Comfort and conversation

Yip begins with an important premise: Holiday meals are about people, not flower arrangements. So make sure your guests can see each other, without a vase of flowers or tall candles blocking their views.

Stuart suggests filling several small containers (silver cups meant for mint juleps, for example, can be inexpensive, or real silver) with a few roses trimmed very short, and then adding a sprig of pine or holly.

‘‘You scatter those down the table and then add tea lights in the middle,’’ she says, ‘‘and it’s exquisite.’’

Also, says Yip, don’t crowd too many chairs around one table. Adding a second table is better than crushing people together.

‘‘It’s going to make the experience really unpleasant if you don’t give people enough elbow room to be able to pick up a drink or their utensils,’’ he says.

Instead, Yip advises leaving at least 60cm between the centre of one chair and the centre of the next.

Try not to cram too many people around the table. Give everyone room to breathe.

You don’t have to look beyond the grocery store for table decorations.

‘‘Stores and boutiques have beautiful things for the holiday table,’’ Schuneman says, ‘‘but adding that sprig of rosemary to each napkin or a cascade of oranges and pine cones to the centrepiece elevates the whole table.’’

Consider using live plants as a centrepiece rather than cut flowers. Stuart loves tiny boxwood topiaries with little coloured flowers or herbs.

Try arranging three rosemary topiaries on a silver tray, she says, then cluster some holly or pine cuttings along the bottom.

‘‘Not only are they going to smell good but they’re going to last almost a month.’’

Go non-traditional

Don’t worry about tradition, Stuart says. Her design firm is in South Carolina, where it’s warm year-round. So while she loves using holly and pine in her Christmas decorating, sometimes she uses palm fronds from her yard.

She also uses shades of pink and plum, rather than sticking only to red and green. Embrace whatever delights you, she says. Or go beautifully neutral. All three designers say silver and white are great choices.

‘‘I love adding winter sparkle. Whites layered with golds and silvers, gives you such a great backdrop,’’ Schuneman says.

Silver and white can brighten up nights, especially if they’ll be reflecting candlelight. (Candles are a key to creating a beautiful table, says Schuneman: ‘‘Candlelight mixed in glass votives, tall candlesticks and pillars will make any table glow and feel special.’’)

Yip also encourages creative centrepieces: ‘‘Sometimes I’ll ask people to print their favourite photo from their past year. It could be a photo of a breathtaking vacation they went on, or it could be a picture of their kid going back to school, and I’ll frame those photos and kind of have them scattered down the centre of the table.’’

Another creative option is to ask each guest to bring a favourite book they’ve read in the past year. Arrange them on the table as decorations and conversation starters. At the end of the night, each guest can leave the party with a different book than they brought. – AAP