The middle of the Christmas table is the one spot everyone looks at for the whole meal, and a bowl is the simplest thing to put there. It gives the table a centre, gathers lots of small things into one shape, and goes back to everyday use in January. These Christmas centrepiece ideas all start with one bowl, with plain notes on what a paper bowl can and cannot do.
What is a Christmas centrepiece?
A Christmas centrepiece is the arrangement in the middle of a table that the rest of the setting takes its lead from. On a dining table it is usually low and long, so people can see each other across it. On a coffee table or sideboard it can be rounder and a little higher. A decorative bowl filled with one kind of thing does the same job and is far easier to change.
Six Christmas centrepiece ideas using a bowl
- Baubles in a bowl. Rounds, drops and stars heaped together, largest at the bottom.
- Whole clementines. Unpeeled, in a wide bowl, with a few pine cones between them.
- Pine cones and bare twigs. Cones in the bowl, two or three twigs rising out of it for height.
- A bowl and a garland. A garland laid down the middle of the table, with a gap at its centre for the bowl.
- Two bowls, two heights. A large bowl and a small one, filled with the same thing.
- The bowl on its own. A strong shape, left empty on a plain runner.
How to make a Christmas centrepiece
You do not need glue, wire or florist's foam. Making a centrepiece is mostly arranging, in this order:
- Lay a base. A runner, a length of plain linen or a garland along the centre line. It draws a boundary and stops things drifting apart.
- Place the bowl. Set it at the midpoint of the base.
- Fill it with one thing. One category, in quantity, to just below the rim, so the inside curve still shows.
- Add two or three things around it, then stop. A few pine cones or sprigs, grouped close to the bowl rather than spread along the table.
How to set Christmas table decorations
Work from the bottom up and from the middle out: the cloth or bare wood first, then the runner or garland, then the centrepiece, then the place settings. Only then add small extras, such as a name card, a sprig of rosemary on each napkin or a single bauble at each place.
Keep the centrepiece below eye level for someone sitting down, and leave a clear band on either side for plates and glasses. Before anyone sits, take one chair yourself and check you can see the chair opposite.
Christmas centrepiece for a dining table
A long table needs a long centrepiece, and the simplest way to get length is a garland of fir or eucalyptus laid down the middle, parted at the centre for one bowl. Whatever you use as a Christmas centrepiece bowl, go wide and low rather than tall.
Our set of two paper mâché bowls in a natural mud finish (£79) shows the proportions that work. The large bowl is about 14 cm tall and 28 cm wide: low enough to talk over, wide enough to hold its own on a long table. Fill the smaller bowl with the same thing and set it further along, so the two read as a pair. Both are made by hand in Jaipur from recycled paper, so each one varies slightly.
A Christmas garland above the table
If the table is already crowded, put the colour above it instead. Our handmade colour-block bell garland (£49.99) hangs from a hook at each end, across a window or a wall, and its bells come in bold pairs such as navy with white and yellow with sky blue. Hung behind the table, it frames the centrepiece without taking any room on the cloth. Let one of its colours decide the baubles in the bowl.
Christmas centrepiece for a round table
A round table has no long axis, so a garland has nowhere to go. Centre a single bowl and keep everything within the middle third. Because the bowl is seen from every chair, its shape matters more here: a rim that rises and falls, or a foot that lifts it off the cloth, gives everyone something to look at. Choose one from our paper mâché bowls, then fill it lightly with baubles, or leave it empty with three pine cones on the cloth beside it.
Christmas centrepiece with baubles
Baubles in a bowl is the quickest centrepiece of all. A few rules make it look deliberate rather than dumped:
- Mixed shapes. Rounds, a drop and a flat star sit together better than six matching spheres.
- Big ones first. The largest at the bottom, the small ones on top where they show.
- Matt with a little shine. One or two glass baubles among matt ones catch the light.
Our Scandi folk art bauble set (£29.99) is mustard, brown, cream and blue, with a flat star among the round baubles. The red and white folk art set (£24.99) has candy stripes, florals, an elongated drop and a star. Both are made by hand, so the pattern varies a little from set to set. For colour pairings and other fillers, see what to put in a decorative bowl for Christmas.
Christmas table decorations using natural materials
Natural Christmas table decorations cost little and look relaxed. With a paper bowl they follow one rule: dry things go in, fresh things go around.
- In the bowl: pine cones, bare twigs, dried seed heads, dried grasses, or whole clementines and red apples with their skins on.
- Around the bowl: sprigs of fir, spruce or rosemary along the runner, swapped out as they fade.
Fresh greenery holds moisture, which is why it stays out of a paper bowl. Whole fruit is the only food the bowl should hold, so take out anything that starts to soften. For a woodland look, tuck a few of our handmade red and white toadstool ornaments (set of four, £19.99) among the pine cones.
Christmas centrepiece for a coffee table
A coffee table centrepiece gets knocked, moved and leaned over, so keep it simple. One bowl, one kind of contents, and nothing that needs rearranging after every cup of tea. Pine cones or baubles suit it best, because they cannot be put back wrong. Keep the arrangement to about a third of the table, with clear space either side for mugs. There is a fuller method in how to style a coffee table with a decorative bowl.
Christmas centrepiece flowers: fresh or dried?
Flowers are the usual answer and often the awkward one in December. Cut stems need water, which a paper bowl cannot hold, and they are past their best long before the decorations come down. If you want fresh flowers on the table, give them a vase of their own, away from the bowl. Every idea on this page works without them, and if you miss their softness, put dried hydrangea heads or a loose handful of dried grasses in the bowl instead.
What to keep away from a paper bowl
Paper mâché is light and easy to live with, but it is paper. A few firm rules for the table:
- No candles, tealights or open flames in the bowl, beside it or anywhere in the arrangement. Keep the Christmas pieces away from heaters and open flames too. London Fire Brigade's candle safety advice says to keep candles away from paper and all decorations away from naked flames.
- No water: no cut flowers and no wet florist's foam. Our bowls are not waterproof.
- A dry cloth to clean, and never a dishwasher.
Our Christmas pieces are decorations, not toys, so keep them out of reach of small children and pets. The RSPCA warns that hanging decorations can tempt pets to play with them.
When the decorations come down
This is where a bowl earns its keep. The baubles go back in their box, wrapped in tissue and stored somewhere dry, and the bowl stays out with whole fruit or potpourri in it, or moves to the hall as a key bowl. Give it a quick dust with a dry cloth before it changes jobs, and see how to look after paper mâché for the rest.
Browse the Christmas collection for baubles and garlands, or our paper mâché bowls for the bowl itself.
