Your plans for how your Christmas tableware is going to look always starts out so great. You're going to hand-make table settings, each with glorious swirly handwriting, pop a tiny, but thoughtful present at everyone's setting, cover the table in as many candles it can handle and chop down a whole tree to provide all the foliage you will need for some stunningly rustic decoration.
In reality, that never quite happens and you just end up lighting a few half-melted candles and dragging some sad looking ivy down your table. Just us? Well not this year, because you will be prepared – and we have rounded up a load of gorgeous (and super easy) Christmas tableware ideas from John Lewis to provide all the inspiration you need...
Make sure you also check out our John Lewis Black Friday hub page for loads of current deals – you could also wishlist some of this gorgeous tableware and cross your fingers it's on offer come the big day!
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1. Go colourful with your Christmas tableware
We are obsessed with this Christmas tableware! It's just so far from all the green foliage, red berries and pillar candles you see so often (don't worry, plenty more of that look to come). This is such an easy look to copy too and is minimal effort for maximum effect – this bowl is only a tenner from John Lewis; you just have to fill it up with fruit, mince pies, whatever you fancy, and then the pièce de résistance, those clip on parrot decorations! Love. This. So. Much.
And there's more. The whole neon thing is very big at John Lewis this Christmas. Again, this looks super impressive but really all you need to do to recreate this look is pick out some light reflective serving dishes, run some neon fairy lights down the middle of your table, get some funky gold crackers and then just go to town dotting around the glitzy tree decorations. Oh, and then just make sure you serve all your drinks in a fancy (but actually pretty cheap) Champagne saucer.
2. Pop an easy (but thoughtful) gift at each setting
Don't pretend you are going to hand-make a little gift for every place setting, just make your life easier and pop a giant chocolate coin on everyone's plates. They (and particularly the kids) will love it and they look fab, too, especially with those lovely forest green napkins and mistletoe print plate. You can still get in some of those homemade vibes by placing some brown paper gift tags on each plate.
3. Use decorations to add more sparkle
As you may have noticed already, decorations are not just for the tree, they can be all you need to take your Christmas tableware to the next level too. This is such a simple but effective idea, you could also pick a different bauble for each setting – a London bus bauble for Auntie Karen, a little fox decoration for cousin Hugo and a glittery blue whale for nana Joyce. Cute and personal.
4. Go for a dark and dramatic theme
If you want to be grown up with your Christmas tableware (something we all aspire to but few of us achieve) try going for a slightly darker colour scheme. Go for a nice simple linen table cloth as a base, maybe in a dark grey or blue and build from there.
This look is big on the candlelight too, so make sure you have plenty on the go. If you are feeling responsible you could copy this look and float some tealight holders from the ceiling (maybe go with LED tealights, though) or just dot some taper candles up and down the table.
5. Cheat with a fake garland
You know that tree we talking about chopping down to get the right amount of foliage for the rustic look you are going for? Well leave it well alone and get yourself a fake garland to wind through your Christmas tableware. John Lewis have some gorgeous offerings so check out all of their garlands.
Keep it simple by mixing the green with black and white plus a few touches of gold – always a winning Christmas combo in our eyes.
6. Think about the kids' table too
If you have a separate kids' table at Christmas or at any of your festive parties, have some fun with their Christmas tableware too. Avoid the candles obvs, but just go with loads of colour and weird and wacky decorations to create a really fun, vibrant table set up. We love this Pompom Bell Garland and bowls of colourful (shatterproof) baubles can be really fun and effective too.