Holiday/Game/Fun Tablesettings

DOUBLE YOUR LUCK



Score big at your next game night with these fun appetizer plates. Use two at each setting to replace a normal-sized plate. Continue the casino and gaming theme with matching geometric napkins. Not all casinos are created equal: Make sure yours is five stars with small votives and reed place mats.

CUPPA SOUP

Spice up your soup with fun, oversized teacups and matching salad plates. Mismatch colors and styles for a cheerful look or set each place with a different pattern. These whimsical oversized mugs and teacups are available at discount retailers and some craft stores. Some ceramic shops sell blank mugs and plates: Paint it yourself and have them fire it for you for a one-of-a-kind design.

PLASTIC PICNIC

"Glass in the grass" is a phrase you want to avoid hearing during summer picnic fun. For a much better guest, invite plastic trays to your next outdoor meal. Durable and easy to clean, they're also inexpensive. Lipped trays help contain silverware and condiments as well as provide a clean, flat surface to rest forks in between bites. Bright colors and festive patterns create a retro-chic feel; find melamine if you want a real blast from the past. Once you have a color scheme, flowers and even grass can be handy setting decorations.

TABLE TALK

Everyone has a few spoons or forks of unknown origin. Celebrate these mismatched mystery pieces at your next fete: Try to give each place setting a different set of silverware. To fill out your own collection, try estate sales, thrift stores, and yard sales; often you can buy large quantities cheaply. Personality counts: The right find can be a real conversation starter. Complement the look with antique and vintage linens, or older cloth napkins. Whether it's sterling or real silver, the easiest way to prevent tarnish is frequent use, so invite your friends for dinner tonight.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

"Yule" love spreading holiday cheer by doing your table up in festive hues. Go for the full range of red and green: crimson, scarlet, sage, evergreen, hunter, and more. For an added touch, slide a candy cane in each napkin ring as a favor, and use large, peppermint-striped candles at the table. Be sure to get unscented candles, as you don't want a scented candle competing with the tasty aromas of the meal. Individual dessert dishes of chocolate kisses complete the look.

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Table Settings 101

For a formal luncheon, the table is set much as for dinner with a few exceptions. The presence of an iced teaspoon and iced beverage glass announce a daytime event. The lack of candlesticks, too, is appropriate for a daylight meal.


Stemware is limited to a water goblet and a wine goblet. Old etiquette books dictated that the flatware should align at the bottom of the handle. Looser customs now allow you to arrange them in a graceful angles.

Tablecloth:Sferra, Gracious Home
Napkin: Private collection
Flatware:Vera Wang, Waterford/Wedgwood
Fish fork, iced teaspoon: Private Collection
Stemware:Waterford
China:Lenox

The primary difference between a formal luncheon and formal dinner setting is the increased number of glasses for red wine and champagne. Notice the glasses are arranged over the knife in the order in which they are to be used: water, white wine, red wine, champagne. Also, the fish fork moves to the left of the plate. Candlesticks may be present on the table since the candles will be lit. The coffee cups and spoons will all be brought to the table after dinner, when coffee is served. Place cards reinforce the fact that this is a well-planned, organized event.



Tablecloth: Sferra, Gracious Home
Napkin: Private collection
Flatware:Vera Wang, Waterford/Wedgwood
Fish fork: Private Collection
Stemware:Waterford/Wedgwood
China:Lenox

When company comes, it's nice to set the table for a proper breakfast. You won't need a salad fork, but if you're serving a hot cereal like oatmeal, you may want a place spoon. You can also put the teaspoon on the table in this instance, since coffee will be served from the beginning of the meal. A juice glass is the only necessary stemware, although you may want to serve ice water, in which case you could add a water goblet.


Flatware:Pottery Barn
Place mat:Pottery Barn
China:Wedgwood
Glass: ESD
Vase: Private collection
Napkin: Private Collection

For a casual lunch, feel free to use heavier dinnerware, like these simple ceramic plates. Provide glasses for whatever beverage you plan to serve. The coffee cup may be set on the table rather than passed after the meal. There are no candlesticks on a lunch table, since you don't use them when you're not lighting the candles, which you wouldn’t be in the daytime.


Table: Myrtle
Place mat:Pottery Barn
Plate and mug:Pottery Barn
Flatware:Pottery Barn
Glasses:Pottery Barn
Napkin: Gracious Home, Find Similar at Table Matters
Salt & pepper:Table Matters
Flower container:Pottery Barn

A casual dinner calls for less formal china and stemware, and stainless steel flatware is fitting for the relaxed setting. Here, the formality of a mahogany dining table is softened with a bamboo place mat. The salad fork is omitted, but dessert flatware does lie in its usual place above the plate. To remember which way these face, imagine them “driving up” from their customary places to the left and the right of the plate, and “parking” in the direction they’re facing.



Placemat: Gracious Home, Find Similar at Amazon
Flatware:Pottery Barn
China: Lesesne, Find Similar at Gracious Home
Candlesticks: Lesesne, Find Similar at Gracious Home
Vase: Lesesne, Find Similar at Gracious Home
Salt & Pepper:Pottery Barn
Glasses:Pottery Barn

When you're serving soup as a main course, perhaps for an intimate dinner by the fire, you can simplify the setting. But simple needn't mean boring, as this non-traditional setting demonstrates. Square china provides a twist on the traditional soup plate, and a wine glass with a square off bowl echoes the geometry of the china. A soup spoon, often called a place spoon in etiquette books, and a salad fork are all that is needed for a meal of soup, salad, and bread, the perfect winter meal.



China:Pottery Barn
Place mat:Gracious Home
Fabric:Lee Jofa
Flatware:Gracious Home
Glass:Pottery Barn
Basket containers:Charlotte Moss
via My Home Ideas

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