I never really wanted to grow up if doing so meant that I couldn’t play anymore. Once I realized that you’re never too old to have a good time, I made it my mission to work in fun to everything I could. Creating Christmas character table settings is an example. My friend Patti joined me and we threw open the cupboards and drawers to see what we could deploy on the tabletop. You will note that we didn’t confine ourselves to actual Christmas dishes and accoutrements. Anything was fair game! We found that the more we played, the more ideas we had.
Stay traditional with both colors and themes, or go entirely off the reservation as Patti B. did when she created the wild table lady above! Enamored with the leafy placemat looking like an avant garde dress, Patti fashioned a totally wild Chiquita that is a great addition to our Christmas character table settings collection. Two white plates form the base. Double napkins (one fuchsia, one blue) provide a backdrop for the vintage majolica white asparagus plate. A Christmas cracker rests at the neck. Fuchsia and white polka dot flatware mimic arms. Pretzel pieces make a face. The blue fuzzy thing on the top is a cute little lamb. The cup and glass on either side of the shoulder remind me of shoulder pads!
Back to a traditional Christmas look here with a red and white Santa. The vertical placement of the red placemat frames the two plates. Two selfie props (the beard and the glasses) help create the character. We used chocolates for the eyes, pretzel shards for the eyebrows, and a slice of carrot shaped into an upside down triangle as the nose. Our cocktail napkin happened to have a Santa cap as part of the design. (I should have pulled it up a bit so the white fur on the brim would show better.) A napkin folded vertically creates his costume. I left the bite-sized chocolate bars wrapped and turned them upside down to use as buttons. The wrappers keep them from making a mess. Add the flatware arms and we’re done!
Chocolate bar earrings? Why not! Pretzel piece face. Cracker “bow tie” and napkin hat on our snowman. For a twist, we placed a coaster in the middle of the thinly folded vertical napkin. That was QUICK!
Don’t think that creating Christmas character table settings will need to take hours. They come together in a flash once you begin. Make a mental inventory of the raw materials you have to work with and start imagining what you can create with them!
Leave a Reply