Colour and light add easy flair
All white: Maybe it’s the early snow, but I am smitten by the idea of an all- white table setting for the holidays. I am pulling out my basic white dinnerware and getting out the vintage white linen napkins and tablecloths. If I don’t feel like all that ironing, I might line the dining table with 11- inch by 17- inch sheets of white printer paper. I’ll do miniature centrepieces of inexpensive white carnations cut short and tightly packed into low ball glasses ( filled with fresh cranberries for a splash of colour, maybe) and line them up along the middle of the table.
Each place will be adorned with a white- dipped pine cone collected from the park or bought by the bag from the Christmas tree seller. To do this, get started several days in advance — that will leave time for the painted cones to dry completely. To whitewash pine cones, dip them one at a time into a small can of white latex paint. ( I used leftovers from the basement, but you can buy one of those 465 mL colour- sample cans from Benjamin Moore.) Use a pair of dollar- store tongs to dip the pine cones in and out of the paint, holding them over the can for a minute or so to let the excess paint drip away. Then lay them in a single row on a sheet of plastic to dry.)
Go green: Christmas doesn’t have to be white. Set an evergreen table with linens and dinnerware in shades of green. Then fill small glass or porcelain bowls with moss, limes and green- glass Christmas ornaments and cedar sprigs as centrepieces.
Be fruitful: It’s no wonder the Old Masters spent all that time painting platters of fruit; they are beautiful. Use pomegranates, kakis, apples or clementines to create an edible arrangement in a bowl or basket. Soften the colours with greenery and the burnished browns of walnuts, hazelnuts or chestnuts.
Cheap doesn’t have to mean
tacky: Carnations are the most inexpensive and readily available of flowers. You can buy a large pack of them at the grocery store for under $ 10. They might seem kind of cliché, but white or red carnations cut short and bundled tightly together actually look bold and modern. Contain them in short square or cylindrical glass vases, filled with fresh cranberries, or even kumquats or miniature silver Christmas balls.
Go wild: For a rustic theme, ditch the tablecloth altogether and line the table with a length of burlap ( from a roll purchased at the hardware store for wrapping trees and shrubs for winter).
Roll up napkins with a cinnamon stick or two and a sprig of cedar, tied with jute twine. Then scatter pine cones along the middle of the table.
To make woodsy place- card holders, use garden pruners to cut evergreen branches from the tree- seller’s into two- inch lengths. Then use a utility knife to cut a slit into one side, where the place card will go. Decorate with a mini- sprig of spruce.
Make luminaria with smallsize brown- paper bags from
the fruit- seller: Use a one- hole punch to make holes all over the bags while they are still folded. Open them up and place a Mason jar in each one, then insert a tea light. Set the luminaria in a row on the mantel, or on a buffet. Be sure not to leave the lit candles unattended.
Be jarring: I set a trio of empty jam jars ( I have a fondness for those simple, pretty Bonne Maman jars from France) on a vintage silver tray that I picked up at a thrift shop. Before I dropped in the tea lights I filled the bottom of each jar with an inch or so of coarse salt. Then I decorated the tray with evergreen sprigs.