Winter Table Scape

I am just going to say the unpopular thing.  I love winter.  Now, I will be the first to admit getting my kid dressed for basketball at 7:30 in the morning when it’s zero degrees leaves a little bit of winter to be desired.  But. BUT.  I dream of hot chocolate, warm fires, movie night, a great book in bed, all the comfort food, and the snow days.  All of the snow days.

We are more than half way thru January, and for most the Christmas decorations have been put away, and our homes feel a bit sparse.  Well, that doesn’t have to be the case.  In the dining room, for Christmas, I usually have our nativity in there and garland and lights wrapped around a mirror.  It’s pretty simple because Chef and I host Christmas breakfast and often game night within a few days of Christmas, so our dining room table doesn’t get much attention. I knew this year I wanted a winter table scape once all the Christmas was boxed.  It was really easy to pull together and was a ton of fun to show off when I hosted one of my book club’s last weekend. Here it goes.

Generally I have a table cloth on our table, but I was ready for a change and to have one less thing to clean for a few weeks.  So I used kraft paper and folded a table runner.  The benefit being it was custom sized to my table.


Once I got the right size, I started gathering up layers of goodies to add. One five foot piece of glitter garland.  I picked this up a few years ago, and was not long enough for it’s original intended purpose, so it’s been hanging our basement.

I started slowly layering in other items. (That yes, I borrowed from Christmas, but who is any the wiser?  Tinsel trees and pinecones say winter and snow too.)

As to not start a fire hazard, I used kosher salt in these tea lights to create a pretty cool snow effect.


After I had it all laid out, I grabbed some rubber stamps, and stamped the runner.


I have a snow flake rubber stamp problem.  I used rose gold, glitter gold and white.  The white didn’t really turn out on the craft paper, but I did leave it in the car in the freezing cold, so when it thawed out, a lot of the ink had run out of the sponge.  The gold and rose gold gave just the effect I was looking for.  And yes, the snowman from my Christmas tags on instagram returned.


The runner and table scape have lasted a week and half.  The boys seem to enjoy it, and if they aren’t, they aren’t complaining about it.


For last week’s book club and dinner, I used the gold and rose gold as my inspiration.  I layered the table with champagne chargers, and copper and gold glasses, and a touch for red in the napkins.


And you can see I haven’t taken the pine garland and lights down yet.  They usually stick around until just before or after Valentine’s Day.  I’m not in a rush to get them down.

I know for many, the count down to summer and warmer temps is on, but I am not ready to let winter go just yet.