‘BRING A SALAD’
New twist on BBQ favourite
To create another traditional setting, pull out the old family cut glass and silver and get your kids to give it a clean.
My professional life as a stylist means that well before the silly season, I’ve usually cooked multiple celebratory feasts and dressed plenty of tables and trees
When Christmas finally does roll around I’m usually at the point where I’d love to tell Santa to sod off .however, as a mum to three kids, I can’t afford to be a grinch.
Creating a table setting to kick off another year of family memories is top of my to-do list at home. I do tend to harp on about Mother Nature’s design finesse, and I use found and foraged, usually cost-free, natural elements in my styling a lot.
With all the spending that comes with the holiday season, anywhere I can save a few bucks for an extra bottle of Champagne is a bonus.
Here’s some seasonal ideas to get you started:
Get outside
Take your Christmas table outdoors. If the weather on December 25 looks good, get your cousins to hoist the dining table out on the lawn or under a tree for a change.
Nana will be super-chuffed if you use her lace-trimmed family table cloth and add simple arrangements of roadside grasses, wild flowers in jars, or quickly forage in the garden for a posie or two to tie the whole look together.
Flowers and wood
Hydrangeas are very versatile. Have them as a cut bouquet in water before Christmas, then take them out and hang them upside down in a cool place to dry. Use one dried stem at each place setting tied with inexpensive hessian tape.
Little handmade cut log cheese boards are easy to make if you have a log or two and know a chap with a chainsaw. They can even be taken home as a memento afterwards.
Embrace the red
For a more traditional scarlet-themed tablescape, a pretty box of wrapped Italian Amaretti biscuits can go a long way.
Place one or two at each place setting and co-ordinate pink and red flowers to match the wonderfully decorated tin.
The joy of little battery-operated seed lights (which are found at most department stores) is they can be placed anywhere, without a cumbersome lead.
I have laid these under a shear table cloth for an ethereal look.
Glass and sparkle
To create another traditional setting, pull out the old family cut glass and silver and get your kids to give it a clean.
A cost-cutting way of adding colour is to buy a metre or so of plaid 100 per cent cotton or linen fabric and tear it into napkin size squares.
Tie cutlery together with a short length of cord and a sprig of scented conifer or a bunch of pine needles.
White on white
Monochromatic white on white with elements of nature is a surefire way of pleasing the Scandinavian design lovers on your guest list.
A few cheap potted flower bed plants placed in white dishes or a beach-foraged seagull feather tucked in a white folded napkin at each setting is all that’s required here.