DESIGN ITALY EDITORIAL by Cristina Morozzi: Celebrating Christmas in style

At Christmas, set a festive table with your best service, crystal glasses, and place cards.

There’s no escaping Christmas lunch or dinner, a timeless tradition that is celebrated in various ways all around the world each year. 

The key to a perfect Christmas celebration is to set a festive table, for example with an embroidered tablecloth, your best set of tableware, crystal glasses, place cards, or a host of other decorations and festive objects.

Christmas table decorations can include holly, mistletoe, pine cones and candles. Other traditional alternatives are branches, berries and floral compositions, red poinsettias, or gold and silver ribbons and strings of light to match your Christmas tree.

Or you can take inspiration from architect Massimiliano Locatelli from architectural firm CLS Associati. A few years ago at their Christmas dinner at deconsecrated church San Paolo Converso, which had become the firm’s headquarters, they set each table with plaster and sequined statuettes purchased from shops at Via Paolo Sarpi in Milan’s Chinatown.

Another unique alternative is to decorate your table using ceramics and earthenware inspired by Italian regional traditions, like the store windows of Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship stores with their display of a bounty-laden Sicilian Baroque table.

Those with a more creative flair can opt for an eclectic table that blends different styles and traditions. Take cues from fashion, with ribbon and lace decorations, or for a more retro look use fairy tales and comics as inspiration. Or you can invite each person to bring along a symbolic object with them.

However you decorate your table, whether with a single-colour theme or a blend of colours, or with a fun or traditional theme, make sure to set a table that wows with a beautiful centrepiece, like those in ceramic by Gio Ponti for Richard Ginori, created for Italian embassies abroad.

And as Christmas is all about joy and festivity, any table will be the perfect table, as long as you gather around it with those you love. 

Cristina Morozzi

Take a look at our Christmas Gifts Guide.