How To Choose The Best Christmas Tableware This Season: Christmas Tableware Buying Guide

There's nothing quite like gathering over a meal and sharing special moments with people you love throughout the holiday season. With this in mind, your table setting will play a key role in your festive celebrations. Preparing the dining table for a fabulous, festive lunch or dinner is the perfect excuse for getting creative with your Christmas table setting. With a little bit of imagination and a hint of Christmas magic, your Christmas table can be a feast for all the senses and one that is sure to make your family and friends feel as special as they should feel at this time of the year. Creating a beautiful festive table is easy when you can find everything you need in one place, and here at Spotlight, you can shop an incredible Christmas kitchen and dining range. We've put together a detailed guide to everything you need for a Christmas table setting.

Quick Links

• Should You Buy Christmas Tableware?
• What's Included in a Christmas Tableware Set
• Best Materials for Christmas Tableware
• How Large Should Your Christmas Tableware Set Be?
• Kids' Tableware for the Holidays
• Storing Your Christmas Tableware
• Steps For Setting Your Christmas Table

Should You Buy Christmas Tableware?

Tableware is essential for any meal and will completely transform your dining experience. When it comes to celebrating the festive season with a holiday meal, Christmas tableware will instantly uplift the mood and ambience of your dining room for a fun and elegant mealtime. While not essential, Christmas tableware is the key to creating a unique, festive dining experience that will turn your everyday routine into a celebration, while also ensuring you are prepared to host your friends and family for a holiday meal.

What's The Difference Between Everyday And Christmas-Specific Tableware?

The key difference between everyday and Christmas-specific lies in their design. Christmas tableware is designed with festive patterns and bright colour tones to elevate your everyday dining experience with a holiday charm. While you can adorn your dining table with everyday tableware for a holiday meal, Christmas tableware further immerses you and your guests in the spirit of the Christmas season. It's also best practice to use your Christmas tableware only throughout the festive season to help maintain your dining selection and prevent everyday wear and tear that comes with using your tableware daily.

Do You Need A Full Christmas Tableware Set Or Just Accent Pieces?

There are a number of approaches you can take in the styling of your dining table for Christmas. If you want to completely transform your dining experience into a Christmas feast, then a full Christmas tableware set is the perfect place to start. On the other hand, if you want to stick with your existing selection of tableware, you can add accent pieces for a charming, festive touch without the need to purchase a complete tableware set. Ultimately, it comes down to your Christmas decorative theme.

What's Included In A Christmas Tableware Set

Tableware sets are designed to include all the dinnerware you would need throughout your meal. Generally, a Christmas tableware set would include multiple matching side plates, dinner plates and bowls, perfect for serving up a three-course meal with an entree, main meal and dessert.

Do You Need Matching Plates, Bowls, Cutlery And Glassware?

Matching your plates, bowls, cutlery and glassware allows for a cohesive dining experience and is a great way to establish consistency throughout your mealtime. It results in a neat display that instantly exudes elegance through its coordination. While not completely necessary, it's a great way to demonstrate to your holiday guests that you have meticulously planned out your table setting, making your guests feel welcomed.

Best Materials For Christmas Tableware

Christmas tableware is designed to last you through the festive season, but also to be stored away and brought back out for many more festive seasons to come. Because of this, it's important you select Christmas tableware made from durable materials to enjoy both their practicality and style benefits throughout your next holiday meal.

What Is The Best Material For Christmas Tableware?

If your main focus is on the elegance of your table setting, ceramic Christmas plates and other tableware exude sophistication. On the other hand, if you're more concerned with your plates withstanding being packed away throughout the year, lightweight materials such as melamine or polypropylene are great options for the material of your tableware. Both these lightweight and ceramic materials offer quality in their design and make for an elevated dining experience throughout your holidays.

Are Christmas Dishes Dishwasher And Microwave-Safe?

It's important to always note the safety instructions of your Christmas dishes to ensure they are dishwasher or microwave-safe. A good rule to follow is that Christmas plates with delicate details - such as ceramic accents or those made from plastic - are to be hand-washed. On the other hand, most ceramic plates are able to be microwaved. When in doubt, check the instructions provided.

How Large Should Your Christmas Tableware Set Be?

Shopping throughout the holiday season always involves some form of planning, and in the case of shopping for a Christmas tableware set, you should consider both the number of guests you're hosting as well as what exactly you're serving to ensure you and your guests are equipped with everything you need for a successful and delicious holiday meal.

Should I Buy For My Current Guest Count Or A Larger Set For Future Use?

You should always keep your guest count in mind when shopping for tableware. It's a good idea to shop with a leeway in mind - shop for a larger set of Christmas tableware than your exact number of guests, so you're prepared with spare Christmas tableware in the event you need it. This also prepares you for the future in case your guest list expands over time, leaving you prepared with a cohesive selection of Christmas tableware for an elegant and merry dining experience.

Kids' Tableware For The Holidays

It's no surprise that kids love the whimsical ambience of the festive season. Carry this magic of the holidays from your decorations all the way through to your table setting with Christmas kids' tableware. You can find an exceptional range of Christmas tableware suitable for children right here at Spotlight.

Safe Material Options For Kids' Christmas Tableware

When it comes to serving children their Christmas lunch or dinner, opt for a lightweight material that's easy for them to carry. Materials such as plastic, polypropylene and melamine are ideal for kids' Christmas tableware as they are less likely to smash when dropped, compared with other materials such as glass or ceramic.

Storing Your Christmas Tableware

Once the holiday season has concluded, most people decide to pack away their Christmas tableware until next year. You're more than welcome to use your Christmas tableware throughout the year to infuse a festive touch into your everyday routine, but it is best practice to keep your tableware safe and packed away so you can enjoy its merry charm for many more Christmases to come.

How To Store Christmas Tableware Safely After The Holidays

The best way to preserve your Christmas tableware and reduce breakage is by carefully wrapping each piece of tableware individually in bubble wrap or packing paper. You should ensure that each piece is covered in at least two layers of paper or wrap and carefully stacked vertically in a sturdy box or tub. No two plates or bowls should be directly touching each other, as they can crash into each other, causing breakage. If there's leftover space in your box, cushion with more packing paper or bubble wrap. Seal your box or tub and leave a label. If dealing with materials such as glass or ceramic, always mark the box as fragile so it's handled with care by whoever comes across it.

Steps For Setting Your Christmas Table

We've put together a helpful step-by-step guide you can follow in setting your table for a Christmas lunch, a holiday dinner party with friends, or to simply elevate your everyday dining experiences throughout the yuletide season.

1. Table Setting Essentials: Begin With a Tablecloth and Placemats

Given the importance of Christmas, a festive Christmas tablecloth provides a formal, elegant feel that is fitting for the occasion. It also acts as the foundation of your Christmas table setting, which means you'll want a Christmas tablecloth that hints at the fanciful but doesn't distract from the other Christmas table decorations you'll be placing on top of it.

The kind of Christmas tablecloth you'll choose should depend on the colour scheme you are going for. An elegant gold and silver Christmas table setting should start with a white or cream tablecloth with subtle metallic detailing that will allow your luxurious tableware to shine. On the other hand, a more traditional or simple Christmas table setting will benefit from a rustic red and green checked tablecloth, or a plain tablecloth in any of the classic Christmas colours.

To protect your table from servingware while also setting out a place for each of your guests, Christmas placemats pair perfectly with your tablecloth and complete the base of your table setting. Shop for placemats that match the colours of your tablecloth, or opt for neutral tones to allow the design of your tablecloth to stand out.

2. How To Decorate A Christmas Table: Create A Stylish Centrepiece

The best place for adding ornamentation to your Christmas table is down the middle. Not only does it ensure all your guests will get a good look at your decor, but it leaves plenty of room at the edges of the table for plates, cups and other necessities. A Christmas table runner not only adds a lovely point of interest, but can also mark out space for where your other decorations can sit. They provide a soft, flat surface that you can place other Christmas decorations on top of with ease. The really fun part of setting a table is choosing the Christmas table centrepiece, which functions as the crowning glory - the piece de resistance of your Christmas table setting. Candles, snow globes and small Christmas figures can all stand securely on a table runner, but make sure not to overload it - otherwise, you'll make the table look too busy.

A garland provides gorgeous texture and natural colour down your table, and you can accessorise it with tall taper candles, small faux berries and fruits, and even sprigs from other plants. Think of fir trees, mistletoe, ivy and pinecones when it comes to creating a Christmas wonderland (winter or otherwise) down the middle of your table. You may like to trim some pieces from any vines you may have in your garden and drape them along the table as fresh foliage. If you don't want to use, or don't have access to, natural plants for your garland, look to faux plants instead. A faux garland will look just as good as the real thing, and you don't have to worry about it turning brown, carrying bugs or catching alight.

3. Dine In Style With Our Graceful Christmas Servingware And Tableware

Your Christmas table setting will look extraordinarily polished and refined if you lay it out with a set of coordinating Christmas dinnerware and Christmas servingware.

Little serving bowls for your petit fours, canapes and cranberry sauce should match your plates and bowls to ensure nothing is out of place on your Christmas table. Choose suitably fancy serving trays (not rustic baskets or plastic receptacles) for bread, cheeses, antipasti spreads, or to serve your seafood sharing platters.

Servingware made from white ceramic, smooth marble or polished metal will all suit your elegant Christmas theme and will keep your food cool and fresh. If you have several large platters on the table, ensure any decorations you have are well out of the way of reaching arms and hands! You may also like to choose trays and platters with handles, which can help if people are passing them around the table.

4. Table Setting Essentials: Napkins, Cutlery And Glassware

When it comes to cutlery, why not think beyond your average run-of-the-mill silverware and up the luxe factor with beautiful gold matte knives, forks and spoons for your Christmas cutlery? Top it off with Christmas-themed napkins that can be folded into distinct shapes for an elegant twist on traditional stacked napkins. Then keep the golden theme going with glassware, both highball glasses and stemmed wine glasses, that is metallic dipped to complement the rest of your dinnerware.

Ensure that your Christmas drinkware coordinates with your Christmas tableware for a sense of cohesiveness. Cleaning your Christmas drinkware after bringing it out of storage will give it a bright shine and get rid of any sneaky fingerprints or lipstick stains remaining.

By laying out your Christmas table formally, you not only give your crockery, cutlery and drinkware the showcase it deserves, but you will really impress your guests with the extra effort you've put into your Christmas table decorations.

5. Little Details For A Big Difference: Christmas Table Decorations

While it may be tempting, it's best to avoid anything too large or high that could dominate your Christmas table. Not only will a grand display take up all the room, but your guests will find it impossible to talk across the table if your Christmas decorations are in the way.

Instead, think about small items that you can sit along your table runner or mingle in your centrepiece and add points of interest to the setting that evoke the feeling of Christmas. Ornaments like baubles, gold deer statuettes, little bottle brush trees and flames flickering through candle holders with festive etchings are small but effective, especially when grouped strategically down the length of the table.

Christmas Bon Bons are an excellent finishing touch to your table setting that make a significant festive difference. Bon bons are naturally Christmas themed in their design and offer a fun activity and memento from your celebrations for your guests. Leave a Christmas bon bon at each place setting for your guests to enjoy.

Find Bargains Galore On Christmas Tableware At Spotlight Today

The precision of your Christmas table setting is likely to be destroyed by the end of your feast, but it will be well worth the effort to see the smiles on the faces of your loved ones when you unveil it on Christmas Day. Shop our Christmas Kitchen and Dining range for everything you need for the perfect Christmas table setting.

Whether you're hosting Christmas lunch or simply decorating your home for the festive season, you can find more amazing Christmas inspiration on our blog, including Christmas tree and decorating theme ideas and inspiration on how to decorate your apartment for a very merry Christmas.

Season's greetings from all of us at Spotlight!

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