Colourful nutcrackers caught my eye at World Market at the start of the Christmas season.
Napkin rings in red, blue, green and black…
…matched boxes of crackers in the same colours. What fun (despite the rather sinister facial expressions that nutcrackers always seem to sport. Maybe it’s the teeth?)
I was in the Cape, so a quick stop at the Christmas Tree Shop revealed a cadre of nutcracker figures, on offer for the princely sum of $7 each. Oh my!
The teddy won my heart, of course.
And the Dickens character.
There were many more traditional ones, as well, so I picked up seven in all. Yup – definitely the teeth…
To style the table, I decided to highlight the cobalt and then limit the rest of the palette to black and white.
Libbey cobalt glasses and tea lights, black Twig flatware from World Market, a white runner from several seasons ago from Williams Sonoma and white napkins with red blanket stitching from HomeGoods did the trick.
I have a variety of Royal Stafford’s black and white transferware, some from eBay and some from Replacements, comprising a collection of the six different scenes with the same border. This one is Coaching Scene.
I love the milestone detail “Stoke 15”, referring to Stoke-on-Trent, which was the Pottery District in England.
The borders on all the plates feature fruit and flowers.
This one is Monarch of the Castle.
There he is, in all his glory.
I think the little dog on Hayride is my favourite.
Pier 1 held up their end with a Nutcracker Salt & Pepper.
Cobalt glass shines so beautifully in candle light.
Nutcrackers always signal “Christmas” to me. I remember my mother taking me to the Nutcracker ballet every year. I was far more interested in the hot chocolate and the treats that followed, as I inevitably fell asleep during the performance itself. But it was a lovely tradition and makes for very fond memories.
Enjoy the day everyone!
I’m sharing this post with Between Naps on the Porch.
I have many mean looking nutcrackers and yes, it’s those teeth. Guess they don’t have braces for nutcrackers. Bill was wondering why you need so many nutcrackers since you have your own nut-cracker Glenn. Beautiful table setting and the Cobalt blue is striking. BTW I made your broccoli soup which is the best and I even bought an immersion mixer. Thanks for recipes and helpful hints.
Hey! So glad you liked the soup, and you will get tons of use out of the immersion blender!
It’s odd exactly how mean nutcrackers look, isn’t it? I didn’t really notice until I set the table, and was quite taken aback! Somewhat gruesome… but cute and colorful. Hope Christmas prep is going well in your house. Glenn is looking forward to exchanging insults with Bill in the New Year!
I have these and I love them. I only have the hayride and the herdsman and I use them in October. While everyone is doing the gothic, creepy thing, I go with the harvest. I use these with hemstitched rusty orange placemats and vintage black, powder horn goblets and they look fantastic. Thanks for the post!
I’m finding that pattern immensely versatile. Love the idea of using it as a harvest pattern. I’m with you -gothic and creepy is not my thing. The horn goblets sound gorgeous! Very nice! Have a great weekend. 🙂
I don’t know that I have ever seen a teddy bear nutcracker but he is wonderful. The cobalt blue is especially pretty by candlelight. We have never done crackers. They aren’t readily available around here. They seem that they would be fun.
I couldn’t pass up that teddy – just loved his gentle expression. It was a nice offset to the rather sinister looking faces on the rest of them.
Amazon had some neat crackers earlier in the season, and World Market does deliver, if you feel so inspired 🙂 The kids love the “bang!!” that comes from the crackers, and the hats are always fun, if goofy.
I’ve become an avid nutcracker fan. Wonderful tablescape!!
I’m eager to set another table with the nutcracker figures and using different china. Maybe this year!