Setting a Holiday Table

20+ Ideas for Linens, Dishes, and Centerpieces

Thoughts on Furniture, Dishes, and Centerpieces when Setting the Holiday Table

A beautifully set table doesn’t have to be all matching dishes, a flower shop centerpiece, and pristine white linens. Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, and Christmas are our holidays for and with our family, friends, and style. Holidays are about enjoying life and being thankful for our time together. Let’s add those sentiments to setting a holiday table. So, let’s go into the components of Setting a Holiday Table.

Furniture – Table, Chairs, and Sideboards

• How many tables do you need? Memories of the children’s table just came flooding in for me. Or could they sit at the kitchen bar? 
• Chairs – if you need more, call to see if anyone has folding chairs. Or ask neighbors if they are going elsewhere to borrow theirs. Or does your church have some you can use? You may need to rent some from. It is better to think of this before that day, speaking from experience.
• A buffet, sideboard, or card table will help serve food. The kitchen counter works as a buffet. These pieces also allow us to set serving pieces to determine if we have enough. 
• We’ve quickly figured out tables, seating, and our buffet. If you need more help, see the Let’s Gather Together Dining Room blog. Now, let’s style the table settings. 

Components for Setting the Holiday Table

Tablecloth, table runner, napkins

Set your table with tablecloths, table runners, wooden placemats, and cloth napkins (or the beautifully heavy paper napkins) to fit your style and love – use whatever makes you feel good. Remember, this is your time to shine and show your personality.

• One idea is to put the tablecloth where the kiddos eat, then a coordinating table runner on the grown-ups’ table. 
• Burlap is beautiful for both a rustic tablecloth and a runner. I purchased it at the garden center (a very inexpensive roll) and ran it down my table. Depending on the width of the burlap roll width, you can run it down the table twice if needed.
• Table runners don’t only have to go down the middle of a long table. They can also cross the shorter side of the table under people’s dishes, with two or three runners on a table.
• A kid-friendly brown craft paper tablecloth allows the kids to draw on it before, during, or after dinner. Then, you can roll it up and recycle it. One friend had her children draw ‘hand’ turkeys on the craft paper. (Remember drawing around your hands in school and then coloring the fingers as if they were the turkey’s feather and your thumb was its head and neck?) Then, her guests wrote what they were grateful for on the paper. Afterward, she had the paper laminated to use in the coming years.
• Maybe you don’t have linens or a table runner – grab a fall scarf/shawl from your closet and use that.
• Or purchase a package of kitchen towels; these are generous in size, and use them as placemats. If they are extra long, place them so the long edge spills over the side of the table, almost like an extra napkin. 

Dishes, Silverware, Glasses

Our next component is the dishes, glassware, and silverware. Now, I will only say you must have delicate porcelain dishes if that is what you like. Use hand-thrown pottery if it calls to you.

• Mixing and matching dishes is the norm for significant holidays – pick a color theme and spread the color throughout each place setting.
• The other idea is to have your essential dishes white, cream, or solid color dishes. Then, you can borrow different sets in that color from others to set your table.
• The same goes for water/wine glasses, coffee cups, and silverware. If you don’t have enough wine glasses, reach out to borrow from others. Or purchase some now. Now, you will see sales on nice glassware through New Year’s Eve. I’ll say again: everything doesn’t need to match.
• The key is not to fret about dishes. Use heavy-duty paper plates and silver-colored plastic utensils. One year, we did this, and no one said a word about it. Now, they talk about how I couldn’t find serving pieces, and the meal was served in assorted mixing bowls. LOL!
• The key is you are getting together with friends and family.

Serving dishes

You may find you need more of them. Having a few bowls has happened to me a time or two, mostly during one of our moves (the last three relocations have happened around Thanksgiving, but I am still hosting) or when I was starting to set up my home. Also, Thanksgiving-specific ones are needed – large platters, gravy pitchers, olive trays, etc. So here are a few ideas on serving pieces.

• Purchase Thanksgiving serving pieces in your chosen dish color; then, you can pull them out and use them all year round for different things. I’m talking about the Turkey platter that also works as a charcuterie board for New Year’s and summer’s bar-be-que. 
• Borrow, if your mother is coming, ask if she can bring Grandma’s gravy pitcher. Or a friend who loves dishes may have a great dish to serve: canned cranberry jelly. These traditions bring memories to the table.
• If you have family silver, please pull it out and use it; your family will be smiling down from heaven, enjoying your table, too.
• *As a side note, these dishes do not need to be hidden away for the rest of the year. They can be in the dining room on top of the cabinet with other treasures as a vignette. The soup tureen can be a seasonal centerpiece on the buffet with colorful Easter eggs, blue hydrangeas, apples, or gourds.  

Centerpiece/decorations for setting a holiday table

Now, onto table decorations. Your table only needs a grand floral centerpiece if you enjoy it. I love to have flowers on my table at any time, especially from my garden. But a centerpiece isn’t just flowers; a bowl of pomegranates, gourds, or candles is always lovely. Other ideas include:

• If you have all the food going down the center of the table – make sure there are beautiful hot pads to protect your table and add interest. Use some cake plates to vary the height of the food on the table. Then, just set a few gourds among the dishes and pieces of wheat tucked into the napkins on the plates.
• The traditional Thanksgiving setting would be linen tablecloth, monogrammed runner and napkins, china & crystal dishes with silver or brass candlesticks. A cornucopia with fruit and nuts sits in the center of the table.
• Rustic or Farmhouse with cotton or lay down a burlap table runner, then place pumpkins, gourds, and candles on it. Then, add pinecones, nuts, and rosehips (berries). Then, use bone-colored or hand-thrown pottery dishes.

Putting it all together 

Your table should be a joy to set, not a nightmare. Setting a holiday table can be extravagant for one year, then playful the next, and the following year the food may be the star. Please remember to have some fun and enjoy the day. I have pinned a few ideas on my Pinterest board if you want to visit it here.

I want to add some vintage fun when setting my holiday table – turkey-shaped salt & pepper shakers. Yes, the kind of tacky, odd-colored ones you may find at a flea market. I am particular about their color – a tinted color-washed background, not full-on vivid colors. I haven’t found a set yet, so I may need to broaden my search to Pilgrims. These shakers would add a little humor or a smirk when people see them on my table with my passed-down silver and crystal dishes. I do need to say this ‘hunt’ for shakers has been fun. I share it with others as we shop at antique stores and flea markets. We get a chuckle at all the kinds of salt and pepper shakers. We have many other holidays – I may branch out, but for now, it is the excellent Turkey-Salt-and-Pepper-Shaker-Search – wink.