The holiday season approaches with the speed and inevitability of an oncoming train and we are like rabbits, frozen in the headlamps. Whatever way you celebrate it, Christmas is a complex, often demanding, festival with many implications for the home. Especially if you’re hosting Christmas dinner.
The food has to be fabulous, the table has to look like a work of art, and everyone has to get along (whether they like each other or not). My advice? Lower your expectations. Christmas tablescape by LNH Edit In recent years, the trend for tablescaping has become a monster.
Fuelled by Instagram and driven by the fashion industry, it feeds on insecurity and convincing people to buy things they don’t need. “Fashion has a lot to answer for,” says Tara O’Connor of The Designed Table. “Women like to get new clothes for special occasions but your table doesn’t need a whole new outfit every year.
Go to your presses and see what you have. Then decide on a colour scheme, but don’t overthink it. Christmas is always about red, green, burgundy and white.
” Christmas tablescape from The Designed Table Four years ago, O’Connor launched The Designed Table, an e-commerce company selling table linen and accessories, in the hope of reviving the art of entertaining at home. “I blame kitchen islands,” she says. “People don’t sit around the table so much.
They’re having their dinners on their knees in front of the TV or sitting at the island with a TV in the room. People pan.