Christmas is a wonderful time for entertaining. To wow your guests this festive season, decorate your table with more than just a few tired Christmas ornaments. Kristina Linde, founder of Lexington, the interior homeware company, shares her top tips for decorating this Christmas
1 Layering & colours
Laying a table with warm red table linens and bringing lots of cosy wool throws, animal furs, alpine cushions and blankets to decorate creates a wonderful chalet feel. The Lexington way is to start with a foundation of tradition and add a modern and personal twist.
2 Foliage
Pick out the tones of the tablecloth using natural foliage, bring the outdoors in with wild flowers. Holly and eucalyptus leaves work really well with red, or, if you choose a silver theme, natural twigs can look magical. If you don’t want to make your own flower arrangements, Sophie Coran and Nikki Tibbles from Wild at Heart have teamed up to create beautiful candle wreaths, £180 from sophieconran.com (pictured below).
3 Scents
Use glowing candles, big platters and fragrant welcoming drinks intertwined with cinnamon sticks and Christmas tree clippings for a homely, festive scent.
4 Use different heights
Build up from the tablecloth and runner and create a display using different heights using glasses, candles serving dishes and vases. Ensure you don’t create a look which blocks off the table or is too tall and restricts the flow of conservation.
5 Around the house
A Christmas tree outdoors and inside, fresh new linens, logs by the fire and cosy bedding, bowls of sweets and cookies all help create a real holiday-home feeling.
6 The personal touch
Add a personal touch to your Christmas table with home-made decorations and personalised place cards for your guests and family, children might enjoy more colourful ones, while for adults you can’t go wrong with classic calligraphy. A nice idea is to attach name cards to red apples or foliage, or you could spray paint them gold to give them more modern look.
7 Table accessories
You don’t always need festive crackers to have a good time, this year we created bell napkins, which I can be enjoyed by the whole family as the evening draws in and you start to sing carols and Christmas songs.
8 Leave enough space for food
The most important part of the day is friends, family and food so make sure that you keep enough space on the table for the hot turkey and sweet cranberry sauce!
Kristina Linde is the founder of LexingtonCompany.com, which is also available at John Lewis
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