Christmas Centerpiece Ideas: 9 Tables That Work

A Christmas centerpiece has one job: make the table feel like an occasion without getting in the way of dinner. The prettiest arrangement in the world fails if guests have to lean around it to pass the potatoes, or if it fills the room with a scent that fights the turkey.

Below are nine ideas that work on real tables, some you can make in an afternoon and some you can have delivered ready to go. First, the three rules that make any of them work.

Three rules before you start

• Keep it low, or keep it high. Under about 30 cm tall, people can see each other across the table. If you want height, go tall and slender, with the flowers above eye level, like a candlestick. The middle height is the one that blocks faces.
• Skip strong scents near food. Lilies and hyacinths smell wonderful in a hallway and overpowering next to dinner. Lily pollen also stains tablecloths. Roses, carnations and evergreens are better table company.
• Keep flames clear of greenery. Cut evergreens dry out quickly in a heated house. Real candles need a hurricane glass or plenty of clearance, and should never be left burning in an empty room. Flameless LED pillar candles in real wax look convincing and can sit right in the greens.

9 Christmas centerpiece ideas

In rough order from most to least formal:

• 1. A low ring of flowers around a hurricane. The classic holiday centrepiece: roses and evergreens in a low ring, with a candle protected by glass in the middle. Our Glowing Elegance Centerpiece is built this way, with white roses, spray roses, carnations and baby's breath set among holiday greens around a glass hurricane and a white taper.
• 2. The three-taper arrangement. Three tall candles rising from a bed of flowers and greens reads instantly as Christmas. The Season's Glow Centerpiece encircles three white tapers with white lilies, carnations, chrysanthemums, gold pinecones and plaid ribbon. One note: it includes lilies, so choose something else for a home with a cat (our guide to flowers safe for cats explains why).
• 3. A low bowl of red roses and cedar. The easiest DIY that still looks expensive. Cut a dozen red roses short, so the heads sit just above the rim of a wide, low glass vase, and tuck sprigs of cedar or pine between them. To hold stems where you want them, make a grid across the top of the vase with clear floral tape, or set a pin frog in the bottom.
• 4. A bud-vase runner. Perfect for a long table or a buffet. Line seven or nine small vases down the middle of the table, each with one or two stems: a red carnation, a spray rose, a sprig of cedar or eucalyptus. A set of glass bud vases costs less than one large arrangement, and afterwards the stems gather into a bouquet.
• 5. A woodland basket. Greens, holly, red berries and pinecones in a rustic basket look at home on a farmhouse table and keep for weeks. Our Christmas Coziness Basket is exactly this, and moves to a sideboard or front hall after dinner.
• 6. A living centrepiece. Two or three small potted plants in a row, a poinsettia in the middle, outlast any cut arrangement. Keep them out of drafts (our poinsettia care guide covers the rest) and they'll still look good on New Year's Day.
• 7. Fruit and greens. Clementines, pomegranates and fresh cranberries on a long platter with cedar sprigs tucked between: cheap, cheerful, and it smells of Christmas. For a variation, fill a glass bowl with water and cranberries and float a candle on top.
• 8. Winter white. White roses, white carnations, silvery foliage and white pillar candles. It feels festive without being red and green, and it carries straight through to a New Year's dinner.
• 9. The no-maintenance tray. Pinecones, a few glass ornaments and flameless candles on a wooden tray or in a dough bowl. No water, no wilting, and it works for the kids' table, where real flames and tippy vases aren't welcome.

How big should a Christmas centerpiece be?

As a rule of thumb, about a third of the table's length, and narrow enough to leave room for serving dishes on either side. On a round table, a compact arrangement around 30 to 40 cm across sits comfortably in the middle. If the food goes on the table family-style, scale down: a runner of bud vases leaves more space than one wide arrangement.

Making a fresh centerpiece last through the holidays

Fresh centrepieces last longest when they arrive a day or two before the dinner, have time to open, and live somewhere cool overnight. Top up the water every day, because a warm room drinks an arrangement dry fast, and keep it away from the fireplace, radiators and the oven. Carnations, chrysanthemums and evergreens regularly last two weeks. Roses are the shortest-lived, about a week, which is why they're usually paired with greenery that keeps the arrangement looking full. Our guide on how long flowers last covers each flower.

Ordering a centerpiece for delivery

If you're hosting, a delivered centrepiece takes one job off a very long list. If you're a guest, it's one of the most useful things you can send: it solves the host's table. Either way, have it arrive the day before the dinner, not the afternoon of. Our centerpieces and the wider Christmas collection are arranged and hand-delivered by a local florist anywhere in Canada, for a flat $19.99. Order by 1:00 PM in the recipient's time zone, Monday to Saturday, for same-day delivery, and by December 22 for delivery before Christmas. For more ways to say thanks to a host, see our hostess gift ideas.