Setting A Christmas Tablescape Featuring An Advent Spiral
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When I first began thinking of creating an advent spiral (as discussed in this post HERE!), I was excited for the ways that it would become a nightly ritual for our family leading up to Christmas. Certainly, we could move the advent spiral to a coffee table or mantle or area other than my dining table, but as I am best at carrying out traditions that are right in front of me, I realized it would be most successful for us if we left it where we sat each night. Seeing this, I also realized it would impact my Christmas tablescape and set about thinking of ways to make the dining area a festive spot without overwhelming the advent spiral itself. So, if you are also thinking of creating a Christmas tablescape featuring an advent spiral, or want to brainstorm decor that won’t only impact your centerpiece, then let’s dive into all the ways to make not only a festive tablescape, but a festive dining space as well!
Think Beyond The Table
When thinking of a “Christmas tablescape” featuring an advent spiral, typically one would think of what is taking place ON the table! And while this is really important of course, and we will dive into more thoughts on the table design in a bit, the design of the room in which your tablescape is held can impact the perceived festivity of your tablescape just as much as the table settings themselves.
If you are planning on working with one certain element (like an advent spiral, main low centerpiece etc.) or even want to keep your table clear for family style dinners, then it can be helpful to think of how you can bring festive cheer to your entire space, beyond the table itself. To do so, think about adding decorative elements to your:
Decorate Your Lighting
Lighting is such a great spot to add decor! Above your guests, your adornments won’t interfere with dining while still adding a lot of holiday cheer to your space. For this Christmas tablescape, I simply wrapped our hanging shade cord with a velvet ribbon, before adding some fresh greenery and dried red floral stems wrapped around the top of our shade. Whether you are adding ribbon and greenery as I did here, or want to create a full floral installation (much like THIS floral chandelier which could be adapted for Christmas), adding a pop of decor to your lighting makes for a fun and decorative space.
Add Window Or Wall Displays
Beyond just your light fixtures, think of adding a display to any open windows or walls you have available! For this tablescape, I recreated our wall of stars and snowflakes hung by clear fishing line (you can find a tutorial for those HERE), however instead of stars you could hang a wreath, (or series of wreaths), ornaments or other grouping on your window or wall. Windows can also provide fun areas for window painting or even traditional candles while walls could be adorned with ornaments, garlands, tapestries or other items. Just think of an open window or wall space as a blank canvas and fill with your desired design!
Enhance Room Openings
Lastly, but certainly not least, think of adding decor to your room openings! Our dining area is fairly open to our living space without a traditional doorway or passage leading to it, however if you do have a door or passageway, consider adding garlands, ribbons, bells or other groupings to your entry point. This allows the mind to be influenced by Christmas decoration right away and therefore will increase the perceived festivity of your tablescape, even if your table setting is quite minimal.
Play With Patterns
Once you have your room designed, don’t be afraid to play with patterns! In THIS past gingerbread tablescape, I leaned more into traditional plaid forms, however for this design, I brought together a series of small prints, primarily in red and green tones, much like I did in THIS mother’s day tablescape. Using the floral Christmas tree plates as the launching point, I chose small white and green printed napkins to compliment the dried red florals around the advent spiral which also played off the green, burgundy and red patterns in the background with the stars.
To play with patterns, simply pick one element as a starting point for color and design and then build from there. The floral nature of the Christmas tree plates helped me decide to lean into delicate, frilly, small patterns in the same color palette, however the bold nature of the plaid pattern in THIS Christmas table lead me to integrate colors in the same palette but keep other patterns either very small scale or more muted in general. Just pull a variety of elements and add or take away until it feels right. Don’t be afraid to branch out though beyond what you might normally think of!
Keep It Achievable
Finally, when creating a Christmas tablescape with an advent spiral (or even without!), keep your design achievable. Likely, you might be using an advent spiral with kids, so if that changes your typical dishware a bit, that totally is ok. Don’t stress if you have to try something different this year than past years due to a life change, child age, guest number or just wanting to branch out. If you want to pull out your best China to make your gathering extra special, by all means go for it! I love more dressy holiday occasions and certainly believe in using what you have on hand. But if you are moving, have small children, are hosting a huge number of people or don’t have a dishwasher readily available, then paper or disposable products can also be beautiful.
I typically love using China or stoneware, however as our dishwasher hits capacity fairly quickly (and only is able to run at certain times due to our apartment rules), most of our China is packed away in storage in the States and we will have much of our family in town staying with us this Christmas (yay!), I opted to use these pretty Christmas plates instead and believe they add such a fun element to our table! I found these at TK Maxx (the German TJ Maxx equivalent), however I compiled a roundup of some of my favorite attractive paper / disposable product brands a while back, so be sure to check those out HERE! Whatever you choose, it really can be beautiful, so just keep it achievable for whatever capacity you have this Christmas.
Final Thoughts
Creating a Christmas tablescape for your advent spiral is such fun and by thinking of other ways to add interest to your tablescape and dining table, you can allow the advent spiral with its nativity to continue to be the star of the show! I have so enjoyed lighting a candle each night to refocus the season and look forward to lighting this final Christ candle with our table full of family in just a few short days! Either way though, whether your room is decorated and your tablescape finished or not, I hope you are able to gather your family close and enjoy this season!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
