Fabulous Ideas for Christmas Tables

Entwine classic holiday greens with cranberry and wood bead garlands for an extra-festive Christmas table. Keep your Christmas dinnerware simple and elegant and let the centerpiece shine.

Create a winter wonderland on your Christmas table. DIY trees made from paper and papier-mâché cones wrapped in tinsel set the scene, while Epsom salt “snow,” twinkle string, and miniature woodland creatures take it to the next level.

Give pine and evergreen branches a break and incorporate magnolia leaves into your Christmas table decorations. Clementines and cinnamon sticks add fragrance and classic charm.

Metallic gold accents and full red poinsettias incorporated throughout these Christmas table decorations shine with traditional Christmas style. Keep the tablecloth and dinnerware simple to allow the bright accents to shine.

Turn crafts store basics into a chic modern wreath. Add a little silver leafing to geometric wood beads, and glue the shimmering baubles to a wreath form. With the addition of pillar candles and a few greenery sprigs, your Christmas centerpiece is complete.

Dress up plain clear glass votives to match gold plate chargers in these holiday place settings. Simply brush glue onto the bottom half of the outside. Sprinkle the wet glue with gold glitter and let dry. Cut poinsettia bracts from the plant and dab away any sap. Burn the ends of the stems to make them last longer in the glasses (usually 2 to 3 days).

Learn how to use poinsettias as cut flowers.

Create an easy poinsettia Christmas centerpiece in an urn. Place small, potted poinsettias into the urn still in their pots—that will make them last all season. Tuck silver sage leaves around the edges of the display, and add branches of red berries. Turn up the Christmas table glam by tucking in small gold ornaments.

Make your own paper poinsettias for your holiday place settings with a simple sequence of folding, layering, and cutting. Wrap the wire stem around a rolled napkin for a colorful napkin ring. Or, use a faux poinsettia flower and a wire for a similar effect.

Break out your Mason jars and put them to use as charming Christmas table decorations. Fill them with paperwhites, add a few sparkly woodland creatures, and tuck in a few branches, and your Christmas centerpiece for a rustic table is complete.

Create a Christmas table setting that echoes the unfinished woods and warm tones of a cozy log cabin. Traditional reds and greens are easy to come by with fresh evergreens, red ribbons, and red pillar candles. For a homespun Christmas centerpiece, fill unconventional containers, such as this old wooden toolbox, with florists foam to hold casually mixed greens, candles of alternating heights, and a garland of beads or cranberries.

Personalize your holiday table place settings with name cards. To make this simple holiday table decoration, nestle a small burlap-wrapped tree inside a red pail and garnish it with pinecones and tiny ornaments. Print name tags and spray-glue them to small squares of craft wood.

Fashion no-sew napkin rings for your Christmas table by gluing together the short ends of a frayed strip of burlap. Tie a single thread of burlap through the holes in a button, then glue the button in place. This simple decoration can be customized to match the colors of Christmas dinnerware, too.

When setting your Christmas table, don’t forget the chairs. This is an easy Christmas decoration to make in a pinch. Dress up everyday chairs with red cushions, wired ribbon, sprigs of mistletoe, and shiny ornaments.

A table blanketed in white lends sophistication and a sense of occasion to any holiday gathering. Get the look by using clear glass and metallic elements against a backdrop of white table linens and Christmas dinnerware. An artificial tree spray-painted white, flocked with spray snow, and potted in a galvanized pail makes a modern centerpiece for this Christmas table. Lights and star ornaments hung on the tree add another layer of sparkle.

Impressive holiday table setting can be done on a dime. Stretch your holiday budget by setting the table with inexpensive solid-white plates, with more decorative salad or dessert plates set on top where they show most. Set out old-fashioned rock candy sticks to use as coffee stirrers.

Flickering votive candles are staples of Christmas table decorations, but they don't have to be plain. Dress up painted terra-cotta pots by coating them in glittering "snow," and add wax snow (made by whipping melted wax) to top off the candles.

For this Christmas table decoration idea, drape silvery tinsel across the backs of the chairs, hanging bells or star-shape ornaments on it for an extra bit of glitter. Depending on the shape of the chair back, it may be easiest to simply wrap lengths of tinsel around it.

Dainty confections are the inspiration behind this whimsical Christmas table arrangement, from chocolate-brown placemats to sweet pink dots on the plates. For the centerpiece, hard-to-resist dessert pedestals are really metal candlesticks topped with clear glass plates. Fill them with chocolates, candies, cookies, or ornaments to enhance the playful mood.

Ideas for Christmas table decorations don't need to be entirely new. Make plain placemats more decorative by gluing on borders of pink ribbons or braids. Use a washable fabric glue for the job, applying thin lines with a toothpick.

Create a sweet holiday place setting by sandwiching a round of pink scrapbook paper and a red sticker-dot border between two glass plates. Personalized candies indicate where guests should sit.

Tuck dainty carnations into a slim florists tube, and slip the tube inside a clear container filled with Jordan almonds for a surprising Christmas centerpiece. Tie a simple pink ribbon around the container to make this a cute take-home gift for guests.

This elegant Christmas centerpiece is all about subtle details. Red and green apple wedges stand out against the white china backdrop. Dip the apple wedges in lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.

Miniature stockings double as favors and a clever way to hold flatware at each holiday place setting. Stitched from green fabric, the stocking is personalized with metal letters hanging from sheer ribbon. If the small stockings are store-bought, customize them by simply hot-gluing the ribbon charms under the top fold.

These Christmas table decorations emphasize clean elegance. Drape dining room chairs in simple white table runners tied in place with ribbon. This easy slipcover treatment is a high-style complement to gaily wrapped presents.

Go formal without going over the top with these Christmas table decorations. Small touches of iridescent accents and embellished crisp linens give a fresh yet refined look. Circle a centerpiece of all-white flowers with a border of green and red apple wedges. This arrangement contains pale hydrangeas, seeded eucalyptus, and a handful of strategically placed gold ornaments.