Christmas Dining Room

Less than two weeks to Christmas! Whaaaaattt?!! Which means that we are on our fourth and final week of our Christmas Home Tour Series hosted by Ashley from Cherished Bliss. And this week, we’re talking Dining Rooms. If you’re coming again from Little Glass Jar, welcome, welcome! I’m so glad that you stopped by. I just love Ashley’s rustic dining room! Since I shared a little tour of my dining room last week, I thought I’d show you what Christmas Eve in our dining room looks like.

Christmas Eve is probably, hands down, my favorite night of the Christmas Holidays. I have these magical memories of Christmas Eve dinner at my Grandparents’ house, driving home in the snow with Nat King Cole and Gene Autry playing on the radio, and checking the Santa Tracker on the 10:00 news before finally going to bed and anxiously awaiting Santa coming. Remember how long Christmas Eve day and the Christmas season in general, felt as a kid? Now it all seems to fly by so fast. 
My Grandma always made clam chowder on Christmas Eve and then we’d sit down at the table where there was a candle at each place setting. Each of would take a turn lighting our candle and saying what we were grateful for that year. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was the one time a year that I got to light matches by myself, but it was another one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve. And looking back, I love that it made us focus on the reason for the season. As a child, it really made an impression on me to listen to the things that the adults were grateful for, and taught me that Christmas was about more than Santa and presents.

So all of these years later, Clam Chowder dinner on Christmas Eve is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my own house. I love that it’s not your typical Christmas faire, and soup on Christmas Eve makes clean up a breeze (which I’m sure was part of my Grandma’s reason for it–she’s clever like that), and then you can just enjoy the rest of the night without a sink full of dirty dishes.

To set the table, I just grabbed some bunches of fresh greens from Home Depot. I LOVE their bunches of greenery because there are several different varieties in the bunch, so it makes for a really pretty arrangement whether it’s in a vase or pitcher, or down the middle of the table. Then I shopped some of my extra Christmas decor and ornaments (and most of what I already had in my everyday centerpiece) and just sort of layered it down the middle of the table (basically the Christmas version of my Thanksgiving table).
I started with the same pillow ticking fabric that I haven’t actually changed out since my Thanksgiving brunch table, and just layered the greenery down the middle. Then I took a strand of mercury glass lights from the dollar aisle at Target and tucked the cords into the branches.

Then I just started adding in candles, ornaments, and those oh-so-adorable snowballs I mentioned the other day.
For napkins, I used Ikea dish towels, my favorite inexpensive go-to, and just tied them off and then stuck in a cute little cocktail stirrer I found on the dollar aisle at Target.

I always find myself drawn to some small detail, and in this case, it’s these Juniper branches and berries. I just love that frosty blue color. I can’t get enough.

Thank you for coming and visiting my Christmas Dining Room! You can find the other parts of the Christmas Home Tour Series at the links below:

Part 1: Christmas Entryway
Part 2: Christmas Tree
Part 3: Christmas Living Room

And now I get to send you to my friend Shannon’s house at Fox Hollow Cottage. I said it last week, but I’ll say it again, I just love her style!

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