Christmas has always been my favorite holiday of the year. From the weather and food, to the decorations and home entertainment. From the moment Thanksgiving ends, I cannot wait to bring out all our decorations and sprinkling Christmas throughout our home! In other words, I am a ‘Christmas Freak!”
All joking aside, what I mainly love about Christmas is the time spent with the ones you love around a beautiful dinner table on Christmas Eve. This year, my Mom and I again put our heads together and decided to create a very special dinner table for our annual family Christmas Eve dinner.
It all started with a trip to the World Market, where we found these “Winter Wonderland Holiday Plates.” We fell in love with them because not only were they festive, they also had an old Christmas classic feel to them! We ended up using these plates as a focal point and designing the entire table around them!
After visiting World Market, we ran over to Home Goods and found the holly centerpiece, gold chargers, gold placemats and napkins. We agreed that the main color scheme of the entire table ultimately would be gold, red and white.
Finally, we took a peek into Pier 1 Imports to look for napkin rings. Rather than using conventional rings, my Mom had the brilliant idea to use ornaments instead. We chose gold stars and these little Santa-looking gnomes.
After adding all the final touches to the table, I realized there was just something missing; something that I always have on all my tables! FLOWERS! I used to think that I was limited to the local florist to find cute, decent floral arrangements for the holiday. However, being on a budget, I wanted to make sure that I kept cost in perspective. As an alternative, I took a quick trip to my local grocery store, in this case Stater Bros, to look at their floral pieces. I was overjoyed to find both floral arrangements at Stater Bros and also bought an extra bouquet of white flowers to add to them. VOILA! We also used the same candle tumbler we used for Thanksgiving and just wrapped a large red ribbon around it.
Overall, my Mom and I are very proud and elated over this table and how it turned out. I’m excited to have it be the centerpiece to another one of our annual Christmas Eve family dinners! To be honest though, taking out the napkins, the floral centerpieces, the chargers and everything but the people, our annual Christmas Eve dinner would still be very special and just as beautiful as this table. To quote one of my favorite Christmas books of all time: “What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store…maybe Christmas, perhaps…means a little bit more!” – Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
