Christmas Cheer on the Cheap

I know you hear the same story all the time about how those of us who grow up to be professional event planners have loved throwing parties since we were wee little tots. And I am no exception. My instinct is always to play hostess and very little can stand in the way of my doing so. Case in point:

I don't celebrate Christmas. But I do embrace the spirit of the holiday season - and I relish any chance to entertain, of course. So when my dear friend Leif, who loves the holiday and had us at his fully decked out home last year on Christmas Eve, found out that he was going to be moving and unable to have the gathering this year, I didn't even blink an eye before volunteering to host.

The thing is - we don't have our own place right now. We moved out of our (adorable) apartment about two months ago and have been living with my Mother-in-Law while we save up to hopefully buy our own digs in 2011. Not having our own space means we don't have any of our own stuff; everything I would normally rely on to create a pretty party - platters, decor, serveware, glassware, etc - is all in storage. And even if we did have all of our partyware within arms length, we still wouldn't have anything appropriate for a festive Christmas Eve dinner. Hanukkah, maybe. But Christmas - not so much.

I adore Leif, and I wanted to create a holiday experience worthy of his approval (and mine, of course)- but with a few strikes against me (see paragraph above) and little disposable income available while we beef up our savings, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. So, I devised a little challenge for myself: create a festive dinner setting for under $50.

I had little direction or inspiration when I headed out into the world only a few days before Christmas looking for holiday decor bargains. I set out for the 99 cent Store, but I passed a Sears on my way so I decided to pop-in and found a delightful surprise: all of their Christmas decor was marked 50% off! Since Sears and Kmart are the same company, I popped over there, too, and was giddy to find the same sale in full effect. In fact, I found that every major retailer I went to that day had their Christmas inventory marked half off - except for Target, and I have to admit I was a little ashamed of my hometown favorite for not being part of the club.

At any rate, though I'm not usually a fan of sparkle, I started with two glittery faux-branches that I found at Sears and my color scheme grew from there. After scooping up some super cheap goodies at a couple of stores, here's what I came up with:

I started by creating the centerpiece using two plastic trays I bought on clearance at Z Gallerie and a round vase that Barbara (my mother-in-law) had at her house. I filled the bowl with green and gold ornaments from K-Mart and some gold tulle ribbon from Sears. Once the vase was centered on the gold tray, I adorned it with more gold tulle and the two branches that were the inspiration for the whole scheme.

For the place settings, almost everything I used already existed in Barbara's house - the table cloth, napkins, silver, plates and glasses. I have loved those antique pink stemmed wine glasses since the first time I laid eyes on them, and I had them in mind from the beginning of this little project. Luckily, the blush pink tone of the wine glass stems and of her dinner plates coordinated so nicely with the gold and green from the centerpiece. And the best surprise of all was the gold rimmed salad plates with leaves and fruit designs on them - just like in the branches! I had no idea she had those plates, but was delighted to discover them, since they were the perfect accent to the setting. I purchased the gold chargers at the 99 Cent Store and dressed the napkins with green ribbon and delicious-smelling cinnamon sticks.

I spent a little bit on candles and various candle holders, to round out the table design. We're a candle-lighting household, so I figure that's money well-spent, since most of the candles still have a lot of life left in them after their one use. Ironically, the tall mirrored candlesticks were an engagement gift from Leif a few years ago - they were the perfect finishing touch for the Christmas table we put together for him! Here's one final shot of the entire spread:

And here's the breakdown of my expenses:

Tray & charger from Z Gallerie: $6.01

Gold scarfing and branches from Sears: $10.39

Ornaments, green votives and cinnamon sticks from kmart: $13.97

Candles and votives from Big Lots: $8.78

Chargers from 99Cent Store: $5.49

Ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabric: $3.83

Candles from Target: $6.57

GRAND TOTAL: $55.04!

Not too shabby, huh? I'm super pleased with how it all turned out. And when Leif and his friend David walked in and took a look at the table the first thing they said was, "It looks like Anthropologie in here!" Doesn't get too much better than that, does it?

With the pretty table setting and the delicious feast made by Barbara, Leif and David, a wonderful Christmas was had by all...with only a very small dent to our bank accounts!