Setting Your Christmas Dinner Table

Nothing says Christmas dinner like a table set with holiday dishes and decorations. Whether you have a traditional Christmas roast turkey, beef, ham, or vegan specialties, you will want your family and friends to feel that holiday spirit when they sit down to their meal. Maybe you eat early in the afternoon and nibble on leftovers and treats the rest of the day. Maybe you have a formal seated dinner in the evening of Christmas day. Maybe your most festive or traditional meal is on Christmas Eve in the early evening or after midnight mass. In any case you will want to set a pretty and holiday-themed table.
You may want to look at those holiday dishes and decorations you already own first. Most people are delighted to see something new on the table, but for some it will not feel as merry without some of the traditions that have been observed in past years. Did Grandma pass on to you that special meat platter, salt and pepper shakers, or candlesticks? Even when you dress up your table with some things that are new, there are still some old, delightful things that can be present. 
After deciding what you will keep, plan, at least generally, for the menu. Does this seem premature? If you are not serving salad or soup, for instance, there is no point to buying a holiday dishes set that has bowls. Also consider how you like your meal to be served. Do you prefer buffet serving with all the serving dishes off to the side? Or do you envision your family seated at the table for the duration of the meal with all your side dishes being passed at the table? A table full of dishes of food does not have as much room for table decorations down the entire length of the table. A smaller centerpiece will suffice, or have decorations at each place setting in the form of dinnerware, place mats, napkins, napkin rings, etc. 
Consider also a color scheme for your table. Red, green and metallic golds and silvers are always traditional and in good taste. Also consider a more contemporary setting like white with accents of blue or lavender. These colors can be incorporated in the dinner plates, table cloth, napkins, runners, candles, foliage, beads, ribbons, garlands and more. Also incorporate color in the planning of your meal. Having a green vegetable is pleasing to the eye and nutritious as well. Be cautious of having too many white and brown foods like turkey, mashed potatoes and white rolls, which make a boring presentation. The holidays are a great time to have some bright colors on the plate in the form of sweet potatoes or a berry of some form: cranberries, raspberries, blueberries. Think of some fresh flavors for the palette and not just the traditional starchy ones. As you did with your holiday dishware and decorations, serve some of the traditional recipes for your family, and brighten things up with at least one new recipe every year. 
The Christmas dinner is a composition piece. Most people think first and foremost of the food, but it would not be as much fun if it were not for the special holiday dishware, the table linens, the centerpiece and everything decorative that reminds us of the yuletide season. Take the bride's old maxim of combining something old, something new, something borrowed, and if you wish, even something blue.