Festive Holiday Chair Decorations

As you prepare to dine with family and guests this holiday season, think beyond the table centerpiece. The creative chair decorations shown in the following slides add a festive touch all the way around the table. Choose a new look for your Thanksgiving feast, a Christmas gathering, and the New Year's bash.

This pretty dressing is perfect for a Thanksgiving or Christmas table. It starts with a damask napkin neatly folded and draped over the back of the chair. A coordinating ribbon ties an ornament ball on the back.

Wrap chairs with glittering tinsel for an easy addition that adds festivity to the dining room. Add silver bells and star ornaments or other decorations that can hang from the tinsel.

Take your cue from nature to decorate for Thanksgiving dinner. Use white pumpkins or paint them soft ivory for a sophisticated arrangement. Add gourds, twigs, and pheasant feathers for more fall appeal.

Add more joy to Christmas morning with a chair full of small presents. Decorate a small white gift bag with ornaments, ribbon, and glitter. Place it on the chair or hang it with ribbon from the back of the chair.

Drape dining chairs in simple table runners tied in place with ribbon. Pristine white linens are the perfect complement for brightly wrapped holiday presents.

Turn old mittens or winter gloves into easy back-of-chair vases. Tie one to each chair with ribbon that coordinates with your table decorations, then tuck a fresh flower stem and a sprig of evergreen in the glove opening.

For a variation on table place cards, let each guest know where to sit by marking the chairs with name tags. Write the name on a paper tag and secure it at the back of the chair with ribbon and a sprig of eucalyptus.

Everyone's favorite chair will be the one with the mistletoe, which encourages convivial guests to pucker up. Add a red cushion and some wired ribbon for a charming display of holiday cheer.

Adorn a chair like a gift-wrapped present by wrapping it with a "ribbon" of fabric. Cut two 8-inch-wide lengths of green fabric; turn under the sides and iron flat. Wrap one length around the cushion and secure it with a safety pin. Wrap the other length around the chair frame and secure as needed. Cover the gap with a throw pillow.

Leave room on the table for the holiday feast and move the flower arrangements to the chair backs. To make this wreath that echoes the oval shape of the chair, place lime-green and white chrysanthemums in florist's vials, tuck them into a twig wreath base, and wire on miniature ball ornaments. Secure the wreath to the chair with ribbon crisscrossed on the chair's front and tied to the wreath's four corners.

To keep this chair decoration from overpowering the room, just create wreaths for the chairs at the table ends, then hang small matching bouquets on the side-chair backs.

Celebrate with a dazzling dinner party where even the chairs are dressed in silky fabric. Black top hats double as gift baskets to fill with favors for bringing in the New Year.