The Christmas 2020 Dining Table - What's your Christmas lockdown flavour?
This year has certainly been like no other, and a compromised Christmas is something we’ll all have to contend with when it comes to socialising and (the lack of) house hopping this year. But this same, minimal formula need not apply to your dining table, nor the joy in celebrating the festive season.
This year, my Christmas table is inspired by something other than turkey, veggies and a long guest list, instead, lots of small things that are a little closer to home. If there’s a year that we should be able to indulge in culinary luxuries and delectable delights, it’s 2020, and this year I’m ignoring the ‘standard menu’ and doing something a little different. I’m calling it ‘The Happy Italian Christmas’ - although it might turn into more general ‘European’, which is totally fine by us.
I’ll be treating myself and my bubble to hearty, mainly Italian, foods for the Christmas dinner. I’m serving up a warming lasagne made with my secret recipe, that will receive an upgrade this year, being baked in a Spode, Blue Italian Collection (of course) dish, side dishes of truffle macaroni and cheese, garlic and mozzeralla ciabatta and a tangy salad, and all this will be washed down with Chambord spiked Prosecco. For pudding, a good old trifle, and I don’t mean Tiramisu, the Italian version of trifle, I mean the British strawberry trifle - the way that my nana used to make it, sherry included.
Spode - The Blue Italian Collection has been around since 1816! And designed in my hometown, Stoke-On-Trent
Dinner (aka lunch) will be later followed with an evening buffet, involving cured meats; Italian and Spanish, a mixture of crackers, and cheeses, which will absolutely include Manchego, drizzled with mum’s honey from Crete and baked Camembert. Later intermingled with chocolate truffles, mince pies and Terry’s chocolate orange no doubt. So when I say it might turn out to be European, that’s how it seems to be panning out. My main brief is to have a more laid back Christmas than normal, and because the mains and the trifle can be made the day before, I’m already winning.
I test dressed the Christmas table at the weekend to see if I needed to buy anything extra, or if I could use what I already had. The few items that I have purchased already this year are; the round green damask rose table cloth from eBay (under £10) the Marimekko napkins from TK Maxx (under £2) and the patterned earthenware holly side plates by Royal Stafford (also from TK Maxx, approx. £3 each.) Although I don’t class myself as a lover of ‘themes’ I have tried to keep this years main palette to red, green, pink and gold, with other colours coming through via food and drinks. The Christmas crackers are leftovers from last year and sit happily amongst the other prints.
Teaming the traditional holly side plates with the simple black and white geometric dinner plates (from Sainsbury’s) gives a fun, modern feel to the table, alongside the jolly Marimekko napkins. I’ve had the gold cutlery for a few years, I picked up the sixteen piece set for about £17 on Very, which grants just the right amount of bling, alongside the elegant gold candlesticks from Wilko.
As much as I love a real fabric napkin, disposables can be more convenient, especially where lashings of gravy, or in my case, cheese sauce is involved. Here are some of my favourite cute, joyful and inexpensive napkins from Sainsbury’s Sostrene Grene and Marimekko.
Kitsch in action
The festive season wouldn’t be right in our home without a fair portion of kitsch. For the dining table it appears in the form of gold chocolate coins, the utterly fabulous pink deer (from Paperchase a few years ago) coloured candles, and the pile of Turkish delight and sugared jellies, looking like a jewellery box of glistening gems.
Many of the items on my table have been collected over the years, but you needn’t spend a fortune to achieve a look that brings you the same amount of joy, meaning and nostalgia as this table does for me. Play around with what you have, try mix and matching items that you thought could never work together, and you’ll be sure to bring together a happy and personal tablescape.
Christmas, like any other time of year should be less about premium perfection and more about personality and meaning. Please don’t feel the pressure from the magazines, social media and your friends; your table, your tree, your vibe, and your home in general is bound to be a fun and significant place if you decorate with abandon, creating something that’s especially for you and those who live there (and of course, your bubble.)
