For some, it might be a bit soon to be talking about Christmas, and for others, it might be acceptable for any time of year! Regardless of people’s opinions on Christmas itself, this time of year is the perfect time to start planning your dining room for Christmas to ensure you have all your furniture and plans in place.
Choose your perfect Christmas dining room table
If you don’t already have the dining table itself for Christmas dinner, it’s important to get this as soon as possible. This is especially important if you are hoping to wow your guests with a true one-of-a-kind, luxury dining table. We recommend placing custom orders before mid-September to ensure they arrive in time for Christmas.
Below are some tips and things to consider when choosing a dining table:
- Ensure there is plenty of room for everyone and that there are options or space for additional seating.
- Consider your current interior style and choose a design that will compliment it, e.g. modern or traditional.
- Find and order chairs at the same time to ensure they go well together – consider comfort as well as style when choosing your chairs.
- Consider different shapes and try to choose one that will complement the room and space available.
Juliette’s Interiors Pro Tip: If you have a lot of sharp angles and ‘square’ items in the room, a circular or oval ended dining table could be a nice way to break this up.
Plan your Christmas table setup
Once you have the perfect dining table, you can now start to plan your Christmas table settings and layout.
Choose a complimentary Christmas colour scheme
The first and most important step when deciding on your table setup and decor is to choose your colour scheme. Perhaps you’re more traditional and want to go with reds, golds and greens.
If you want to keep a more modern look to your table and choose white and silver, or just want to have some fun and decide to go all out, you can even try pink and blue.
If you’re struggling to decide on a Christmas colour scheme this year, try and choose a one that compliments your home’s current colour scheme. Although Christmas decor is only out for a month (or maybe even less for some) you shouldn’t have to deal with clashing colours around your home unless that’s the look you’re going for.
Below are some examples of complementary colours based on existing home colour schemes:
- Neutral Colours – If your home is made up of neutral colours, it’s a good idea to make your Christmas decor follow suit – try choosing more neutral tones such as crystal clear, white, silver, champagne, and gold (in whichever combination you think will go best with your neutral tone). If you’d like to add a pop of colour, icy blue goes perfectly with white/grey tones.
- Darker Colours – If you have used darker colours such as black, navy, or forest green in your home, using gold and/or copper within your Christmas decor would compliment these colours perfectly – you could even mix metals and use gold and silver. If you want a splash of colour within your Christmas decor, rust orange is a great option as it goes perfectly with many rich, dark colours, especially forest green. These colours are also perfect if you did want to go down a more traditional route, as red will pair well with navy and black, or darker wood tones.
- Pastel Colours – If your home is made up of pastel colours (e.g., pastel pink, blue, mint) silver and white will complement them and make your home look like a winter wonderland. If you’re hoping to add another splash of colour, then opt for other pastel colours which will compliment your main interior colour – if your interior is pastel blue, then pastel pink decor will tie perfectly into this.
Once you have your colour scheme decided, you can move on to dressing your table.
Choose your Christmas dining table runner/cloth
The first thing you lay on your dining table is a table runner or cloth. Table runners are a fabric that runs down the centre of your table, and table cloths cover the whole table. We feel table runners are a better option as they don’t hide any of your beautiful dining table.
The most important part of choosing a table runner or cloth is to ensure they’re the right size for your table. To work this out for a runner, measure the width of your table and divide it by three and for a table cloth, measure from the centre of your table outward, then multiply the measurement by two.
Choose your Christmas dining table centrepiece
Once you have dressed your dining room table with a runner or table cloth, you can select the perfect centrepiece.
Often, the perfect centrepiece will depend on the shape and size of your table – if you have a large circular table, then a large centrepiece placed in the centre of it will work well. If you have a longer, rectangular table, then you could either have one centrepiece that isn’t too wide, or you could choose a few centrepieces along the table. It’s completely up to you, just keep the table space in mind and make sure the centrepiece doesn’t get in your guest’s way.
Popular Christmas centrepiece ideas include:
- A vase of baubles
- Mini Christmas trees
- Candles and/or tea lights
- Holly and acorns
- A low-hanging light
- Wreaths and feathers
Choose your place settings
Last, but certainly not least, your guests must have a table setting each. This should include a place mat, plates, napkins, cutlery, and glasses.
Similarly to table runners, place mats could either be the same colour as your interior so that you can use them all year round, or you could opt for your Christmas colour scheme.
Traditionally, place setting should be set up the following way:
- A dinner plate should be on the place mat with a side plate stacked on top followed by a bowl to finish.
- There should be a water glass to the left and a wine glass to the right above the place mat.
- Forks should be laid on the left of the plates, with the one that will be being used last, being the closest to the plate.
- The bread plate should be above the forks.
- Knives should be on the right-hand side and in the same order as the forks, as well as any spoons that aren’t dessert spoons, which should be placed above the plates.
- When placing your napkins, they can be put on top of the plates, or to the side – try getting creative with your napkins and folding them into a Christmassy shape, or invest in some napkin rings to add an extra layer of elegance.
Adding finishing touches
Once the above steps are in place, you can begin adding your finishing touches to truly make your dining room table magical for Christmas and impress your guests!
Once you have selected your centrepiece, you can include complimentary decoration around the table to make it look truly dressed for Christmas (but make sure there’s still plenty of space!). Dot some tea light candles around the table, preferably ones with wintery scents, intertwine fairy lights across the table or scatter some acorns or faux berries around.
Depending on how many guests you have and if you want people sat in a certain place, you can add name cards on top of the stacked plates – try and find place cards that match your colour scheme or have a Christmassy design.
You could also include a small gift for guests, try gift wrapping a small keepsake such as a candle, chocolates, alcohol etc., and add a label with each person’s name to double up as a place card.
Luxury furniture is rarely off the rack
It might feel like you have a tonne of time to organise your dining room for Christmas, however, it will soon come around. Ensure that you’re fully prepared, especially if you need to order new furniture.
