Setting the Table

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

The Christmas décor and candy and advertisements are all starting to come out now; I can’t believe it is almost a month away already!

This week’s stanza was a little bit difficult to find inspiration for a blog post. We finally came up with a pretty helpful and fun post I think. We decided to focus on the word clatter which made us think of dishes and then from dishes we thought of place settings and the dishes that we use on Christmas day. We’ve come up with some helpful suggestions and a guide to how to set up your table for Christmas dinner. We’ll show you how to fold napkins, how to set your table/lay out dishes, how to lay out the cutlery, and how to add crafty décor! I always get mixed up about where to put the fork and on what side so this is a very educational post; I’m learning as we teach everyone else. So we hope this guide helps you out and that you have an amazing Christmas dinner table this year.


Snowflake Place Cards – This is another one of those crafts where your own personal tastes come into play. We’ll give our suggestions and show you what we came up with, but just use our examples as a guide. Make the place cards to suit your personality and your Christmas décor. You can make them cute, sweet, elegant, classic traditional Christmas colours or wintery colours, whatever you choose it’s really up to you.

Napkin Folding – Here’s a fun way to fold your napkins for Christmas dinner. It’s not very hard. Nicole has provided a link that she used to guide her through her napkin folding and she folded a napkin for you as an example. I think it’s a super cute element to add to the dinner table on Christmas day.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Tree-Napkin-Fold/?ALLSTEPS

How to Set the Table – Ever wondered how to properly set the table? Wondered which side the utensils go on and in what order? Well, we’re gonna try and help you out and guide you through this so that you’re Christmas dinner table will look as though a pro decorated and set it!

We’ve chosen not to include a bunch of courses for our table setting; we kept it simple. I have included a link to a picture showing how to set the table for a bunch of courses so you can take a look at that. As you can see we have the dinner plate in the center with our folded cloth napkin on top. To the left is the fork and to the right is the knife and spoon. Above the dinner plate is the dessert spoon and fork. To the upper left is the bread plate, if you choose to serve bread. Up in the top right corner are the water and wine glasses. At the very top center is the name card if you decide to have them. Later on if you are serving coffee or tea with your dessert you can bring out a cup and saucer which would be placed on the right hand side above the spoon and just below the wine glasses.

http://www.elegantwoman.org/etiquette-proper-table-setting.html

Here are some table setting tips:

·         Bread plate with butter knife (top left of dinner plate)

·         Coffee cup (top right of dinner plate)

·         The bread plate goes to the left of the plate – touching your index finger and thumbs together, your left hand forms a “b” shape for bread.

·         To the right of the plate should be the knife and spoon – both have five letters, just like the word “right.” On the left, four letters, is the fork area.

·         The knife will point to the water glass, with wine glasses to the right.

·         Another table-setting piece of etiquette is that the knife edge should always face the plate.

·         If bread or rolls are to be served, a butter plate should be used.  The butter plate is located above the forks at the left of the place setting.   The butter knife is laid across it, slightly diagonally from upper left to lower right, with the sharper edge of the blade toward the edge of the table.

·         The wine glasses chosen for the formal table setting depend upon the menu, but their table setting arrangement is according to size, so that little ones are not hidden behind large ones.  Place them directly above the knives in a straight row slanting downward from the upper left.  Generally only one - at the most, two - wines are served, so a water goblet and one (or two) wineglasses are all that are necessary.  Frequently wine is not served at all, and iced-tea glasses or simply tumblers for water or mugs for beer are used.  

·         If you plan to serve coffee with the meal, the cup and saucer go to the right of the setting, with the coffee spoon on the right side of the saucer.