It’s December and finally time to setup all the holiday decor. We spent the past couple of days making our home festive. The Christmas tree is up along with lots of lights, our stockings and even a cool ornament display. I will share photos soon and keep posting to Instagram! Today I’m sharing tips on hosting a holiday dinner party in collaboration with Tiny Prints. I love shopping from Tiny for all my personalized stationery and gift needs. This whimsical holiday dinner party was inspired by the Banded Spirit invitation collection . I created a personalized menu, invitation and gift tags to fit my theme. At the end of the post I’ll share links to all the decor + dishes, although some are vintage that I’ve collected. Enjoy!
I always say, if you’re hosting any type of party check your inventory of dishes, linens and decor. Based on what you already own, choose your favorite pieces and start to create a theme or color palette. Then go out and shop for anything extra you need. This keeps your collection cohesive and makes it possible to create multiple table setting styles. I really have a thing for gold and pink so I collect different pink glassware, plates, and gold flatware. I can mix and match my sets and throw in other color combinations for a stylish table.
Once you have the dishes, glassware and flatware picked out move on to the linens. Choose a table cloth in one of the themes colors or complimentary color. I like to mix light and dark colors or go with pastels only. Linens can be inexpensive if you shop during sales or from places like Home Goods. I collect throughout the year so that I have several options handy. I also purchase fabric to use as a tablecloth if I can’t find a color or patter I love. Fabric is very inexpensive and easy to hem. For a standard size dining table (around 6ft) I usually buy around three yards. You can do the same for napkins or even buy fabric dye from Michaels if you can’t find the right shade.
Menu cards are such a nice touch, even for an informal or intimate dinner party! Your guests will be excited about the meal well before it hits the table. Creating a menu card also forces you to plan early, leaving you with the easy task of creating a grocery list and awareness of how much time you’ll need to cook.
I love having fun elements on the table or as backdrop. For this whimsical holiday dinner party, I added adorable bottle brush trees from Target Threshold and gemstone ornaments from IKEA. Setting up an extra table or using a china hutch is a great way to display holiday decor and wrapped gifts.
The best advice I give is to setup your holiday table as early as possible. Don’t wait to till the day of the party to decorate, set out plate settings or arrange flowers. Having everything ready to go days ahead will making your to-do list so much shorter. Focus instead on preparing the meal, prep for that early too, and then enjoy your guests!
My shopping list:
- Holiday stationery from Tiny Prints
- Bottle brush trees from Target Threshold
- Geometric ornaments from IKEA
- Light blue table cloth from IKEA
- Vintage pink dinner plates, Lenox china
- Gold flatware set from Target
- Vintage Green glass goblets from Esselle SF
- Pink candle sticks from Michaels
- Dessert plates from Target Threshold
- Gift boxes from Sugar Paper for Target
*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Tiny Prints. All content, ideas, and words in this post are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that allow me to create new and special content like this for Planning Pretty.
