The dining table becomes a very special place at Christmas, it is not only where we sit down for arguably THE best meal of the year, but it is also the place where family and friends are brought together, laughs are shared, memories are made and crackers are pulled. Your Christmas table can be a cause for excitement and could become the best-dressed area of your home!

For some, dressing the Christmas table has become one of the most important aspects of Christmas, just as much as decorating the tree! So, you might have your fireplace, front door and bannister covered, but have you thought about your dining table?

Here at Honeypot Furniture, we’ve come up with a quick guide when looking at decorating your dining table ready for Christmas. An important thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to decorating your table, it's all about personal style and the vision you have for your table, so, go wild and don’t feel you have to go by the book!

To start, you’ll need to decide on a theme. Deciding a theme can be quite simple, you can either continue the colours from your Christmas tree, complement the interior design of your dining room by pulling inspiration from colours, textures and soft furnishing. Or you could go for a totally different scheme altogether, the choice is yours, just make sure you consider your style throughout the decorating of the table. This will ensure a cohesive table set at the end.

For our Christmas dining table, we wanted to highlight and complement our beautiful Arturo table, so went for a silver and white theme, with some natural greens and dark tones to add some contrast.

Next, decide whether you are going to use a table cloth, a table runner and if you may want to use foliage to add a natural and earthy feel. This will act as your base for your whole table set. If you want to make a feature of your dining table then we’d recommend opting for a runner or foliage, it will allow you to still highlight your tables natural beauty! On the other hand, if you want a completely blank canvas then opt for a festive table cloth. If you’re thinking of adding foliage, you could choose a natural wreath and create a centrepiece or alternatively use a garland from one length of your table to the other. Either option can help to create a base for you to decorate around.

Here at Honeypot, we chose to use a natural garland running down the centre of the table. We wanted to highlight the natural beauty of our gorgeous Arturo table so chose to keep this aspect of the decorating quite simple. 

After that, you can go ahead and add all of your small and individual ornaments. Try adding some candles and small fairy lights, these will add warmth as well as a nice glow when it starts to go dark. You can opt for the short chunky candles or the tall thin type in a candleholder to help add some height. A scattering of baubles can help to introduce a pop of colour and also help to tie your table in with your Christmas tree. Pine cones, lanterns and other festive decorations can be easily interspersed within your design.

For our table, we chose a festive tealight holder as our centrepiece and decorated around this with further candles, tree decorations, pine cones and lanterns. We kept our decorating quite balanced with similar items at either end, however, we were conscience to keep a natural and relaxed feel. We were keen to include lots of candles, giving a warm and cosy feel, especially when the light outside starts to fade.

A helpful tip is to include pieces of different heights, this will mean that there are varying focal points throughout the table, becoming a feast for your eyes (and no, that's not the food!). Also don’t feel that you need to put your tallest item in the middle, as most people tend to do, test pieces in varying places to see what looks best.

Once you’ve got the majority of your table decorated it's time to set the table. So, pull out that crockery you normally save for “special occasions” as well as your best glassware and cutlery. It’s always nice to set the table as a whole, even if you will need to remove the plates when it's time to serve up dinner. Garnish each plate with a napkin and a cracker ready to signal the start of your Christmas dinner! Place names are also a nice touch and will ensure that there are no arguments when it's time to be seated.

We chose to complement our design with sparkling napkins folded within a super shiny napkin ring alongside our best crockery and a champagne flute.

By this time your table should be ready! Full of festive cheer and sparkle all ready to be shared with your family and guests. Don’t fret if you have to pull out the emergency chairs and are missing a knife or fork, this all adds to the fun!

Christmas dinner is all about spending time with family and friends as well as enjoying each others company, it is Christmas after all!