Merry Christmas, readers!!
One benefit to hosting Christmas dinner is the fun of setting the table. Since my mother's china clashes with our red Christmas tablecloth, I have taken to using my Spode dishes instead.
Even though my blue Spode is everyday-ware, its beauty and good quality make it versatile and "dressy" enough even for such a special occasion as Christmas dinner.
We had only four at our Christmas feast this year, so we had taken all the leaves out of the table. This made passing the food easier, but resulted in a very crowded-looking table.
Here are some ideas for styling your Spode for Christmas dinner:
Plates: I like the look of layering the classic blue Spode with the Spode Christmas Tree pattern. (I only had one Christmas Tree plate, though, which is why I didn't choose that for our table today.)
We had these beautiful napkins with a poinsettia on one corner, which looked lovely on top of the plates. If I had been able to take more time with them, I would have done a fancier napkin fold, but this one was quick and easy and showed off the prettiest part of the napkins.
My Blue Italian cereal bowls were perfect for holding green salad, and once I added some crystal stemware and a Christmas cracker at each place, the table really began to look festive!
Note: my family does not drink, but we have some lovely wine glasses that are family heirlooms, which quite elegantly hold our water or sparkling cider. After all, what's the use of owning pretty glassware if it just sits on a shelf?
Serving Dishes and Utensils:
We have a somewhat unusual spread for Christmas, and finding serving dishes for each item was a challenge I enjoyed greatly.
I used a Lucano dinner plate instead of my large platter for the ham, since there were only four of us around the table this year.
The rolls ended up in a Blue Italian Melba bowl, lined with a rather capacious napkin, to keep the rolls hot for as long as possible.
The salad was in a glass bowl, but my Spode Blue Room Salad Servers made dishing up the salad easy and elegant!
Some years ago, we began having homemade macaroni and cheese instead of potatoes with our ham, and this year my mother's delicious "maccy cheese" looked lovely in my Blue Italian handled serving tray. --I was glad of the excuse to bring this out, since it was a birthday present last year, and I had not had a chance to use it yet.
We also had roasted vegetables in my Geranium Pasta bowl (which held quite a bit more than we expected!) and green beans in my lovely Camilla nut bowl. Croutons sat in a Fitzhugh dessert bowl.
On a whole, the blue of the Spode dishes was stunning against the red tablecloth, and with the addition of our Advent candle wreath centerpiece and the poinsettia napkins, the overall effect was both festive and Christmassy!
I hope your Christmas dinner was as delicious as mine! Merry Christmas, fellow Spodeians!
P.S. Details (with pictures!) of our Christmas dessert table setting to come!
