21 Fabulous Ideas for a Festive Christmas Table

By BH&G Holiday Editors
Updated December 03, 2019
Thayer Gowdy
Use these Christmas table decorations as inspiration for all your parties this holiday season. Each Christmas table is packed with easy, inexpensive decorating ideas for Christmas centerpieces and holiday place settings.
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Natural Touches

Entwine classic holiday greens with cranberry and wood bead garlands for an extra-festive Christmas table. Make your own tabletop garland in just four simple steps. Keep your Christmas dinnerware simple and elegant and let the centerpiece shine.

Editor's Tip: Store the fresh evergreen in the refrigerator before use.

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Easy Greenery Centerpiece

Credit: Thayer Gowdy

Greenery transforms a plain piece of fabric into an artful runner in under five minutes. Using a variety of materials (like pine and evergreen), trim sprigs to different lengths and add a few bright berries to the mix. Spaces between the sprigs create places for bottles of wine or serving dishes.

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Farmhouse Place Setting

Credit: Adam Albright

Add a fresh yet stylish look to your Christmas table with woven willow chargers and a basket filled with cotton and fir clippings. Finish each spot with a gold figurine and simple cream-colored pottery.

Editor's Tip: Use a classic gray-striped tea towel as an oversize napkin.

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Copper Christmas Table

Credit: Adam Albright

Flickering lanterns, bottle brush trees, and vintage green dishes make this Christmas table as holiday homey as it gets. Simple white chargers and bold copper wine glasses add texture and color to the theme.

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Classic Christmas Table

Credit: Courtesy of Pottery Barn

Stick to a palette of red and white for a classic Christmas table. Woven chargers and embroidered cloth napkins fancy up plain white dishes without going too formal. An understated centerpiece of fresh paperwhites in clear vases—displayed on a butcher block board—finish the festive look.

Buy It: Holiday Sentiment Embroidered Napkin Collection, $28, Pottery Barn

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Christmas Tree Centerpiece

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.

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Buffalo Check Table Decoration

Credit: Adam Albright

Place a red toy mailbox at each guest's spot and fill it with your annual holiday card! Complete your playful Christmas place setting with a buffalo check placemat, napkins, and bright green bottle brush trees.

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Holiday Magnolia Garland

Give pine and evergreen branches a break and incorporate magnolia leaves into your Christmas table decorations. Create your own DIY magnolia garland in under an hour! Clementines and cinnamon sticks add fragrance and classic charm.

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Poinsettia Centerpiece

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.

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Simple Place Setting

Credit: Adam Albright

Grain sack napkins, flocked pine, cotton bolls, and white porcelain dishware are all you need to create this farmhouse Christmas table. Finish each place setting with a snowflake-shaped dish and a simple handwritten name card.

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Geometric Centerpiece

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 faux pillar candles and a few greenery sprigs, your Christmas centerpiece is complete.

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Shining Bright

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).

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Center Stage Display

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.

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Dressed-Up Napkins

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.

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Woodland-Inspired Table

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.

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Christmas Dining Room

Credit: David A. Land

Don't stop at just the table! Create pretty Christmas chairs. Attach sprigs of evergreen to a wreath form with florists wire. Hang from each dining room chair using a colorful ribbon.

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Burlap and Balsalm

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.

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Christmas Chair Decoration

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.

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Christmas Village

Credit: Adam Albright

A collection of cardboard Christmas houses adds festive cheer to this simple Christmas centerpiece. Arrange them on the table with colorful bottle brush trees and cut evergreen branches. Finish the display with patterned dishes and a mini house at each place.

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Silver Christmas Table

Credit: Kritsada Panichgul

Mix mercury glass votives with a table runner crafted from boughs of greenery to add a little shimmer and shine. Finish this Christmas table with a festive flower arrangement, varied vintage silverware, and candles.

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Easy Elegance

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.

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By BH&G Holiday Editors