floradania.dk 49/2012
Article: Table, set yourself!
The menu isn’t the only thing you need to think about when you’re planning your Christmas dinner – the table decorations are just as much a part of the party. Give your Christmas table a personal touch with plants that match your taste and style 

“Turkey or goose?” is one of the major questions in many families as Christmas approaches. That issue usually finds an amicable solution, but what about the actual surroundings for the big day? What will delight the eye while the lovely Christmas dinner is pleasing the palate? 

Table decorations with plants 
With plants, you can create exactly the expression that emphasises your personal style, whether your preference is for the simple and elegant, or the festive and colourful. 

Delicate and stylish
White is the colour of winter, and what could be more beautiful and evocative than a simple and stylish Christmas table? Get out the white damask, and use plants with tendrils such as maidenhair vine or Muehlenbeckia. Decorate with baubles, pine cones, candles and branches for an elegant and festive look.
Christmas with a bang 
If you want the party to go with a colourful bang, plants offer lots of possibilities here, too. Cover the table with a neutral tablecloth, for example in flax, and create a cosy atmosphere with Christmas mini-plants, poinsettias, Cyclamen and Schlumbergera in bright, warm colours, and decorate with apples. It will bring some colour to your Christmas table, and create lots of life and festivity. 

Table arrangements will of course decorate the table during Christmas, but why should lovely plant arrangements only give you pleasure at mealtimes? Use plants in your Christmas decorations all over the house, and let the lovely freshness that plants provide blend with the Christmas spirit. 
Small Christmas tableaux with plants and candles 
You can create small, cosy plant tableaux, each telling its own little Christmas narrative, around the rooms – place for example one arrangement on the coffee table and another on the sideboard, and harmonise the plant colours and expression with the decor. 
You could for example decorate a dish with plants, candles, Christmas baubles and cones. Pack the soil on the plant into a leaf, then join all the plants with thin, colourful wooden pegs inserted through the plants. 

You can also create an elegant decoration with white candles. Attach the pine cones to the wire in rows by inserting them into an oasis block covered with moss. Make holes in the block and plant green Sedum makinoi Max in the holes. Finally, attach the candle holders. 
Fresh plants don’t burn
Enhancing the decor is not the only benefit of using living plants – the danger of fire is also greatly reduced compared to Christmas decorations made of branches, which will dry out as time goes on. The juice in the leaves and flowers stops flames being fed, and as the plants also need regular watering, this helps to further reduce the risk.