I recently hosted a Christmas party for my Miss Manners girls. "Gingerbread" was my theme. Above you see my dining room table. The light is much better in this room!
This is a picture of the kitchen table. Less light, but I actually like the fact that the table is a little smaller. It "fills up" more nicely than the larger one in the dining room. Below I'll walk you through the steps I took to build my tablescapes, but first, let me show you something...
This, my friends, is the basis of a Dollar Tree Christmas party! I LOVE Dollar Tree when I'm planning a party. This is about $30 worth of party supplies, although I ended up not using all of it. I have it in my car to return after the holidays. Yes, you can return things to Dollar Tree. Just hold on to your receipt.
I began with my white linen tablecloth.
Next I added a burlap runner. I have lots of colors of burlap that I use for runners. I made this particular runner for this past Easter and also used it for Thanksgiving last month.
I folded a red and tan checked runner in half and placed it down the middle so the brown burlap would show underneath.
Confession time - I had bought several yards of this fabric MANY years ago intending to make the kids matching pajamas for Christmas. Never happened. But it reminded me of Christmas and gingerbread men, so I made it into several runners. I can always go back and cut it up into napkins or something else.
I have a couple of cookie jars from my collection of Johnson Brothers "Friendly Village" that worked great. They remind me a little of gingerbread houses.
And tucked under the branches of my little Charlie Brown Christmas trees, they were the perfect place to hide the control box for the string of mini lights!
I already had the trees as well as the mini gingerbread ornaments. I just added the string of mini lights from Dollar Tree.
Red paper plates from Dollar Tree serve as chargers.
Then I layered on my clear glass luncheon plates.
My recycled Starbucks jars were perfect, as usual!
I purchased these little individual tin cupcake stands awhile back and was waiting for the perfect time to use them. I like the way they add a little darkness and breakup the reds and browns.
I found the gingerbread treat bags at Dollar Tree (12 for $1!) and filled them with candy canes, Christmas pencils and cute little erasers. I tied them with twine and added green jingle bells also from Dollar Tree.
Guess where I found the cookie cutters? You guessed it. I bought four bags of them, so I got 24 for $4!
I added candy canes and scattered them all down the table.
We really didn't need flatware, but I picked up a package of green plastic cutlery at Dollar Tree to add a little color.
I made each young lady her own gingerbread house using supplies from Stampin' Up. This took a little time, but was so worth it. Aren't they precious?
Red straws from Dollar Tree and my homemade cupcakes rounded out each place setting.
Even the cute cupcake liners came from Dollar Tree. I like to bake in one liner and then set it in a second after icing them. Just makes it look prettier to me!
Another view of the place settings.
I bought the tissue garland at Dollar Tree but then got tired of opening them! After hanging this red one, I pulled out the green wreath that I made for St. Patrick's Day even though it never made it into the pictures! Gingerbread men are scattered on the windows of the china cabinet.
Red and green tissue paper garlands and a string of gingerbread men decorate my grandmother's antique mirror.
The young ladies had a wonderful time! We talked about the importance of giving versus receiving, and we made plans for the rest of our Miss Manners year! Then, they headed out into the brutally cold wind and weather to play until time to go!
I love having these young ladies in my home! Christmas is such a wonderful time to entertain!
I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!
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