When I was first married I had a lovely set of rare antique ruby red dishes. Each Christmas I lovingly set a beautiful table with my dishes. I was so proud of my efforts! Then, I had children and cats. Let’s just say rare expensive dishes don’t hold up against children and cats. The remainder of the set is safely stored in my china cabinet and I’ve switched to a more laid back Christmas Tablescape. If you want to decorate, but you’re on a budget and don’t have the time to create fancy displays, try these Easy Christmas Tablescape ideas.
This is a partnered post with Oriental Trading. All opinions are my own.
Easy Christmas Tablescape Ideas
Start with the basics.
I have a set of white dishes that I use for our everyday meals. They’re versatile and can be quickly dressed up to make tablescapes for any holiday. The same goes for my white linen napkins. I keep them to use for all my tablescapes. While I use paper napkins for children’s parties, a simple linen napkin really seems to elevate the table. I also search through my favorite thrift stores whenever I am in the area for tablecloths to use. I found this red tablecloth for a couple of dollars and knew it would be perfect for Christmas and the 4th of July. I also like accessories like my glass jar sets that can be used for holidays, parties, and every day. I use these year round. I call these my investment pieces!
How to Create the Tablescape
I began by using a red linen tablecloth. I added a Red and White Table Runner along the center of the table. For place settings, I used green and red chargers which I picked up at an after holiday sale. It’s fine to mix and match colors! I placed my every day white dinner plates on top of the charger. Our family also has special “Christmas plates.” The kids have always been thrilled with having their own special dishes for Christmas, but the secret is they are plastic. I originally purchased them so the kids wouldn’t break my other china and told them they were special dishes. I added our plastic Christmas plates to the top of the white plates to create a festive seasonal look.
I used Gingerbread Ornaments for napkin holders. These can easily have a name written on the ornament with a sharpie and be used as place cards too. They’re a cute gift for guests to take home after dinner. To complete the look, I used paper snowflakes in white and gold to place under my glasses as coasters.
How to Create The Centerpiece
The centerpiece was a breeze to make! I started in the center of the table with six glass apothecary jars in different sizes. I placed frosted sisal trees in each jar. After I positioned the trees where I wanted them in the jar, I filled around the tree with Epsom salt. Tip: It’s easier to fill the jar with the amount of salt you want if you place the jar on a piece of newspaper first. There’s less mess to clean if you spill the salt! Once the jars were arranged on my table runner, I added a Vintage Christmas Table Topper on each end of the table. I felt like the centerpiece still needed a little something, so I added two glass Christmas trees I had inherited over the years. I placed one tree on either side of the apothecary jars.
The tablescape came together in twenty minutes. Although I am sure it would have been less time if I had gathered all my supplies together in advance.
How do you decorate for the holidays? What are your design secrets to create quick and easy tablescapes and decor?
This looks great! I am a new contributor on Oriental Trading company I found you there. Can’t wait to check out the whole blog.
This is fun and festive. Definitely gets me in the holiday spirit.
The truck is absolutely adorable. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the paper plate idea. There is no sense in dealign with a ton of dishes at the end!
Such great ideas for Christmas! I am so excited for this season – I have a couple of events planned in my home and I can’t wait to decorate, especially t he table! It’s so fun this time of year!
This is such a cute tablescape! I love the old-timey plates. I go crazy decorating for Christmas. I am actually dying to start pulling out the decor, lol. But we have a rule, we have to wait until the day after Thanksgiving.
Oh my goodness, that is SO cute! Seriously darling, and I love all the fun colors and accents you have-so Christmas-y!
You are so creative! My kids are already asking me to start with the decorations!
I usually do the decorate the house section by section with the tablescape as one of the last few things. I think these are all awesome ideas!
I appreciate all of these tips that you have here! It’s really nice to start with the basics and build things up from there. The tablescape is so much fun for me to work on!
What a pretty tablescape. It is so colorful and festive. I love those jars with the “trees and snow” inside! The Christmas plates look so cute too.
I love these ideas! I always like to add extra fun to our tablescape for the holidays! I will definitely try these!
I love the holiday plates with Santa playing the drums! This is such a cute idea for a Christmas tablescape.
Those plates are super cute. I generally use my china and a cloth holiday tablecloth that we were gifted. There’s not much room on the table for anything else.
I love how you layered the cloths. The plain then designed layers was a brilliant idea and added a lot!
I can’t believe we are already thinking about Christmas. I’m currently focused on creating a beautiful Thanksgiving table…will definitely pin this for later!
I am always looking for new ways to decorate for Christmas. I love the apothecary jars with the trees. So cute!
Your table looks fabulous! These ideas are simple and even I can use some of them. I need to find my holiday decorations box and get to decorating!
I love your table set up! I wish I could do this with mine, but we use ours for all of our baking goods! The door can close… which means the dog can be kept out LOL.
I just started to plan my Christmas tablescape. These are great ideas. I have to go shopping this weekend for a few pieces.
That is such a pretty table setting. I could use a new Christmas themed center piece. Thanks for the great idea!!
Oh my goodness I am loving this it is such a pretty looking tablescape, I could see this on my Christmas table.
I love all these ideas. We are hosting Christmas eve at our house and I just realized I’d need to decorate the table.
I really like how you used those trees for your centerpieces. All of the little decorations make the tablescape so pretty!
I love to decorate my table for the holidays. I love your trees in the glass vases/jars. When I’m going quick, I usually grab flowers, pine cones, and ribbon. I call it my 5 minute tablescape
These are really great and easy tablescape ideas for Christmas. I love the idea of decorating for the holiday season. I forget it’s so close!
We have a set of holiday dishes that we like to break out for Christmas breakfast with our extended family. I don’t usually do much with the table, but this post is inspiring me to spruce it up some this year.
Your table look so pretty! I’m terrible at setting a tablescape, but you make it seem easy!
Since I usually host the family Thanksgiving dinner, it’s my time to showcase my tablescape and I go all out with Harvest themed items and break out the “good” dishes for our family and friends.
You did a beautiful making this tablescape for Christmas. Goes to show don’t have to have expensive or antique dishes to set a great looking table.
I love going all out on Christmas. It’s a lot of fun to see all the decorations even if Christmas only lasts a little while it’s a magical time and I love how Christmas makes me feel.
This is such a super cute set up! I love all the traditional Christmas feels you’ve got going on here. It makes me want to watch Rudolph.
I love this SO much! I see so many Christmas tablescapes that are overdone, in my opinion. Sure the gilded everything is nice, but I really love a Christmas feel that’s old fashioned.
Wow, your table setting looks really festive and perfect for the holidays. I love your tip to use plastic so the kids won’t break anything more valuable.
That drumming Santa plate is so cool! I really like your holiday style!
I go all out for the holidays when it comes to setting the table. I also have a kids’ table that includes crafts and more. I love all of your Christmas tablescape ideas.
I just love your table! I really should do more with mine. It’s just, my cats keep jumping on it and knocking things over. Ugh. But I might try to make my table nice this year.