making the christmas table look fab

[givemeaclue]

Hi all

in a new house for xmas :o)

its just going to be 5 of us, would like the xmas table to look really nice - its extendable so we can make it quite long - have got plain white tablecloth (looks a bit stark), had some nice runner from john lewis last year which got burned so binned (xmas candle!)

any suggestions for: table cloth, mats (or chargers - have never used those, are they naff?), decorations for the tables etc

pref not over the top expensive, think high st not high end!

thanks x

You could put a new runner or a smaller tablecloth in another colour across the centre of your existing white cloth.

We have chargers, they act as a tablemat, and as they are larger than a dinnerplate catch any spills that might occur from the loaded plate. Not at all naff. Or you could not have a runner and have cloth mats with a heatproof mat on them.

Keep table decs simple. Either one ornament per place, or one main thing in the centre. Plan where your salt and pepper/sauces/wine bottles/serving dishes will go; will you have to remove the decs to fit everything on. This is something sadly neglected in the gorgeous place settings in the Christmas magazines. You could tie a Christmas tree decoration to each napkin, if not having a place dec, and crackers are decorative in their own right.

Keep lighted candles enclosed in a glass hurricane lamp for safety, or consider using battery powered fairy lights. We had our fairy lights across the table along the runner, it looked very effective and safer, as our cat has a habit of jumping on the table! You can also incorporate these fairy lights into a floral arrangement.

I have a dark green damask cover and napkins or white with a white chiffony-and-silver-dots overcloth. I've got a runner and platemats in dark green and red holly pattern.
Have white dinnerset and ivy patterned white and green.
Not decided yet which one for this year.

I love table confetti,(about £1 a bag) but only under the chiffon cloth(otherwise it'll get in my dinner!)
For candles, we use floating candles in a large heavy glass bowl. I put silver star confetti in the water .Its heavy enough to not get jolted, but if anything happened the water would put out the candles.

Little table sweets boxes (got sequinned boxes from QVC)
Crackers
Party poppers

i am having a navy blue table cloth with a smaller white one over the top, silver table runner and charger plates. i have plain white crockery with navy and silver napkins and little light up christmas trees to top the plates off.

those all sound lovely ideas, thanks very much, I'm going to measure the table, check all cloths and napkins and then go shopping!