Reindeer and wreathes for Christmas

I love Christmas and everything about it.  I love being with friends and family.  I love Christmas carols.  I love assembling and decorating the Christmas tree.  I even like the hustle and bustle, the shopping, and the wrapping of Christmas gifts.  And my favorite Christmas symbol is the reindeer.

So imagine my delight when I opened my Christmas present from my mom last year to find this beautiful table runner.  Two reindeer grace each end of the table runner, and the silver of the deer sparkles and there is a red and green wreath around his/her (more about this below) neck.  All on a ivory/beige background with tiny silver glitter.  Perfect for a tablescape with traditional red and green colors.  It has been many years since I’ve had a traditional Christmas table in red and green – the last one was probably when the kids were young.  I didn’t have a lot of red and green in my meager stash last year and the Christmas table had already been decided upon.  So I tucked this beauty away for next (this) year.

As an aside, I found out from the San Diego zoo website that reindeer are the only deer species in which the females also have antlers.  The males apparently shed their antlers around November whereas the females keep their antlers until after their calves are born the following spring.  Needless to say, there is a debate as to whether Dasher, Dancer, et al., – typically portrayed in December at Christmas – are male or female, based on the time of year.  No matter, all are beautiful to me.

To the evolution of the table….

Last year at the end of December, I found these red sparkly charger plates at Walmart, just by happenstance, for $1.00 each.  I hadn’t even considered at the time what I might use them for but the price was too good to pass up and 8 chargers came home with me.  Perhaps my subconscious was thinking about the reindeer table runner…

Unfortunately, no matter what the angle, lighting, or distance, I simply could not capture the sparkle from the chargers on my phone.  Grrr.  Perhaps its time for a real camera lol?

So now I have a reindeer table runner and some sparkly red chargers.  Hmmm…  Where to go next?

Fast forward to October 2019.  I had initially thought that some red dinner plates would look really nice, and found some lovely plates at Tuesday Morning during a recent trip to Palm Springs.  But my sister and I had taken the trip with my mom who had recently broken her arm, and I had already purchased 4 Putz houses to come back with me.  In the end, the logistics of getting the 4 houses together with my luggage and my mom’s on the trip back (my sister and her husband opted to stay a few extra days) plus the 8 dinner plates as carry on luggage proved daunting.  Sadly, I ended up not purchasing the plates (Why oh why don’t we have a Tuesday Morning in Calgary?).  My consoling thought is that the red dinner plates likely would not have sat well on the red charger plates.  Reds can be notoriously hard to match.

Back in Calgary, I was also searching for a red reindeer to match one that I had purchased last year but didn’t have a mate.  I had no luck finding a mate for it this year either, but I did come across two red velvet reindeer in HomeSense.  They came in red, green, and a brilliant sapphire/cobalt blue.  I debated about them all for about a week, and was very lucky when I went back the next weekend and the red ones were still there.  Yes, I thought, they will go with the reindeer table runner.  And they have wreathes around their necks too, just like the reindeer in the table runner.  Making progress…

To preview the tablescape, shortly after, I came across these wreath salad plates in Pier 1.  OMG.  How perfectly unexpected was that?

The salad plates have four different wreathes on a slightly distressed background.  This one:

This one:

This one:

And the last one:

I paired the salad plates with my Antique White Mikasa china dinner plates on top of the sparkly red charger and a faux cedar place mat.

The plaid napkins with our everyday flatware (which we’ve had for so long I don’t remember where it came from) seemed the perfect compliment.  The apparent “discoloration” on the flatware is from the reflection of the chandelier above.

To complete the centerpiece, I added a red house lantern with reindeer cutouts and a quirky, crooked red tree.  I placed some faux garland around the house, tree, and reindeer, and added some mercury voltive candles.

The cardinal and acorn salt and pepper shakers seemed at home with the rest of the table.

The plates are reflected in the silver wine glasses.

lots of glare that day…

To the evening view, I added a few extra candles and some fairy lights.  Some of the fairy lights twinkle which adds almost a magical feel to the tablescape.

I hope everyone gets a wee bit of time to relax and enjoy those special and peaceful moments amidst all the hustle and bustle of the season.  Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

Table:

Red Chargers: Walmart

Plaid napkins, red lantern house, red tree,  Mikasa dinner plates, red velvet reindeer: HomeSense

Mercury Voltives: Michaels

Cardinal and acorn salt and pepper shakers: Pottery Barn

Wreath salad plates, silver wine glasses, table runner: Pier 1