Centerpieces

Finally snow has begun to fall, and unbe­liev­ably Christ­mas is here. The trees are up, the out­side décor is per­fectly in place, and the refrig­er­a­tor (and in my case — the patio) is packed and stacked far beyond capac­ity full of ingre­di­ents for the hol­i­day meal. It is also at this time when I always real­ize I have for­got­ten to plan any kind of cen­ter­piece for the tables. This gen­er­ally results in me apply­ing one of my father’s very favorite proverbs “neces­sity is the mother of inven­tion,” fran­ti­cally scav­eng­ing through the pantry and the yard for beau­ti­ful things to adorn the table. In a per­fect world, I would set my cen­ter­piece days in advance and check it off my list. Unfor­tu­nately, my 14 year old cat respects no bound­aries and would more likely than not make him­self a nap­ping spot right in the mid­dle of my labored-over mas­ter­piece. For this rea­son the cen­ter­piece sim­ply must be assem­bled shortly before the meal. This year, how­ever, I am equipped with a plan. Much like gar­den­ing out­doors, a lit­tle bit of plan­ning goes a long way. A cen­ter­piece really is one of the most impor­tant ele­ments of an all-star Christ­mas or Hanukkah din­ner. Regard­less of your hol­i­day there are a few uni­ver­sal qual­i­ties to keep in mind when design­ing any cen­ter­piece. After all the meal you have worked tire­lessly to craft will shine even brighter on a well-set table. The key­stones of adorn­ing a table are height, color, tex­ture, and fragrance.

First and most impor­tantly, one must decide the gen­eral theme and palette for the table. High con­trast with green­ery and vivid pops of vio­let and tan­ger­ine, mono­chro­matic and nat­ural with cedar, box­wood, and pine min­gling to cre­ate tex­ture and sub­tlety, or a white table­cloth with white flow­ers and white orna­ments — just a few jump­ing off points for a spec­tac­u­lar table. Your cen­ter­piece can com­pli­ment, match, or com­pletely depart from your other décor.

One of the very best tips I have to offer is wait­ing to shop for your live mate­ri­als like flow­ers and green­ery until today, Christ­mas Eve. Gen­er­ally the nurs­eries have trees, rop­ing, and wreathes deeply dis­counted. At this time of year when bud­gets are already stretched thin, some­thing super­flu­ous seem­ing like a cen­ter­piece is eas­ily jus­ti­fied when the cost is kept low. Often I will buy a dis­counted cut Christ­mas tree and only use it to cut branches from to fill in side­boards, man­tles, and the table. Also florists and gro­cery stores gen­er­ally have cut flow­ers on sale too. A lit­tle bit of run­ning around on Christ­mas Eve will pay off in sav­ings and beau­ti­ful mate­ri­als to work with. Clus­ters of inex­pen­sive car­na­tions shine when mixed with just a few roses or hydrangea.

In my opin­ion, the car­di­nal sin of set­ting a table is a cen­ter­piece that is too high. Dif­fi­cult to remem­ber some­times because so often tables set in mag­a­zines and lifestyle shows on tele­vi­sion make a spec­tac­u­lar state­ment but would not func­tion for actu­ally sit­ting around and pro­mot­ing con­ver­sa­tion. A wise rule of thumb to keep in mind, noth­ing on the table higher than ten inches. Wine bot­tles are a nec­es­sary excep­tion, of course. Reserve top­i­aries and poin­set­tias for side­boards and buf­fets. When set­ting a table, I always place the cen­ter first. For a rec­tan­gu­lar table, an oval or rec­tan­gu­lar flo­ral arrange­ment is best. For an oval or square table. cir­cu­lar or square is best. For value and impact, I gen­er­ally use sev­eral small con­tain­ers of flow­ers instead of one large and expen­sive arrange­ment. Sev­eral con­tain­ers also per­mit vary­ing heights. Flow­ers at dif­fer­ent heights add inter­est and drama to the table. Vari­a­tion in height can also be achieved with can­dles or con­tain­ers of any­thing — orna­ments, curled rib­bon, or pinecones. Once the cen­ter and objects with height are set, it is time to fill in with tex­ture. I fill in around the vases with cut green­ery. The more vari­a­tion the bet­ter. Layer first with the least expen­sive and most abun­dant green­ery; gen­er­ally I have a lot of white pine on hand. Then fill in with a more del­i­cate green like cedar. Crown the mix with lit­tle touches of shiny box­wood. Easy lay­er­ing like this pro­vides a big return in impact. The matte nee­dles of white pine jux­ta­posed by the laci­ness of cedar and gloss and depth of box­wood make each par­tic­u­lar green look better.

Once the vases and ground­work of the green­ery are placed, it is all about the details. Tuck­ing beau­ti­ful star anise in the green­ery not only adds tex­ture and depth, but a light and spicy fra­grance. Fill in holes with sin­gle orna­ments as well as clus­ters. Also a mar­velous addi­tion to any hol­i­day tablescape are edi­ble and aro­matic addi­tions like candy. Tuck­ing a few sprigs or thyme and rose­mary into the green­ery cre­ates a rich and lay­ered aroma.

Christ­mas is a chaotic time, and details are eas­ily over­looked. I hope my years of mis­takes — I mean — expe­ri­ence — can help shave off some of that pres­sure on you at the zenith of the sea­son. Details that help make a spe­cial day even more magical.

Being Christ­mas Eve and the fifth night of Hanukkah I, on behalf of the whole Mas­ter Gar­dener Asso­ci­a­tion of Delaware County, would like to wish you and yours a very merry Christ­mas and happy Hanukkah. We are so appre­cia­tive and proud to share our pas­sion and edu­ca­tion with this com­mu­nity; and are grate­ful for all the sup­port you pro­vide us.

Stephen Jones is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener Volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Dec 24 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.