Style on Friday
Top tricks to spruce up your festive table
With Christmas three days away, most of the decorating has now been done, but there’s still time to think about your Christmas table. Table styling has become something of an art form in recent years, thanks to bloggers and Instagrammers posting pictures of heavily styled tables overflowing with gold cutlery, cut crystal and the latest plates and linens – not to mention inventive decorations – so there’s plenty of inspiration out there.
The Christmas lunch table is an opportunity for a bit of festive fun and creativity, whether you’re making use of things you already have in the house, bringing foliage in from the garden, or making a dash to the florist. And if you’re really stuck for special tableware, there’s still just about time to do a bit of last-minute shopping…
White and bright
“An atmospheric table that’s full of festive charm” is how Arianna Brissi, co-founder and creative director of Natural look: hang baubles from a branch with foliage collected from the garden homeware company Brissi, describes her ideal dreamy Christmas table.
She suggests using a simple white linen tablecloth and decorating it with flowers intertwined with foliage. “Silvery eucalyptus works best at Christmas, and can be clipped short and mixed with pale-coloured rosebuds from a florist, or silk flowers,” she says.
“For a festive display, use a selection of different shaped jam jars – tall French ones, shorter traditional ones, and standard supermarket ones, the more diverse the better. Slightly grease the outside and roll them in glitter, and if you have any lace tape you can tie some around the top.” She also suggests planting festive flowers such as narcissus and amaryllis in mismatched vintage serving bowls and covering the soil with moss.
Christmas lunch with the Brissis certainly sounds like a stylish affair: “My table will have my parents’ old Burano lace and linen tablecloth and lots of vintage silver,” she says. “A couple of ornate, old silver tea and coffee pots from charity shops with fresh roses will form the floral centrepiece, and twinkly crystal in different shapes and sizes will finish off the look.”
She will also be serving her “signature panettone Christmas tree”. To make it, she cuts the panettone into thick slices and arranges them on a cake stand, layering them up with thick cream and rotating each layer slightly so that the outer points sit at different angles, resembling the shape of a Christmas tree. Then she dusts the lot with icing sugar and scatters over redcurrant cuttings.
“Your festive creativity doesn’t need to end at decorating the table,” Brissi adds. “Be inventive and hang a rustic branch above, adorned with fairy lights and Christmas decorations for an extra touch.” She suggests fixing white cup hooks from a hardware store to the ceiling and suspending the branch from them on nylon thread, ribbon or twine – or, where there are pendant lights over the table, attaching the branch to the shade or flex.
Or, a branch could be suspended from a curtain pole at the window, or against a wall using coat hooks.
Eclectic edge
As director of homeware at William & Son, Lucy Asprey scours the globe for interesting and exquisitely made home products: think crystal cake stands, walnut cheeseboards and chunky cashmere throws. At home, relaxation and fun are key to her Christmas style: “We’re all about creating a jolly atmosphere in our house – nothing too formal,” she says.
This year, she’ll be creating a “forest of light” from candles in different colours and sizes, which she’ll be populating with her collection of “fun Scandinavian Christmas gnomes”. For a similarly eclectic look, raid your decorations box for baubles and tree decorations in varying colours, and arrange them down the centre of the table.
Using colourful tableware is a quick way to add impact to your arrangement. “Coloured glasses always add a luminescent hue to the table, particularly with the added glow of the candlelight,” says Asprey. “For a last-minute trick, I think mini poinsettias for each table setting are a fun and individual floral touch. Mix in candles and some lovely Christmas napkins tied up with a ribbon and a sprig of holly and you’re sure to have a beautiful table fit for a feast.”
John Lewis’s Chateau glasses come in three colours that can be mixed and matched, and the store also sells LSA glassware in pretty pastel tones.
The natural touch
Geraldine James, home buying manager at Selfridges, favours a simple, natural look, and suggests using a plain, natural linen tablecloth with lengths of eucalyptus, fern and pine foliage draped down the centre, and white pillar candles or coloured dinner candles.
Other easy decorative flourishes that tie in with this natural, rustic look include sprigs of fir from the Christmas tree, either arranged in jam jars or scattered on the table; bowls filled with pine cones (gilded or scattered with fake snow, if you have the time); and small containers filled with nuts placed at each table setting.
“If you’re really short on time and need something quick and effective, then our table wreaths from The Real Flower Company make beautiful show-stopping centrepieces,” adds James. And there’s just enough time to get hold of one from Selfridges.