Christmas Table

The other day Ross came home to a clean house and a beautifully set table. Don’t get your hopes up buddy, I just set the table for blog photos and there is no dinner. Yes, while the children napped I cleaned up and then played around with setting a Christmas table and taking photos of it.

This table is super simple. A table runner (reversible: gold/silver–a.k.a. more bang for my buck) and chargers from Walmart for $1, standard white dishes, green napkins I found on clearance at Target, rummage sale Christmas plates that I adore, dollar store candles and candle holders, a strand of garland and jingle bells. My point is, I created with what I had on hand and none of it was very expensive. It doesn’t take mad skills to drop $100 at Pottery Barn and make a beautiful table, but it does take some creativity and skills to rock the random finds you already have.

My rummage sale plates I adore have all of the reindeer. I just love the way each reindeer’s name is played out in the picture. My favorite and perhaps easiest part of this whole setting, which you could SO incorporate into your own holiday setting are the jingle bell place card holders.

Buy a bag of jingle bells from the craft store, I picked mine up from JoAnn Fabrics for a buck or two. Place the bell upside down and slide the place card into the slit. So festive and so easy and no harm to the jingle bells. You can re-use them for another project, send them home with guests or dump them in a vase as filler.

Obviously if I spent the afternoon decorating the table and snapping pics, I’m going to have to share a few more with you.

That Vixen plate is my favorite! We have hosted Christmas Eve at our house for my family the last couple years. A very small gathering after 4:00 mass. Our dinner’s have included pot roast, Italian, and Mexican. We had this around the world theme going. No idea what is on the agenda for this year. My table preparation are not completely in vain though ;).

Anyone else hosting some sort of Christmas shin-dig? Are you like me and find decorating and setting a pretty table to be so much fun, but would be perfectly okay with serving take out? Or should I be jealous, because you are a ninja in the kitchen?

You can always check out more holiday posts in my holiday project gallery.