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COMING SOON: Spring Table Center Piece, and Place Settings. Here you'll find Napkin Folding, Table Settings, Place Settings and more*. Here I'm going to show you how you can use the same basic pieces to set and decorate a Fabulous table for all the Holiday's, Season's and Occasions throughout the year. Simple, Elegant, Easy! Here's a Christmas Center Piece that uses items I already own with items I purchased at the .99cent/Dollar stores plus fresh cranberries. You could even make it with the same pieces from the Fall to Thanksgiving center piece below, only with the Christmas embellishments. Items I had at home: gold tablecloth, white & gold table runner, red & gold placemats, napkins and plate chargers, red & gold poinsettia napkin rings. Pair of hurricane lamps and domed cake plate. Items I purchased at the .99cent/Dollar stores: 2-red taper candles, faux evergreen garland, used a small amount for this, use the rest to decorate around the cake plate & hurricanes (not shown) or in an other area of your home. 4 tubes of ornaments, various sizes in red and gold. This is enough ornaments to use 4 in each hurricane** to hold tapers in place (not shown). Bag of fresh (not frozen) cranberries. Total cost before local tax= $9.00 with cranberries. $6.00 without cranberries. Arrange the domed cake plate and hurricane lamps in the center of your table. Put the tapers in the hurricanes and fill the bottom with fresh cranberries (not frozen!) to hold the candles in place. Depending on the temperature in the room, the cranberries may last for several days. You can also use tiny ornaments to fill the bottom of the hurricane to hold the candle up, or you can use 4 small ornaments and arrange them around the candles to hold them up**. Arrange a small ring of faux greenery around the rim of the cake plate, just inside the dome, so you can put the dome on. Arrange various sizes of gold and red ornaments. Simple, Elegant, Easy!
A cute Center Piece that will take you from October through Thanksgiving: To make the Center Piece pictured below I incorporated items I had at home with a few items I picked up at the dollar/99 cent store. Total cost before local tax $7.00. Items I had at home: gold tablecloth, gold & silver plate chargers, gold and fall color stripped place mats and napkins, crystal cake pedestal and 2 crystal candle holders. You can use any type of cake pedestal or none at all and you could use any type of candle holders, matching or not. The trick is to use the things you already own. Mix and match, be creative, try new combinations.** Items I purchased: 3 small pie pumpkins ( to cook and eat after Thanksgiving), 2 leaf garlands/vines (1 yellow, 1 orange), small pumpkin wreath, 2 orange taper candles. Total cost before local tax = $7.00. Arrange the pumpkins in a straight line down the center of your table, place the middle one on a cake pedestal (if you want) with the pumpkin wreath on top, so the pumpkin sits inside the wreath, place candle holders w/ orange (black for Halloween) tapers, on either side of middle pumpkin/cake plate w/ pumpkin, wrap both leaf garlands/vines around all 3 pumpkins, starting at on end and winding around to achieve your desired look. Place face stickers on pumpkins for Halloween and remove in November. After Thanksgiving clean out pumpkins, discard all stringy stuff, clean and roast seeds, store in zip bags. Quarter pumpkins and microwave (like you would any squash) on high in a glass pan with inch of water in the bottom, for @ 8 minutes or until soft. Exact time depends on your microwave and how big the pumpkin is. After the pumpkin is cooked remove skin and mash the flesh. This can be used in all your pumpkin recipes, it does change the texture slightly. MMmmm... Pumpkin muffins and cookies and bread! OR: You can hollow out one of your pumpkins and use it as a Tureen for the Pumpkin Soup you make with the cooked pumpkin.
Below is a gorgeous place setting using a black table cloth, gray and black placemat, a silver charger and a smaller gold or brass charger. Top with a black napkin in a gold ring. You could use the same 2 plate chargers, napkin ring and napkin for both the place settings below. Be CREATIVE!
Start with a napkin ring with a flat edge. Lay it on your plate, plate charger or place setting, as shown. "Fan" fold your napkin, a stiffer napkin works best. Crease the folds with your fingers to help hold them in place. Fold the placemat in half, lining up edges, hold top edges together with a paper clip (your guest will have to remove the paper clip if you use one. They can put the paper clip under the edge of their plate/plate charger). Put the end where it's folded, in the napkin ring and let the napkin fan open to the table. Looks elegant, and it's simple and quick. I like the look of this napkin when it's arranged this way. It makes it more interesting to have the two sides different where they come together. ** When using ornaments or anything around a burning candle make sure candle doesn't burn down far enough to start the ornaments, etc. on fire. **Everytime I change my table setting I try new color, style and texture combinations. If it doesn't look good after I've set it up, I just change it until I get a look I like. *The "Tips" & "Tricks" are excerpts from my cookbook, "Vegan to Shrimp." | ||
Here are a few suggestions to help you create your own Christmas table. Use green, silver, red, gold table cloths, table runners, placemats, napkins and candles. You could use plain gold napkin rings or cute santa rings. Mix and match to create a mood or look to suit your style. Use Red Hot candies** to hold the tapers in place in the hurricane lamps. Don't have hurricane lamps, use a pair of candle sticks, matching or not. You could use chunky pillars on mirrored circles or on different height candle sticks. Use 2 or 3 different candle sticks and holders on either side of the cake plate. Use greenery around the hurricanes and cake plate, bending to form several figures eights, or bend it back and forth to go from one side to the other of the table runner. If you don't have a domed cake plate you could use a pedestal cake plate, a glass or china cake plate or a decorative bowl. Arrange greenery and ornaments accordingly. 
Remember, this is just a stating point for your own Creativity!!!!! Instead of a gold table cloth use a brown, orange or yellow one. Put a coordinating runner under the pumpkins. Use spiders and things for Halloween. Use a scarecrow for Halloween & Thanksgiving. Use Brown, Yellow or Orange candles for Thanksgiving, Black or Orange for Halloween. Use black place mats for Halloween and Brown, Orange, Yellow, Gold for Thanksgiving.
Look for complete instructions and step by step photos in my upcoming cookbook.
Here's a Simple Napkin trick. Instructions are below.
