'Frivolously festive': Setting the Christmas table this year

From food to style, the Christmas table is centred on bringing people together through memories and delicious dishes – a tablescape can set the mood and intention, evocative of nostalgia and new traditions.  

One example features neutrals with pops of glitz evocative of the festive spirit. Stylist Lara Hutton shares, “I always love a neutral palette – classic but made up in a simple modern way … this year, I’m bringing a hero colour to my table of neutrals: white, beige, soft caramel with an accent of tobacco/rust.” She continues, “for someone who loves even more colour, try this as a beautiful base and then add a dusky, subdued pink to this base.”

For another edge to the Christmas table, food stylist and home cook Jessica Nguyen is throwing traditional rules out the window, embracing all things colour and bright. “I’ll be going for something frivolously festive. It will be summery, joyful, and abundant with heaps of colour, food, and drinks on the table,” she says. 

As to be expected from a foodie, Nguyen lets the food and drink take centre stage on the table using fun cocktail glasses such as Fenton & Fenton Martini Glasses to serve Christmas gin cocktails for a new tradition. She also recommends layering coloured tableware, like the 100 per cent biodegradable bamboo Maison Balzac pink Ocean platter, to serve up your favourite summer and seafood dishes.  

On her Christmas table, Hutton will be using items to build height and texture — drawing on candle holders and quirky textural candles, varying shaped vases, Stoneform footed platters, mid-century modern salt and pepper grinders, and her own irregular organic handmade dinner plates, “all beautiful sculptural pieces that are very modern but also beautifully classic and will last,” she says.

The emphasis, too, is on the details. “The beautiful elements that really set the finishing touches are always the mood – so the use of candles, and the expression of florals, natural elements or botanicals … to me, these are always the hero elements,” she says. 

For something a bit different from the average supermarket bonbons, Nguyen recommends a delightfully adult Fever Tree G&T Christmas Cracker. “I think you can’t have a Christmas table without Christmas crackers with everyone wearing those silly but absolutely necessary coloured paper hats and reading out a cheesy joke at the table,” she adds. 

Hutton recommends tying a name tag to a napkin or bonbon with a piece of botanic to decorate and add a personal touch. “I love home-making my Christmas bonbons – even if it is store-bought, I always wrap it in fabric and decorate it to the theme of the table for an extra special thoughtful touch.”

As a final point to the perfect Christmas tablescape, Nguyen reminds us that “whether it’s the traditional ham, roast or a summery seafood spread, whether it’s your grandma’s pudding, trifle or your new go-to summer pavlova, Christmas is about bringing together both old traditions and making new ones along the way that will become your family’s new tradition.”