The Making of My Christmas Tabletops – part 1 | DIY

As I told you earlier, I designed two tablescapes for Christmas. The first one was for our Christmas Eve party (réveillon) and the other was for our Christmas dinner.

Each year, we celebrated at the ski cottage. My mother in law has a white Christmas dinnerware set with a holly rim. So I need to consider that fact as I devised my themes.

I reused the beige table cloth from last year. For a more festive look, I put a burgundy patterned voile textile on top. You usually need to make your own. Here a trick if you are short on time. Simply visit the already made curtain section of a fabric or home decoration store and select a tab top curtain panel. You cut the tabs and no one will know that it was a curtain.

My centerpiece vignette

The inspiration for my centerpiece was these cute squirrel acrylic ornaments by FERM Living. The blue acrylic box was recycled from a Davidoff’s Cool Water gift box that I bought for my husband last year. I kept it because I knew it can be handy for a DIY project.

The supplies for my do-it-yourself centerpiece

• 1 light blue acrylic rectangular box – about 2 inches high
• 1 box of Acrylic Ornaments by FERM Living
• 1 bag of soft gray decorative sand FLORERA at IKEA
• 1 bag of red decorative sand FLORERA at IKEA
• 1/2 bag of snowflakes
• 4 artificial trees – 2 small covered in snow and 2 medium (large would have been best)
• 1 tall white pillar candle inside a birch stump cachepot
• 2 silver deer candle holders ($20 each at Benix)
• Gold bauble place cards – bought at Zone Maison last year ($10 for 6 baubles)

Instructions

I first covered the acrylic box with the sand; red at the bottom, gray at the top. Then, I positioned the couples of squirrels, a small tree in one corner and simulate a fence with two pink baroque motif acrylic ornaments. I carefully dropped snowflakes all over. Voilà! I am quite happy by my simple vignette.

I was supposed to buy 3 sizes of trees. The huge snowfalls and my TV interview broke my schedule. I only found those trees. But afterwards, I prefer the color mix of the green trees next to snow covered trees even if it does not look like a realistic scene. With the size of the deer, I did not go for realism anyway.

Since we usually assign places at the last minute, I put a satin ribbon instead of the name tags. Merry Christmas handmade tags would have been nice too.

I made a breach with table manners by using paper napkins instead of linens. But the patterns of those napkins complement so well my theme that I got to use them. The beautiful red and white print reminded me of a knitted quilt. The print highlights the key elements of my décor.

And you can see my cute Christmas dress on the background while I gave instructions drinking a glass of red wine during the apéro.

A must in the French culture, an apéro happens before dinner. It lasts between 60 to 90 minutes. An apéro is a time where you relax before a huge meal, mingle, sip an aperitif and eat finger foods, canapés, chips, nuts or olives. My mother in law cooked us a delicious meal. We had a great time.

Sourcing:
Learn more: Acrylic ornaments by FERM Living – price: $27 for a box of 12 ornaments
Learn more: Clever Spaces, the blog of FERM Living