When I was a kid we always had a formal dinner. I learned how to set a proper table just by having to sit at one every night. I threatened my kids when they were growing up that I was going to send them to etiquette school; there was actually a summer camp at the Plaza Hotel that taught kids how to serve high tea and I seriously considered making them go there. Though they never attended, I always believed it was important for them to know which fork was the salad fork when dining with their boss someday, and what side of the plate the knife goes on when throwing a dinner party.
With the 2008 recession still in my house in 2011, I have a policy: Use what you already have to decorate a table. We tend to go out and buy new decorations every time we entertain, especially during the holidays. But we can get creative. I turn it into a game. What can I do with what I already have?
Here’s the answer. Keep it simple and colorful. The things I end up purchasing every year are seasonal napkins to brighten up the place settings. Flowers either come from the garden if I’m in the country, or I buy them at the local Korean market when I’m in the city. Pumpkins are always a decorative plus because you can eat them later or reuse them; they last 3-4 months as long as you don’t carve them. Seasonal fruit can also be used as a centerpiece that guests can pick at during the meal or after.
This is how I arranged my holiday tables in the past.
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| THANKSGIVING DINNER |
For Thanksgiving Dinner, I had green 1960s Italian handblown wine glasses, which were my mother’s hand-me-downs. They were set on a red and white runner on top of a red tablecloth. The table featured little green and white gourds, a white pumpkin and Macintosh apples in the trifle stand.
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| CHRISTMAS EVE |
On Christmas Eve, instead of a traditional tablecloth, I used black fabric with gold embroidery that my mother brought back from one of her trips to India. I placed mini Christmas lights around the top of the table along with wine bottles, clementines and white tulips as decoration. There were Vignelli wear plates, which were a wedding gift, and Iitalla candlesticks and glasses from Finland. I also cut down plain white index cards to use as name tags at each place setting.
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| FOURTH OF JULY |
Fourth of July was was super minimal. The dining room table was brought outside and covered in simple white linen. There were white plates from Fish’s Eddyand silverware byDansk. The yellow napkins were bought at Ikea and placed on top of the plates in a diamond shape–rather than folded on the sides–for maximum color effect. The classic bistro glasses were an homage to my French grandparents who drank wine out of glasses just like these every day. I also used them as vases for tiny daisies from my garden placed on either side of the centerpiece.
By the way, if I’d known I was going to blog about these table settings one day, I probably would have made them more elaborate. But there’s a lot to be said for doing things organically and letting them be just as they are.
