tasker.
Drinks Trolley and Wine Coolers
Drinks trolleys are enjoying something of a renaissance right now, having fallen out of favour for a while – rather unfairly, we think. There is something very glamorous about a drinks trolley. Something Hollywood-esque. Yet it is a lovely, compact piece of luxury furniture and, being on wheels, can easily be moved to wherever it is needed. Unlike a cocktail cabinet, everyone can see what is on offer and, hopefully, can go and help themselves to an aperitif, a glass of champagne or an after dinner drink or two. A wine cooler or champagne bucket is essential so that guests don’t have to wait and you don’t have to keep dashing to the fridge. We love the Art Deco style of this silver and black drinks trolley. Just imagine serving your fizz from this on Christmas morning.
Glassware
Alongside your stylish, ice-filled wine cooler, Christmas is the perfect time to show off all your beautiful glassware and a sleek cocktail kit. We love these unusual stemless champagne glasses from White Company, but they also do traditional champagne flutes and coupes (something else enjoying a resurgence). Cocktail tools can be as simple or as spectacular as you like, it all depends on the cocktails you want to serve. We’ve chosen a simple, 4-piece Marble & Gold Cocktail Kit from Lunar Oceans but, if you’re planning a full-on cocktail party, you may need more than a double jigger and a strainer. Soft gold is distinctly on-trend this year but stainless steel, copper and rose gold are still very popular.
Christmas Cocktails with Wild Island Gin
If, like us, you’re a bit of a gin-fiend, maybe a simple G&T or a Wild Island Southside is all it takes. This year, however, we’ll be greeting our guests with a fabulous, warming mulled gin with a shot of our favourite Wild Island Sacred Tree Gin. Don’t you just love their fantastic bottles? Far too beautiful to hide away in a cabinet.
Mulled Wild Island Gin
- 200ml apple juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- a little fresh grated ginger
- lemon and orange peel
- slice of orange to serve
And, of course
- 50ml of Wild Island- Sacred Tree
Heat all ingredients (apart from the gin) gently in a pan to allow flavours to infuse. When warmed through, strain into two cups, adding 25ml gin to each cup. Stir gently and finish with a slice of orange and a grating of nutmeg if you fancy it.
Bowls, Dishes & Decorations
We are not talking about a couple of bowls of peanuts here. When your furniture is this stunning, you need accessories to match. We simply love this selection of exquisite gold dishes and platters, adding an extra layer of opulence to all our festivities. If gold isn’t for you, a set of hammered silver-finish bowls will look equally glamorous overflowing with fresh fruit, lemons for your cocktails, luscious chocolates or savouries.
If you’re going for an understated look with your decorations, a set of sleek crystal obelisks would look fabulous on a Christmas mantelpiece or console table. Imagine the look when combined with strings of tiny lights.
Cocktails, Caviar, Cake and Cheese
You know your cocktail parties have come of age when you have an extra special caviar dish like this one. We love its opulent, Russian styling and delicate mother of pearl spoon – caviar should always be served with inert materials such as pearl or gold, never stainless steel in case it imparts an unpleasant flavour. Such a fabulous caviar dish deserves the finest caviar so we’ve gone for the subtle, creamy flavour of an Oscietra caviar from King’s Fine Foods, suppliers to the finest foodhalls, hotels and Michelin starred restaurants.
We’ve found that Christmas cake is quite a divisive issue among the Juliettes team. Some of us love it, some of us hate it, and some of us eat it just because it’s there. If you are going to have a beautifully-decorated cake, you need an equally beautiful cake stand (not just a bog standard silver board). To go with our subtle gold and glass theme, we like this simple yet stunning pair of gold and white marble stands from Cox and Cox. Adorned with tiny lights, mini baubles, festive foliage or fresh fruit, any cake would look enticing.
If all that icing and marzipan really isn’t for you, we’ve found a fantastic alternative – a cheese cake. No, not cheesecake but a fabulous stack of different and delicious cheeses. It looks like a tiered wedding or birthday cake but there’s not a sultana in sight. Paxton and Whitfield have a special Christmas cheese cake, complete with star on top, but we’ve gone way over the top with their Boadicea cheese cake – four fantastic artisan cheeses serving up to 100 people (well, you never know when the neighbours might pop round). The Cox & Cox stand above would be perfect for a spectacular cheese display. Several of the team have decided to give the idea a go this year. The ‘cakes’ arrive undecorated but all it takes is a few artfully-entwined leaves and berries or, again, lights and baubles and you’ll have a really impressive cake.
Enough Armchairs
After all that festive food, you and your guests need somewhere comfortable to relax and watch the Queen’s Speech. Or just to take a quick forty winks. This is not a game of musical chairs. Nobody wants to perch on an arm or sit on the floor so make sure you have enough luxury armchairs to go round. What about this fabulously tactile chair in a deep red textured velvet? Even Santa himself would love it (obviously, he doesn’t have time to sit and relax in it but your guests will). For a more understated look, we love the soft, sumptuous feel of these gorgeous nubuck swivel chairs. Christmas red or warm neutral? The choice is yours.
Coffee & Side Tables
Whether it’s champagne, cocktails, aperitifs or digestifs, you will always need somewhere to pop your glass down. Small side tables tuck cleverly in alongside chairs and sofas, while a set of stylish coffee tables slide effortlessly back together when the guests have gone. We’re not suggesting that you clutter up every available space but choose one or two special pieces that are both stylish and practical.
Luxury Lighting
Everything looks better when it’s beautifully lit – especially at Christmas. From the hallway as you welcome guests to your dining room and living room, we have chosen a selection of luxury table lamps, floor lamps and candlesticks to give a combination of a warm glow and soft, flickering light. Enhance every room with beautiful lighting and make your guests feel warm, welcome and at home.
Don’t Forget the Smallest Room
So, now we have everything in place to make our guests feel special when they visit. Or do we? This is no time to let the side down by forgetting the smallest room and leaving your visitors to grapple with a sad, slimy bit of old soap and tired-looking towels. All of us here at Juliettes adore Aesop toiletries. Born in Australia, where they know a thing or two about skin care, their products look and smell divine, adding a little luxury to the littlest room. We’ve chosen their Reverence Hand Care Duo, with its warm, woody fragrance, to combat those winter blues. We are all agreed that you can’t go wrong with soft, white, plump hand towels but if you have a favourite colour that goes with your décor, don’t let us stop you.
Guests for Christmas?
If you have guests staying over Christmas, or any time over the festive period, make sure you check out our guide on How to be the Perfect Host. Your home will be so inviting your guests may never want to leave!
What Are You Waiting For?
We’re busy planning our Christmas décor and we bet you are too. Although all the gorgeous items featured here are in stock, they won’t hang around for long. They are ready for immediate despatch so, if you want something special in time for Christmas, you’d best order now. Last orders Monday 16th December for UK deliveries.
If you need any information or advice about our products, please give us a call or send us an email and we’ll help in any way we can.
