A Plaid Christmas: The Dining Room

Hi again! Back-to-back blog posts can only mean one thing… the kids will soon be on winter break. As you can read a bit about in this post (and this one), the picture frame molding made it up just in time for Thanksgiving. We also hosted a small work gathering last weekend, so that was also on my mind as we hurried to finish the project. What is more classic in a colonial home that picture frame molding? A Plaid Christmas of course.

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A Plaid Christmas: The Dining Table

A Plaid-on-Plaid Christmas to be even more specific. While it makes me a little apprehensive to do patterns on patterns, Christmas does seem like the perfect time to experiment with such things! For the dining room table, I layered a plaid tablecloth over the off white one that we have had for years. I then shopped my mom’s dish collection and together we came up with this lovely combination. Because some of the plates were in sets of 4 and the table needed to accommodate 6, I alternated salad plates and salad bowls. The Stewart Tartan Plaid appetizer plates were too beautiful not to make it into the photos, so they were layered as well. Some festive green napkins and my grandmother’s silverware and the table settings were complete! Oh, and the red goblets! Now, the settings were done.

The centerpiece was pretty simple this year. A draped pinecone garland down the center sprinkled with Baby Breath flowers from Trader Joe’s and strategically placed taper holders with black tapers was far from labor intensive. We re-hung the Georgetown photograph that my parents had at their house throughout my childhood at the end of the table.

The Faux Tree

I purchased a Faux Tree a few years ago for a photo shoot at the Beach Cabin. It seemed like a good year to bring it home and try it out in the dining room. In an attempt to give some sort of direction to the sheer chaos that unpacking Christmas tubs with kids was, I told the kids to find all of the fun, sparkly, movie, and travel ornaments and hang them on this tree. They did a great job! I have been wanting to try a tree collar for a while now and found an antique finish one. I think that next year I’ll try the tree collar on the real tree and the tree skirt on the faux tree. You never can plan too far in advance for this kind of a thing- haha! I started a new tradition with the kids last year, which is the exchanging of a Christmas ornament each year. Last year, our daughter gave our son a hot dog and he gave her a cake. I can’t wait to see what they choose for each other this year!

The Bar Cart (ish)

Okay, we technically don’t have a bar cart, but this table works fine for most occasions. I bought a cocktail set at a great price (it would make a good gift too!), got out an ice bucket that I think was a wedding present, and our wine carrier. Beer and non alcoholic beverages were in the kitchen refrigerator drawer. I also made a little DIY Old Fashioned Bar (not pictured) for our small holiday gathering. This Half Baked Harvest Cinnamon Bourbon Old Fashioned is a new favorite of mine!

Okay, I think that is it! I can’t wait to add a few more touches to the dining room in the new year (hint: I’ll be looking into adding a chandelier) so come back for that.