Festive tables should be otherworldly

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How will you decorate your Christmas table this year? 

This Christmas we’ll be staying at home and I’m thrilled at the thought of decorating the table — it’s one of my favourite festive activities. Christmas is when we really go for it. I suggest you do the same.

I don’t believe in keeping certain items of tableware for “special occasions”, but we continually collect things that don’t make it on to our everyday table: glassware, dishes, stray bits of silver and the like. I can’t wait to use the Knoped wine glasses I received for my birthday back in the summer. Made by glass artist Miranda Keyes, each one is unique, a thing of ethereal beauty. The irregular, fluid shape looks caught in the wind, frozen in time. We’ll use them for champagne.

For my tablecloth, I like the idea of using an offcut of fabric. I’m always picking up scraps in odd shapes and sizes from junk shops. This is a good time to put one to work. Haines Collection sources surplus stock from brands, which it then sells at a reduced price. Catching my eye right now is a 240cm length of Robert Kime’s Herat fabric. Inspired by a small woven fragment found in eastern Iran, the striped design is all festive reds and greens. It’s not inexpensive, but once it’s had its time as a tablecloth it could be used for upholstery.

I would love to serve our guests on a set of dinner plates from Maison Pichon Uzès. An eighth-generation maker based in Uzès, France, the Maison and its talented artisans have been making fine earthenware by hand since 1802. Its Louis XVI plate is extremely elegant, octagonal in shape, and features an embossed beaded border inspired by a string of pearls. I’m also a fan of the France Dinner Plate, with a scrolled border. These plates are available in several sizes, with bowls and other pieces to match. The range of colours is enormous; my favourite is Pain brûlé, a deep, golden honey brown. This time of year is all about rich, jewel colours.

I always like to have pieces by small makers and independent artisans. If you’re like-minded, I suggest paying a visit online or in person to the Scottish shop and gallery Bard (its bricks and mortar shop is in Leith, Edinburgh). Bard’s focus is on Scottish craft and design; its founders, husbands Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens, believe that “living with craft can ground and elevate our daily experience”. I couldn’t agree more. Recently I’ve been eyeing up Morven Mulgrew’s Abra candleholder. Hand-built from reclaimed stoneware into a patched-together ring of candlesticks, it is glazed with a pallet of sea greens. It appears as if it could have sprung out of the sea and the earth, a thing of seaweed and rock. It would make a glorious, otherworldly centrepiece.

Consider your own centrepiece — it could be something along the lines of Mulgrew’s, a selection of candlesticks (for maximum impact, choose ones of different heights), or an arrangement of berries or crab apples. I also adore the fresh, starry brightness that small bunches of paperwhites bring to a Christmas table. Or, you might want to flip things and create a hanging centrepiece. I long for a giant ring of holly and ivy and other foliage, suspended low above my dining table.

Last but not least, I go hard on all those finishing touches that make a table extra special. Handmade decorative elements will make the table personal and, importantly, I also believe in giving oneself time in December to get momentarily lost in small, meditative tasks. I’ll be handwriting my place cards — I like to buy plain pre-folded ones, which I add drawings to. (Although I’m also rather smitten with Choosing Keeping’s letterpress versions, which come emblazoned with two toasting 18th-century gentlemen.) 

I’ll also be getting my gilding kit out soon. The Victorians loved gilding acorns and walnuts; I’m going to take inspiration from them. Though I fear that the task of gilding nuts might actually turn out to be more frustrating than meditative. Time will tell!

If you have a question for Luke about design and stylish living, email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Instagram @lukeedwardhall

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