Dress Your Table: 5 Festive Tabletops and How to Do it At Home

Thanksgiving kicks off a season of holiday fun, from Hannukah to Christmas and Gregorian New Year to Lunar New Year. Besides the necessary family meals, it’s a time of year when everyone seems inspired to get together. It is no coincidence that Dry January follows a December full of excessive cheerfulness. With this in mind, we’ve decided to serve up five festive table settings to inspire your holiday entertaining, whether your style leans more toward the studied whimsy of Laila Gohar, the opulent maximalism of Martini Mondadori, or the Chinese pastry cornucopia of Wing on Wo & Co.

Lauren Santo Domingo describes setting a table as “just like getting dressed: first I think about the occasion and what would be most appropriate. Is it formal or more relaxed…’ We encourage you to do the same and mix your outfits and table tops as often and boldly as possible – whether that means striped Murano glassware and over-dyed linens, like the unusual table art from Alex Tieghi-Walker, or soaring candlesticks dressed in silk bows, like Laila Gohar’s setting. As Gohar says: “All my tables are very different. They really depend on my mood and how I feel.”

Here are some ways to put together your table, inspired by the tableaus of these five creatives, from Wing on Wo’s reclining monkey centerpiece to Gohar World’s Battenberg lace wine glass slipper. But even if you buy these hand-painted dinner plates from Casa Cabana, be sure to follow Gohar’s end-of-party advice: “Don’t start washing dishes while the party is still going on. As soon as you start washing the dishes, the party is over. It kills the atmosphere.” I hope each of the items below sets the mood.

Lauren Santo Domingo of Tiffany & Co.

Martina Mondadori from Cabana

Alex Tieghi-Walker from Tiwa Select

Wing on Wo & Co.

Laila and Nadia Gohar from Gohar World