Table of Contents
If you have ever shouted across a centerpiece to wish someone a merry Christmas, you already know the first rule. The whole evening happens at our table, so the Christmas dining room decor ideas here start with the people, not the decorations. Every plate needed room, and one red thread ran through the house.
Out in the living room sat the tree and the noise, while in here the meal had the room to itself. Our Christmas living room ideas set the tone, and the dining table picked up the same red thread. What follows is seven moves, and none of them needs a new table.
The moves run in the order I do them, cloth first and small rooms last.
Christmas Dining Room Decor Ideas in Seven Moves
| Spot | Move | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Table | Cloth first | One-third width |
| Center | Low and talkable | Under twelve inches |
| Places | Elbows first | Twenty-four inches a person |
| Light | Above and within | Thirty inches up |
| Chairs | Wreaths and ribbon | One color thread |
| Sideboard | Overflow goes there | Table stays clear |
| Small rooms | One low piece | Keep the walkway clear |
Start With the Cloth: A Base That Fits the Table
Last December I ran the tape across the table and wrote down six feet by forty inches. A runner about thirteen inches wide fits a table that size. One third of the width has never let me down yet, not once in all the Christmases we have set this table.
A runner hangs six to twelve inches past each end, and the cloth drops six to eight inches for an ordinary dinner. Red runs from the stove to the table in our Christmas kitchen ideas, and the tea towels came from the same shelf as the runner. When the dinner is formal, the cloth drops ten inches, and fifteen is the farthest it has ever gone.
The tabletop measures thirty inches off the floor, and the chairs sit seventeen to nineteen inches high. Every Christmas my father claims the old chair by the radiator, the one that sits an inch lower.
One red was all the shop had left that December, so the napkins matched the runner without a plan. The turkey’s rest is ironing time, and the cloth comes out smooth before the plates go down. Nobody at the table says a word about the ironing, yet the cloth still looks pressed when the pudding arrives.
Build a Low Centerpiece Guests Can Talk Over
I held my hand flat above the greenery and kept the whole thing under twelve inches. The band above that, up to twenty-four, is where my mother sits across from me, and she needs to see my face.
The greenery runs about a third of the table, and I measured twenty-four to thirty-six inches on our six-foot table before I stopped. The gravy boat needs a parking spot, so I keep twelve to eighteen inches open between the garland and the plates.
That low line is the part most Christmas dining room decor ideas get right. I watched a tall arrangement hide my mother’s face one Christmas, and the host still called the table done. Beside the gravy boat, three battery candles stand with a string of cranberries running along the greenery.
On the twenty-third the pinecones come in from the front garden, and the cranberries go on the string at the kitchen table. If the greenery comes home before the twenty-third, it goes limp and the needles start to fall before the turkey is carved. The garland brings the garden in, and by dinner the whole room smells like Christmas.
Set Each Place So Elbows Don’t Fight
Twenty-four inches of table edge per person is the minimum, and thirty is what I give my mother, who likes her elbow room. A plate, a glass and a napkin fit in twelve to fifteen inches of depth, and nobody has to fight for the space. Four sit at our forty-eight by thirty-six inch table, and six at the seventy-two inch one.
Behind the chairs I leave thirty-six inches to the wall, and forty-two to forty-eight where people walk past. The chairs pull out twenty-four to thirty inches, and the wobbly one by the radiator needs the full thirty. A ninety-six inch table seats eight, and that is the one my sister borrows.
I set the plates the night before, because Christmas morning is for the turkey, not the cutlery. Each place gets a folded napkin and a name card, and the name cards stop the annual argument about who sits by the radiator.
I stole the paper idea from an old HGTV piece, and the children still draw on it after dinner. The place cards sit on a Kraft paper runner, and the names go on in marker the night before. The paper runner cost nothing, and the cloth underneath stayed clean all night.
Light It From Above and Within
My husband held the tape up to the ceiling last December while I stood on a chair and called out the numbers. We hung the chandelier thirty to thirty-six inches above the tabletop, and our eight-foot ceiling set that height.
The house next door has a ten-foot ceiling, and its chandelier hangs thirty-six to forty-two inches above the table. Every extra foot of ceiling adds three inches to the drop.
The table got measured first, and the fixture came second. A forty-two inch table takes a fixture of thirty inches at most, inside half to two-thirds of its width.
The turkey looks golden under warm white bulbs, two-thousand-seven-hundred to three-thousand Kelvin. The lanterns by the door hold the real flames, and no lit wick ever reaches the table.
The fire numbers scared me into battery candles. More than a third of home decoration fires start with candles, and two in five start with decorations too close to a heat source.
Our outdoor Christmas lighting guide runs on the same battery-and-timer habit, and no cord crosses the porch out there. At five the timer clicks on, and the table is already glowing when the first guest rings the bell. Of all the Christmas dining room decor ideas I pinned this year, the candle timer is the one that stayed.
Dress the Chairs and the Walls
The chair wreaths started at my neighbour’s house, the year the twins were born. Under every bow a sprig of evergreen hides, and the ribbon matches the runner’s velvet red. The same green runs from the garland to the wall, and the two rooms share it from the door.
That same year the buffet swag came home with the chair wreaths. HGTV dressed its dining chairs with ribbon and sprigs, and I kept the chair half of the idea. The swag stayed in the photograph, because our sideboard already had its own job that Christmas.
Candlelight doubles in the mirror beside the wreath, and the wall opposite the window holds them both. Ribbon and a wreath are the Christmas dining room decor ideas I come back to every year. The red thread started in the hall, and our Christmas entryway ideas carried it to the dining room door.
Let the Sideboard Carry the Overflow
Until carving time, the turkey waits on the sideboard, and so does everything the table could not hold. The top holds candles and books beside my grandmother’s framed photo, and the mirror hangs behind them.
One end of the tray holds the glasses, and the serving dishes wait at the other end. After dinner the children hang the ornaments on the small tree in the corner by the window.
Before the clutter turns the sideboard into a second junk drawer, Christmas week clears it out. The bottle opener lives in the sideboard drawer, and the tray is plain brass. The cupboard takes back everything except what serves the meal, and that stays put.
My grandmother’s mirror catches the candlelight behind the sideboard at night, and the whole room glows. The photo on the sideboard is my grandmother at twenty, and the children ask about her every Christmas.
Small Dining Rooms Still Get Christmas
The neighbours’ change last year was one low centerpiece and no runner, and the room feels bigger for it. Where the second garland used to hang, a swag went on the wall, and the bench underneath seats two. Small rooms do best with Christmas dining room decor ideas that keep the table clear and the walkway open.
Tabletop size is as big as the tree gets in here now, and the walkway stayed clear all evening. On the bench wait two cushions and a folded blanket, and nobody has ever complained about the hard side. Our small living room Christmas ideas taught me the one-dressed-surface habit.
The tape came out before I bought anything, and the runner stayed in the shop. A cloth, a low garland and room for four plates are all the table holds, and nothing more goes on it.
Questions, Answered Straight
Every December the same six questions arrive, and here are the short answers I send back.
How tall should a Christmas centerpiece be?
Faces stay in view across the table when the centerpiece stays under twelve inches, and the wine glasses never hide anyone. Past twenty-four inches a tall slim piece clears the view again. The band in between blocks the view.
How much space does each person need at a Christmas table?
Each person gets twenty-four inches of table edge, and thirty if the chair has arms. I fit the plate and the glass in twelve to fifteen inches of depth. The six-foot table seats six, and the eight-foot one seats eight.
How high should a chandelier hang over a dining table?
On an eight-foot ceiling the chandelier hangs thirty to thirty-six inches above the tabletop. With a ten-foot ceiling the drop runs thirty-six to forty-two inches, three more for every extra foot. The size to shop for runs half to two-thirds of the table width.
How do you decorate a small dining room for Christmas?
One low centerpiece, a cloth and a swag on the wall are the whole list. Where two chairs came out, the bench goes in, and the tree shrinks to tabletop size for the night. All evening the walkway stays clear, and the room feels bigger for it.
How do you keep candles safe on a Christmas table?
The table takes battery candles, and the real flames stay well clear of the greenery. Candles start more than a third of decoration fires, so the flameless ones get my trust. In the lanterns by the door the real candles burn, and nobody brushes past a flame on the way to the table.
What color scheme works for a Christmas dining room?
Ours is velvet red, carried on one color thread. The runner, the napkins and the chair ribbons all carry the red, and the gold on the sideboard warms the whole thing up. The table never looks busy with two or three hues at most.
Set It Tonight, Eat at It Tomorrow
Tonight the cloth goes on, the centerpiece stays low, and the plates go down before bed. Christmas morning is for the turkey, and nothing else. That is the whole table, and the Christmas dining room decor ideas we use stop right there.
