Santa Came to Town! – A Key to the Armoire

This has been a low-key Christmas for our family. After two years of a pandemic, and the necessary precautions we need to take daily, we were too exhausted to decorate as fully as we normally do. However, a Christmas table is a must because a table is the gathering place for our family, and that is what this Holiday season is all about.

The starting point of this table was, naturally, the centerpiece, which is a whimsical rendition of Santa Claus in his sleigh, with his flying reindeer. Since Santa is flying, I naturally needed a town for him to fly over, and so I placed a few Department 56 houses (all of which I found for you! See the links below!) around, and landscaped the space with LED Spode Christmas trees for added sparkle.

The 5-arm candelabra is the same that I featured in my Thanksgiving table (here), which was recently restored by Oexning Silversmiths (the other half of my lovely Insta-friend, Beth, at Gryphon Estate Silver). This time, I added antique, etched glass shades to mimic an old-fashioned street lamp in my little town. The lit houses and trees added such a magical glow during dinner, that no one wanted to get up!

Because the centerpiece was so colorful, I wanted to keep the rest of the decor simple, so I stuck to silver and gold. For the place settings, I chose my Gilded Age, Wallace Silversmiths, chased sterling silver chargers and matching bread plates. On top, I placed antique Pickard, gold-encrusted service plates from the 1920s, over which I featured the salad plate from my Lenox Holiday Tartan service. I absolutely adore this service, which, sadly, has been discontinued. Fortunately, I found lots of options for you to buy, if you love it as much as I do!

Because I decided to use my Gilded Age sterling silver and needle-etched goblets by Redlich (Elgin, also known as EL Sil, also made them), I also used the matching dessert goblets (featured on the pictures), which I switched for my sterling silver bouillon cups when we actually sat down to eat the first course. You can see them in some of the food pictures that I featured. These goblets are quite special, and I treasure them, for they are quite rare to find in these sizes. I did find a couple of listings featuring the tiny, cordial size, but could not find the larger sizes. Alongside, I featured a Ralph Lauren Home, Landon Gold champagne flute, and my Alvin sterling silver water goblets or chalices.

This time around I stuck to one flatware style, and settled on Wallace Grande Baroque. The ornate renacentist design complemented the Gorham Cromwell design of the nut basket that I placed with assorted bonbons and truffles. For the place card holders, I chose to accentuate the gold of the service plate, so I used these gold pears from Pottery Barn (which I could only find for you in silver!) and drew our initials in gold too. As for the tablecloth, I wanted a snowy canvas, so I used a simple, white cotton damask and a very old Madeira-embroidered topper with matching napkins. The subtle flower embroidery in taupe was highlighted by the white underneath in a pretty way. As usual, I decorated each chair with a cozy cable-knit, cashmere throw by Tahari Home (only found a red version that is so pretty!) and tied it with a sparkly Holiday ribbon onto which I tucked a pine bough with some frosted berries.

Finally, let me share the menu. We started with a tomato bisque, followed by a bourbon-infused apple and blue cheese crepe parcel with a bit of bourbon-laced creme fraiche and red onion marmalade. The main course was an individual beef Wellington with a velvety wine au jus sauce. The dessert was a creamy pillow of vanilla panna cotta over cinnamon cookie sand and pear caramel toffee sauce. The whole menu was a total hit, and everyone loved it, which always makes me happy!

I certainly hope you all had a marvelous and healthy Christmas, and I pray for an equally marvelous and healthy New Year! Thank you so much for following along! I hope you enjoy the video below too!