Yes, indeed, I do have Christmas dishes. When you’ve been “collecting” dishes since 6th grade, as I have, you have a bit of everything. The challenge is to avoid getting tired of them after years and years of use. I love to set a Christmas table throughout the month of December, not just on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. One of the things that helps avoid dish fatigue is to vary how you use them or what you use them with.
In the picture above, I pulled out my stemmed Christmas tree goblet and a vintage green glass. Goldware, red placemat, green napkin, lace tablecloth. Looks good.
With this variation, I ditched the placemat, chose a different bowl, so as to not be so matchy-matchy, used red handled flatware, a darker green napkin, and a red stone napkin ring. I think I would have liked it better with a placemat of some kind. Dishes seem to just swim in a big sea of tablecloth if not tightened up with a placemat.
I tried something different here and truly hated it. I used little sweater ornaments to stuff the napkin and the flatware into. The problem is that the plate and bowl then looked naked and lonely. The calla lily placed beside them didn’t help. The red in the sweaters was a tad too dark to go with the plate and bowl. And that plain, ugly wine glass? Horrors!
When you experiment at home with your tablescapes, I urge you to take pictures (whether with your cellphone camera or whatever), then study them with a critical eye. Details that weren’t apparent in person will leap out at you from the photographic images, helping you see exactly what you want to tweak. My favorite? The first one on the page.
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