Elegant Red and White Holiday Dining Room

Inside: Elegant Christmas table decoration ideas using classic red and white. Rich red roses, mercury glass, snow, and the glow of candles make a holiday tablescape full of light and joy that fills the length of a long dining table! ➡

Simple red and white cannot be rivaled as a color scheme when it comes to bringing Christmas cheer.

This year I wanted to create warm, nostalgic, and celebratory feelings of “comfort and joy“, so I used a color palette of deep red, silver, and white with vintage-inspired Christmas decorations throughout the main areas of our home.

The dining room follows suit and boy is it full of joyous red and white and light!

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The dining room is one of the first areas you see when you enter our home so it’s a perfect place to echo my red and white theme for the holidays.

Leaving the dining room table set throughout the entire holiday season feels so welcoming while it is awaiting a beautiful Christmas dinner!

If you missed any of the rest of my holiday home tour, you can catch up here:

The traditional red and white Christmas tablescape.

A dining room’s focus is of course on the dinner table, so the tablescape takes the spotlight. The Christmas table decorations I used to fill up the center of my ten foot dining table were very simple:

A full-length mirror as a table runner.

First I started with a long mirror “table runner“. It’s actually an inexpensive full length mirror you would attach to the back of a door.

I love it for its reflective qualities and it amplifies the sparkle and glow of the candles and mercury glass that sit on top of it. And it’s the perfect centerpiece base to fill up this long table.

Faux flowers, berries, and greens.

Next, I returned this white pedestal bowl. It stays on the dining table most of the year and just gets new seasonal contents.

To bring in the red and white, I filled it with faux red roses and white berries and tucked in a few faux cedar pieces from a dismantled pick.

Faux snow.

After the bowl was in place, I blanketed faux snow on top of the mirror. I love how much light and softness it brings to the table! I spread blanket snow directly on the mirror and then sprinkled loose snow on top. It gives more coverage to the loose snow while adding a nice, realistic texture to the blanket snow.

You can see my other favorite holiday decorating hacks here.

When I nestled everything into the snow it gave the tablescape such nice dimension. And it made the perfect backdrop with great contrast against the red ornaments.

(Remember to be careful if you are using real candles to keep the snow away and out of the candleholders.)

Candles.

Next, I lined the entire table with candles. My favorite flameless candles with realistic flickering flames sit on mercury glass candlesticks.

Then I interspersed lots of small candles in mercury glass votives to fill the center of the table with light.

Mercury glass ornaments and jingle bells.

To finish the centerpiece, I brought in more red and more mercury glass with some pretty ornaments. And lots of sparkle with bright silver jumbo jingle bells sprinkled down the table.

Place settings.

Now that the middle of the long table was full of red and white, it was time to set the places to complete the tablescape.

First, I placed white plates on top of chargers with an aged mercury glass look. (Have you noticed that I love mercury glass?)

I had a collection of Dollar Tree snowflakes left from a past hospitality event so I layered one on each place setting underneath the white dishes.

See how I used the same snowflakes on the porch here.

To add Christmas charm to each table setting, I tied the salad plate up in a bow in cheery red and white and tucked in pieces of faux pine cut from a larger pick.

I mixed together two different sets of heirloom white china because I don’t have ten place settings of either one. Then I filled the mercury glass ornament napkin rings with rich red napkins.

These napkin rings double as a place card holder. On Christmas Eve our crazy fun family has a theme that we dress up for. For that holiday dinner, these napkin rings hold place cards with trivia questions that go along with the theme. It keeps the conversation going and the family at the table longer!

The buffet.

My grandmother’s marble top sideboard sits behind the dining table. The French accessories are still in place but I added this wreath with red berries to the mirror.

I used the same ribbon from the staircase garland and tied a loose bow and let the tails stream down.

The bar.

Another feature in our dining area is this small wine bar. So I thought what better place for dancing reindeer? Just bringing more joy.

Want more Christmas tablescape ideas with red? See how I used red and green in this holiday tablescape.

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I hope this look at our dining room gives you some ideas for how to set a beautiful table at your house this Christmas season. You could go simply red (and white) like this one or use your own color theme. Pair it with some candles, flowers, a bit of sparkle, and your best dinnerware, and you’ll be ready to host a special holiday meal!

Eat, drink, and be merry,

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