Christmas Table Decorating Ideas for the Holidays

For your Christmas table this year, make it your most beautiful ever, for a fabulous Christmas dinner party. Whether you are hosting an elegant Christmas Eve meal or a jolly family brunch, here are some of the best holiday table decorating ideas.

Themes and Colour Schemes

Before you start, have an idea about the look you are going for, so everything on your Christmas table looks intentional and unified. Here are some popular modern looks; these have maximum impact if you use the theme around the entire dining room.

Go Gold

If you are looking for a more sophisticated feel, a minimalist table in white, with white flowers and minimal Christmas holiday table decorations fits the bill. Add just a few gold ornaments, strategically placed, to go with gold flatware. This creates overall golden tones for a festive, but elegant and understated impression.

Icy Blues

Blue may not seem a typical colour for Christmas table decorations, but icy blue tones, with a few bolder blue choices, combined with whites and silvers can make your dining room table into a winter wonderland. Metallic or clear blue trees or ornaments, paired with silver candlesticks and flatware bring the feel of the holiday season in a memorable way.

For the Kids

For a family-friendly dining table or a kids' dinner table, rustic and traditional is the way to go. Classic red and green are perfect. A cute little animal figurine on each table setting brings a bit of cheer, or you could make mini trees from birch branches, or mini wreaths from beads. A classic candy cane at each table setting is always appreciated by the little ones!

Festive Christmas Brunch Table

Relaxed and fun is a great choice for a Christmas brunch. Use a bright table runner over a simpler linen tablecloth, or plaid blankets instead of a tablecloth. A simple centrepiece of fruit, pine cones, berries and greenery in a basket is all you need for a more casual brunch. Christmas crackers, home made or bought, add fun and more colour.

Dining Room Table Centrepieces

Whatever your overall theme, an eye-catching centrepiece is critical.

Christmas Table Decorations

You can make your own ornament trees. Wrap a Styrofoam cone with aluminum foil, then hot glue small ornaments onto the cone. This is perfect for customizing to the colours of your table. A variety of shapes and sizes of the ornaments add interest and depth to the ornament tree. Alternatively, reuse your old, vintage light bulbs instead of throwing them away.

Create a mandarin orange tower, with curly kale. Pin the kale and oranges onto a styrofoam cone with toothpicks. The smaller mandarins work best.

Make snowglobe-like scenes, with mason jars or candle holders filled with faux snow, miniature trees, and animals. Clear, larger candle holders work best; using a range of sizes makes a great effect.

Hot glue white baker's twine around a light bulb to create pears for your Christmas table decorations. You can use different colours and adjust how you wrap for different textures and effects. Arrange the pears with greenery in a natural basket.

Fairy lights along the Christmas table bring a beautiful glow, and are especially perfect for a Christmas Eve dinner.

Classic Christmas Table Decorations

You can create beautiful Christmas vases for floral arrangements that are perfect for centrepieces. The flowers go in a thin vase within a larger, clear vase. Fill the space between the inner container and the outer vase with marbles or beads, matching your colour scheme.

Tall candlesticks with a little fresh greenery and miniature wrapped gifts, in your table colour scheme, work well. This can be arranged to suit any length or shape of table.

Simple but always effective are evergreen branches running along the length of the Christmas table. Trimmed sprigs shaped artfully into patterns, with different spruce and cedar sprigs, and red berries are classic and excellent for a minimalist table. Fuller cedar boughs, with oranges or red pomegranates, walnuts, and brass candlesticks and ornaments are perfect for a rustic Christmas table setting.

Holiday Table Setting Ideas

Your Christmas table settings can look upscale with fancy napkin folding and festive napkin rings. A novelty at each Christmas table setting adds a bit of fun.

Napkin Folds

With a little folding, you can turn your napkin into a feature at each table setting. Christmas tree napkin, or star, with varying styles and difficulty. An origami inspired napkin will fit with any Christmas table decorations and table scheme and elevate the overall look.

Napkin Rings

Simply gluing holly leaves onto a more basic napkin ring instantly elevates it and brings a little more holiday cheer to your table setting. You can also glue twine around a paper towel roller or similar item, and use it to hold your colourful rolled napkins.

Holiday Party Table Decorations for Plate Settings

Fill salt or pepper shakers with mini bottle brush trees or miniature animal decorations, and place on each plate for the Christmas table settings.

For the simplest way to spruce up each plate, lay red jingle bells on the plate, with a couple of small cedar sprigs, tied with a ribbon. If you would prefer not to use natural greenery on the plates, you can make some with green craft paper and a green colored pencil to highlight the texture.

Chairs

Don't forget the dining room chairs. Simply tying a ribbon around the back, attaching cushions, or draping them in a stretchy fabric cover, takes your decorating from just the table to the entire room.

You can also use a wreath hanger to hang wreaths on the backs of the chairs.

Need to Upgrade Your Dining Room Furnishings?

If you need to update your dining table and chairs, Smitty's Fine Furnishings has a range of premium dining furniture to suit every taste. We hope you enjoyed these holiday table decor ideas, and enjoy hosting this holiday season!