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Photography by Jay Baker
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One hundred years ago, holiday entertaining meant gathering family, pulling out the gilt-rimmed china, and baking pies with Jonathans stored in the root cellar that were picked from the orchard down the road months before. We’ve come full circle: The trend now is local, small, and high-quality, as opposed to Big! Loud! Fast! Expensive! Exotic! That translates to heirloom vegetables and heirloom serving dishes, intimate parties, and a focus on spending time rather than money. So we asked some of our favorite stylists to set the table for the holidays, with the directive to keep it simple (for Thanksgiving), cheap (for Christmas), and traditional (for Hanukkah).
Keep it Simple
Kelley Hall-Barr of K. Hall Designs created a Thanksgiving table that radiates the warmth of an old-master still life, but still feels modern.
“I love the concept of the hunting and gathering of the season, and sharing food with friends and family,” Ms. Hall-Barr says. “My husband and I took a great trip to Scotland—we love to fly-fish—and we stayed in all these little inns. They’d sit you down in one of these great old library rooms, give you a drink, then call you to dinner five minutes before you ate it. So that’s the concept here.”
The execution of the dinner, of course, is far simpler. The meal is “of the season,” made from food Ms. Hall-Barr gathers in her yard: raspberries, pears, and squash. Similarly, the simple floral arrangements use things you can pick out of your own yard: bittersweet, rose hips, and late-blooming flowers like asters and dahlias. The table is Ms. Hall-Barr’s own, made in England from centuries-old reclaimed wood, set with simple white ceramic dishes, silver chargers, and acorn-shaped salt and pepper shakers (to match the acorn squash, of course). The hunt-club theme gets a wink with a ceramic dish shaped like a tangle of deer antlers, while the berry dishes with colander holes are cute and practical: “You rinse your berries and then just eat them,” she explains. “It’s not a pretentious thing; I serve my kids their berries in those bowls. It’s one step shorter…and the berries don’t get squished by moving them over and over.”
The wood-handled utensils and Belgian linens add to the rustic (“but not Western!”) flavor. The table runner is the last piece of vintage hemp off of a giant spool sourced from Hungary; the undercloth is linen pulled from the warp, rather than cut, to create a soft edge. To create the ambience of flames in the fireplace, Ms. Hall-Barr used candles instead—far cleaner than emptying a firebox filled with ashes—and put artisan bread under covers, since it can go stale fairly quickly.
By this time, you’ve probably noticed the conspicuous absence of a bird. “Instead of doing a turkey, I’m really into the whole concept of meals that are done in ramekins or casserole dishes, with pastry and herbs,” Ms. Hall-Barr says. “The whole meal can be prepared ahead of time—you’re just browning the top, so you get to enjoy your family and friends instead of being stuck in the kitchen.”
Resources:Iron Mountain wall color: Benjamin Moore & Co., benjaminmoore.com; wine: Sugar Creek Vineyards & Winery, 125 Boone Country, Defiance, 636-987-2400, sugarcreekwines.com. oval serving plate, white glazed rectangle baking dish, and cream mini colander with saucer: Eigen Arts, eigenarts.com; deer-antler serving plate: Magenta, 510-849-3888, magenta-inc.com; Belgian side chairs: R.J. Imports; glass cloche butter dishes, silver acorn place-card holders, white beaded-rim dinner plates, white coffee mugs, cream pedestal bowl: America Retold, 866-862-0100, americaretold.com; silver chargers, wine glasses, cream pedestal bowl, and printed salad plates: Mary Carol; natural linen kitchen towels: Libeco-Lagae, libeco.com; beaded-edge silver bowl, beaded-edge silver candle pedestal, white pedestal vase, and cream bowl with ruffle edge: India Handicrafts, 800-524-6766, ihionline.com; beaded glass hurricane lamps, Marshal M-Glass Inc., 678-860-8778; “Un Verre D’Amante” etched drinking glasses: Vagabond; metal cabinet/serving bar; antique buffet, painted in Benjamin Moore Pashmina paint with glass overlay; wooden farm dining table; antique silver pitcher; cream and red toile bolster pillows; and K. Hall Designs screen-printed sandalwood candles; all available at K. Hall Designs, 8416 Manchester, 314-961-1990, khalldesigns.com
Holiday Entertaining — St. Louis At Home from St. Louis Magazine on Vimeo.
Keep it Traditional
Though there’s no such thing as Hanukkah without a menorah, Andrea Miles notes that while they all have nine branches, 21st-century menorahs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. “I found one that was shaped like a slide, with swings; there was another one that looked like a series of perfume bottles,” she says. For this table, she chose a nontraditional, neo–Art Deco menorah by Michael Aram, from his 2007 “Forest Leaf” collection.
The soft, curvy lines of the waterlily menorah echo the floral embroidery on the sheer white tablecloth and tie into the table’s flower arrangement, a bou-quet of simple white tulips. “Most of the items are from United Hebrew Congregation,” Ms. Miles says. “They had amazing dreidels; they’re like works of art.”
The holiday’s traditional colors are blue and white, like Israel’s flag—but finding napkins or a tablecloth in an appropriate blue was tough. “We solved that by tying blue ribbons around the napkins,” says Ms. Miles. The emphasis during Hanukkah is on family, food, and ritual, rather than on gifts, so the table is set with wine and a loaf of round, braided challah. Ms. Miles placed a silver kiddush cup next to the place setting for the head of the household, who will bless the wine and bread and light the menorah candles during the eight days of the holiday.
The curves of the crystal glassware are reminiscent of the kiddush cup’s silhouette. The table is also scattered with silver gelt, each place setting outfitted with a contemporary dreidel and a dreidel-handled spreading knife.
On the sideboard are small presents, to be unwrapped by the youngest members of the family each day of Hanukkah. Ms. Miles, who is not Jewish, has honed her skills as an ace present-wrapper during Christmases past, and has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve. Her neat trick for small Hanukkah gifts: wrap them in scrapbooking paper and bedazzle them.
Resources: Challah: Protzel’s, 7608 Wydown, 314-721-4445; cake: Clayton’s Bakery, 11744 Manchester, 314-821-2509, claytonsbakeryanddeli.com; dreidels, tzedakah box, kiddush cup, necklace, menorah candles, blue matchbox, glass Star of David jewelry box, Arte Italica dishes, and Michael Aram menorah: United Hebrew Congregation Gift Shop, 13788 Conway, 314-469-0700, unitedhebrew.org; Juliska glasses: Byron Cade, 7901 Clayton Road, 314-721-4701; Star of David coasters: Neiman Marcus, Plaza Frontenac, 314-567-9811, neimanmarcus.com; dreidel spreading knives: Sign of the Arrow, 9740 Clayton, 877-869-7356, signofthearrow.com
Keep it Cheap
Kathy Curotto’s Christmas table was inexpensive to put together, but it doesn’t look cheap. “Instead of getting stuff at the dollar store, I used what I had,” she says. “It’s nice to bring out all the fun things hidden in the cabinets and cupboards, and then add greenery.”
The trick to using what you have, says Mrs. Curotto, is to “cycle it in—focus on a certain color palette, theme, or look. Little touches go a long way.” Another free and plentiful resource is your own creativity. “Table settings with a package on the plate are pretty, but it’s been used over and over,” she says. “I put the salad plate on top of the dinner plate, which layers it. The napkin was folded up to make a pocket, then folded behind, and I slipped a package inside there.”
She dressed up her existing dishware with red ribbon and greenery, which is something she recommends doing throughout the house. The table runner and chair covers are hemp grain sacks she had on hand, dressed up with decorative stitching. (“Just to do something a little special,” she says, “I did a little running stitch of two circles and a square.” Burlap would work just as well, and it’s also very inexpensive.)
The garlands are, for the most part, greenery from her yard. “Garland comes in three weights,” she says, “and you can get the cheaper version, the thin garland, and then add your own branches—boxwood or azalea—to give it more texture.” This look works because it’s not too shiny-shiny, and gets its texture and interest from other natural materials, like the wood-veneer place cards. For those,
Mrs. Curotto used a calligrapher, but you don’t have to get that fancy; if you’ve got lousy handwriting, she says, “You can use a stencil. And you can use just one letter, instead of the whole name.”
Finally, for gifts, “Ribbon is key,” she says. She used the simplest of papers, including brown craft paper, and recycled a department-store box, covering up the logo with an extra-wide ribbon. Taking the inexpensive approach can inadvertently result in good design: “Sometimes it’s better to just dangle one little ornament from a doorknob, rather than, say, hanging several ornaments from a garland,” she says, “because at that point, it’s so much, you don’t even really see it.”
Resources: Curtains and curtain rods and Christmas-tree topper (on chest): Pottery Barn, multiple locations, 888-779-5176, potterybarn.com; doorknobs: Baldwin, 800-566-1986, baldwinhardware.com; glass carafe: Crate & Barrel, 1 The Boulevard–St. Louis, 314-725-6380, crateandbarrel.com; glasses: Lusso Home, 165 Carondelet Plaza, 314-725-7205, lussohome.com; Edme vintage plates: Wedgwood, available through Replacements, 800-737-5223, replacements.com; vintage grain sacks (for table runner and chair covers): Blue Ocean Traders, 502-637-1840, blueoceantraders.com; embroidery thread for decorative stitching: Hobby Lobby, 1215 S. Kirkwood, 314-821-1899, hobbylobby.com; wood-veneer tags: Bell’occhio, 415-864-4048, bellocchio.com; calligraphy: Ellen Gray, available through Service Bureau, 9773 Clayton, 314-991-1104
