‘If you have beautiful things, use them – especially at Christmas’

Louisa Preskett Mobbs, 41, is the founder of Maison Margaux, an online tableware shop and rental service. Her other company, Polar Black Events, specialises in luxury branded events.

™Tablescaping can be seen as quite a frivolous concept, but at the heart of it, it’s about gathering people around a table and making them feel special. For me, it’s about love, laughter, thought and care. I can’t wait to get together around the table with my husband, Jeremy, our children, Margaux, five, Harrison, eight, and Charlie, nine, and our extended family. At Christmas, you might sit around that table for at least three hours. Everything on my Christmas table this year is from Maison Margaux, apart from place names by Romeo + Jules (romeoandjules.studio) and two white candlesticks from Toots Creek Antiques in Virginia. My mother is from Virginia, and every time we go I buy something fabulous, like an art-deco punch bowl.

Place settings are so important at Christmas dinner, because it makes people feel thought about. Little flourishes like ours such as the burgundy and gold-leaf dinner plates, L’Objet gilded salt and pepper swans and glass tumblers with glass red berries inside them are perfect additions to the table. At Christmas, you want drama and magic, which is why I love bold, patterned tablecloths. It’s all about layering. I have a rule of three: a placemat, dinner plate and top plate, all stacked as people sit down so the table looks finished. I whisk away the plates just after they’ve sat down.

A great way to style your table is to buy classic pieces but hire trend-led pieces to change things up each time. My mother used to give me a vintage champagne coupe every year at Christmas, which I found very odd, but now I have this wonderfully mismatched collection. If you have beautiful things, use them – especially at Christmas.