How important is the tablescape to your holiday dinner?

Holiday meals when I was a child included a cacophony of conversation, crowded tables, mismatched chairs and silverware, and a gluttonous amount of food set amidst a halo of cigarette smoke. If the table contained decorations, none of them were memorable enough to recall, although I doubt there was room for anything among the bowls piled high with goose, ham, potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, rolls, and more. If my immediate family was hosting, the Bavarian fine china (purchased a place setting at a time from the grocery store using savings stamps) would make an appearance. Our family wasn’t one to put much thought into setting the table, much less create a “tablescape”. We harbored no pretentions – even when we used the good china, the napkins were paper.

It was not until my husband and I purchased our first house with a proper dining room that we hosted any holiday meals. By then I had read plenty of food and entertaining magazines and was keen on making the table look picture-perfect before any food was placed on it. It wasn’t until I tried to emulate some of the arrangements I had seen in those glossy pages that I realized it was a lot harder than it appeared. It became obvious that we needed a much bigger table to pull off these designs, and if I wanted to pull out all the stops, we would need to spend almost as much, if not more, on the decorations than we did on the food.

These days I still try to add some “wow” factor to the table decor, but I keep it very simple: a table runner, maybe some chargers or cute napkin rings, and seasonal decorations that are low enough so you don’t have to crane your neck to talk to anyone across the table. For Thanksgiving this year there were only four of us and I used several of the squash and gourds I had grown in the garden to set the fall theme. I still enjoy looking at the tablescapes in magazines and online however, even if I won’t go all out by purchasing foliage-shaped serving spoons.

I started to read a recent Eater article about how to level up your holiday tablescape, although they lost me after they suggested a mood board. The results were better at HGTV.com, which compiled a 60-image slideshow of different table settings. The Spruce even offers ideas for decorating the kid’s table in its collection of 56 Christmas decorating ideas. Better Homes and Gardens whipped up some doozies with their selection of table decorating ideas, including a DIY copper-pipe frame from which to hang a garland and lights down the center of your table. I can’t imagine a scenario in which this delicate decoration doesn’t come crashing down on my guests. If the cats didn’t tear it down I would knock it over accidentally. The dried fruit centerpiece is more manageable; I probably have a few citrus fruits in my refrigerator that are halfway there. How much effort do you put into your table decorations during the holidays?