The Holly and the Ivy

The closer we get to the big day, the simpler my tables get. But there needn't be a down side to that.

I've been saving my vintage English china by Grindley for just such an occasion. The green trim is only suggestive of the season and is as simple as could be.

In order to let the suggestion sink in, the rest is kept very plain but festive as well.

All is lovingly laid on a snowy matelasse cover with only the holiday plants for show.

There's nothing more traditional than holly and ivy, but it doesn't show up as often as Poinsettias for tables, which is why I was ecstatic to find this pairing at the florist.

I wrapped the base with a pretty linen towel and tied it with a ribbon for the centerpiece. The only other embellishments are the holly sprigs at each place.

I was also lucky to find this week an impeccable set of twelve vintage monogrammed damask dinner napkins with my favorite initial! 

Glassware and flatware is also vintage.

A final inspiration to tradition, and never far from the celebration, is my facsimile edition of Washington Irving's Old Christmas, illustrated by R. Caldecott. I can't believe I'm throwing out terms like "thirty years ago" so casually, but I acquired the book when it was re-printed in 1979, and have read from it each Christmas ever since!

Thanks in part to Dickens and Irving, much of an American Christmas celebration is borrowed from our British family and friends. This beautifully bound and illustrated copy has also been as much an ornament for the house as any I could think of.

So I will add my sentiments to those of my dear old respected friend W. Irving writing in 1894:

"...If I can by any lucky chance ... rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow; if I can now and then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humour with his fellow beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain."

Wishing you the blessings of the season!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wassail! And Ciao! for now!

Jacqueline 

I'm linking to

Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday

Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday

My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday

Food For Thought for Holiday Books