Start with the dish that takes up the most room at Christmas dinner. Set it on the bare table alongside your everyday dinner plates. Once you know where the potatoes and gravy will go, it is much easier to decide how much decorating the table can hold.
Let one textile set the colors
Run the red tufted diamond table runner down the center. Its small red pattern leaves room for patterned china, while plain white plates pick up its lighter background. Fold a cloth napkin into a loose rectangle, slip on a beaded holly napkin ring and turn the berries toward the guest. A napkin laid across the plate also frees up space beside the forks on a narrow table.
Make the serving pieces do some decorating
Use red and white Christmas icon plates for appetizers when guests arrive. For a sit-down dinner, bring them back with cookies at the end. The red ceramic brie baker with a tree-handled spoon carries the same color onto a sideboard, where people can help themselves without reaching across the table.
For the final check, sit in the chair farthest from the kitchen. Can you see the guest opposite and pass a bowl comfortably? Move anything tall to the sideboard. Find coordinating pieces in A Very Vintage Holiday, or borrow a metallic accent from Gilded Starlight if your family china has a gold rim.
Set a place for an extra guest
For a table with a leaf or a bench, keep one extra place setting on the sideboard. Stack a dinner plate, a folded napkin and cutlery there before people arrive. If dinner runs late, the little cocktail plates can go around the living room with a first bite while the main table stays set. It is a small pleasure to sit down to dinner with the runner still in place and the good dishes ready.
Explore two more Christmas looks from Rust & Cinder with Christmas at the Lodge and Merry & Bright Christmas.