How to Set a Christmas Dinner Table: What to Buy

A long table wants tall candles in number, and a box of twelve 12 inch tapers covers two or three sets of candlesticks with spares. Northern Lights colors the wax through rather than dipping a white core, so the candles stay crimson as they burn down.

They are fragrance free, which matters at dinner: scent competes with the food and the wine. The maker says straight sides give them 30 percent more wax than a standard taper and that they burn about an inch an hour, so a 12 inch candle outlasts a long Christmas dinner and the washing up.

Light them before guests sit down and snuff them when the table is cleared. Skip them for a household with small children at the table; a low row of votives is safer.

The catch. Red wax on a white cloth is the classic Christmas stain. Use bobeches or trim drips before they fall.

A red cloth does most of the work of a Christmas table on its own. This one is 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen, which gives it linen's texture and drape with less wrinkling than pure linen, finished with a hemstitched border.

At 58 by 120 inches it is long enough for a table of about 96 inches with a drop at each end, which is where most dining tables land once the leaf is in. Measure first: add 16 to 24 inches to the table's length and width for a proper overhang.

It goes in the machine on a gentle cycle and irons warm. Skip it if your table is round or short; Solino sells the same cloth in other sizes, and a smaller table looks swamped by a 120 inch cloth.

The catch. Red can shed dye in the first washes. Wash it alone before it meets the white napkins.

Christmas dinner is when the serious red comes out, and it deserves more room than an everyday glass allows. The Classico Bordeaux holds about 22 ounces, stands about 9.8 inches tall and has a wide round bowl that gives a big wine space to open up.

Schott Zwiesel makes it in Germany from its Tritan crystal, which the maker designed to resist breakage and clouding in the dishwasher. That matters at the end of a long dinner, when nobody wants to hand wash twelve stems.

Six glasses sets a table of six; buy two sets for a larger party. Skip it if your cupboard is short; at nearly ten inches it will not fit under every shelf.

The catch. Tall glasses are easy to knock over across a crowded table; set them to the upper right of each plate.

The best Christmas centerpiece is low enough to talk over and simple enough to fill from the garden or the fruit bowl. This Lenox bowl is 10.5 inches across with a 118 ounce capacity and a scalloped rim finished by hand in a soft tea stain.

Filled with clementines and a few sprigs of fir or holly, it looks festive without looking bought for the day. After the holiday it becomes a serving bowl for salad or potatoes, and it is dishwasher and microwave safe.

Lenox backs French Perle with a lifetime breakage replacement program, which is unusual and worth registering for. Skip it if your table is narrow; at 10.5 inches it takes real space between the candles.

The catch. The tea-stained rim reads as rustic; buyers who want crisp white porcelain will find it too country.

Most households serve Christmas dinner with a mix of kitchen spoons and the carving fork. A matched serving fork and spoon looks better on the table and is easier to pass. Mepra's Due set is 18/10 stainless steel, made in Italy by a family firm known for modern flatware.

Due is a slim, modern pattern, plain enough to sit beside most flatware without clashing. It is fully dishwasher safe, and the maker says the steel resists rust, fading and tarnishing, so it comes out of the holiday load looking the same.

The set is two pieces. For a large dinner with several dishes, buy two sets, or add a pie server and a ladle. Skip it if your flatware is ornate and traditional; a plainer pattern beside it can look unfinished.

The catch. Expensive for two pieces; the price reflects the steel and the maker, not a lot of metal.