Decorated table vs serving dishes of food - what do you do?

[Jessforless]

I know it’s June… 😂

Just looking at Christmas table decorations and really want to go all out, candles, garland down the middle, saw some lovely pictures.

But then what do you do with all the serving dishes? Does yours fit or do you not decorate the table?

I have it decorated, but whip the centre stuff out just before serving to make room.

Our table is not wide enough for both so we prioritise the food and have Christmassy table cloth/ napkins etc and Christmassy serving dishes and decorated the room.

However, we only have a kitchen table. If we had a dining room I think I'd have the food on sideboard for people to help themselves, which is easier than passing everything up and down the table, and then go to town on decorating the table.

I have a fairly big dining kitchen with central table. For events (I don't host Christmas, thankfully 🤣) I go all out decorating the table and put serving dishes down one of the kitchen worktops (having shoved all the usual clutter in a storage box under the stairs)

Same problem, Jess.
I can manage something slim down the middle, and nice table mats and napkins, but I like the food dishes on the table, so really not enough room for anything more.
Dishes on table V dishes in the kitchen - I want them on the table. I would really like something to keep the veg/roasties hot, too.

The serving dishes are the most important thing. We have paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling above the table so they don't interfere.

JaninaDuszejko, I bet that looks lovely.
I have stupidly low ceilings, and a stupidly tall family!

we do have a dining room and could put dishes on the sideboard, but is that a bit of a faff?

Would you prefer to have the dishes there or have a really festive table and have them on a sideboard behind? I’d be happy to be up and down offering seconds etc?

Think I would dress up the sideboard so that I could have the dishes on the table, but either would work.

I plate up for everyone in the kitchen so only need condiments on the table. Means i can go all out decorating the table. There's only 6 of us though so may not be practical for large groups. I had 12 one year and a relative lent me an old style hostess trolley which was brilliant

We have a decorated table but when we sit to eat the decorations are moved to the dresser to give room for the serving dishes

XiCi - sorry, much as I'd like a hostess trolly, Victoria Wood keeps running through my brain!
BaronessEllarawrosaurus - Cheers! That's what I will do! We can eat out in the conservatory on the ricketty, too small table, and leave my dining table alone until we have guests, then I will clear it except for my thin row of vases down the centre. That way I can enjoy looking at it for most of the season.
Wondering how long I can get away with eating at the dodgy table...

I have roast potatoes as a centrepiece...

That's what I thought as well when she suggested I borrow it but it was great. Was quite sorry to see it go back 🤣

I don't like the idea of serving bowls at the table- sitting there with your turkey getting cold whilst Great Uncle Roger hogs the roast potatoes and fuming as you see the cauliflower cheese disappear to the other end of the table 🤣. I think I'm scarred from huge family dinners of yore. I'd much rather have a beautifully decorated table and a plate of hot food put in front of me so I can dive straight in!

I put food on the sideboard - then it’s easier to change between courses and people still have a nicely decorated table. Have a cheeseboard & port that can get passed around at the end of the meal.

Before we downsized, we would put 2 tables together at Christmas to make a large square. I could decorate it in the middle and still have room for all the dishes. I miss those days!

Aree with @XiCi It’s annoying when the dish you want is at the other end of the table and has to get passed around. Someone always ends up with most of the dishes in front of them and it breaks up the meal. If they are on the side board people can get up to get more of the bits they like.

I keep seeing old people around my table. Then I realise it's us...

We put the food on the sideboard. Our table is large and round, and if we put things in the middle it takes forever for everyone to get everything they want. The sideboard is much easier. It is a bonus that then I can have flowers and candles in the middle but the main reason is ease.

It depends on number of guests but food is very very important part of our holiday so anything that is in the middle of the table is placed on table in foyer so meat
can be centered. Side dishes are both on side table and on main table. I change up my dishes/ glasses and napkins every year using items I buy in small sets used from all the typical sources. We have more men than women and they don’t appreciate my table scape so I send the women in early to admire and then help move it aside. My table is decorated from late November until new years with something holiday even if it means refreshing it with new greenery. Love those elaborate table scapes in books but it’s not for real eating (says my menfolk)

I’m watching Nigellas Xmas special episodes and I just love how twinkly and sparkly her kitchen and table are - of course being loaded helps 😄

Tappingthetopfloor, I am lucky (?) as I have a lot of evergreenery that needs cutting back, so I will have jugs of it in the kitchen. and this year I am going to wash some in the bath and put it across the tops of my kitchen cabinets. I will thread some battery lights through for the twinkly.
(That's the idea, anyway. The reality may be a little different, I am not the most visual of people!)

If I'm serving hot food, I have a heated tray thing and an electric bain marie, plus slow cooker to keep things warm.

Knittedfairies2 · Yesterday 16:21
I have roast potatoes as a centrepiece...

I could not be trusted. I'd snatch.

I decorate the table over the Christmas period (our dining room is a walk through to the kitchen and utility so is very visible) but then take off the decorations to make space for the food during dinner.

I keep on the christmassy runner and napkins,and there's a tree in the corner, and there are decorations in the window and on the piano, which is also in there.

I've been tempted to suspend a nice branch over the table and hang baubles from it, but haven't quite got round to trying it.