Christmas Eve dinner is the big annual family event in the Entertablement household. Weeks of preparation culminate in a few joyous hours of drinking, eating, laughing, exchanging presents and finally, relaxing. Due to popular demand, the menu is unvarying, but the table setting is different every year. This year, it was dogs. Many, many dogs.
Southern Living has been producing this series of “Christmas Dog” plates for a while now and adds one or two each year. I discovered them about five years ago and have been picking them up gradually on eBay. I’ve now accumulated about sixteen plates with twelve different patterns. Enough for our gang, anyway!
Golden retrievers and labs predominate. In groups of the same breed…
and with “retriever adjacent” pups.
In trucks.
And boxes.
This guy is my all-time favourite. His scarf inspired the setting with the plaid tablecloth.
Many other breeds are depicted. I think this one is a Jack Russell Terrier.
A French Bulldog.
An adorable Dachschund.
I’m stuck on this one. One of the “doodle” mixes?
Lastly, a plate that proved very popular this year is the German Shepherd Pups. I was setting out the place cards when Lauren came into the room and asked, “I’m getting the German Shepherd, right?” I see. This would be the 33 year old “child”.
Lauren is Rabbit the Dog’s Mum (shown on the far right). Second from the left is Bailey, a Shepherd mix belonging to daughter Kirsten and her husband, Mike.
Son Adam and Mike then took turns moving the plate to their own setting at various times before dinner was served, just to annoy Lauren. They never really grow up, do they?
I had set the table earlier in the week in the kitchen area, which has better light for photos than the dining room. You may notice that the paint colour has been changed to very deep forest green, and we’ve switched out the chairs for new-to-us Louix XVI cane back seating. More on that in an upcoming post on the “refresh” we did just before Christmas.
The chairs are more compact than our previous Queen Anne chairs, so we can easily get five down each side and one armchair on each end. Here’s the whole shebang.
The plaid tablecloth features rosy red, warm yellow and sage green, which worked well with the plates. I chose pink for all the glassware, starting with the antique Venetian glass set, comprising a large footed compote, two smaller footed compotes on glass plates and two tall candlesticks.
The compotes are quite delicate, so I made sure to use light fillers—small pine cones, moss-covered balls, and blown glass ornaments.
King’s Crown Cranberry-flashed goblets by Tiffin Franciscan fitted in beautifully (readily available at Replacements).
With all that visual excitement, I opted for plain sage green linen napkins, rolled and tucked into oval silver plated napkin rings. Small dog figurines perched on the napkin rings to add a little fun.
I had purchased small magnets to glue to the underside of the figurines, but the napkin rings turned out to be non-magnetic, and I couldn’t source any steel ones in time to set this table. It’s on the list…
More dogs joined in as salt and pepper shakers.
Two different sets occupied the opposite ends of the table. I especially liked the striped scarves on this set.
It all came together quite nicely.
The decision was made that this was “the table” for Christmas 2023; it was time to move it into the dining room. With two 24″ leaves, at 120″, the dining room table is much longer than the one in the kitchen. The tablecloth was not quite long enough. So, I folded it into a runner and placed it over a white tablecloth. Dundee provided moral support.
I made place cards using a name tag template from the Avery.com website.
My attention then switched to getting dinner ready. Son-in-law Mike snapped some pictures on his iPhone, which he shared with me afterwards. Note the napkin rings. I found some paw napkin rings from Amazon that added the final touch. As you can see, Dundee is now on the alert and waiting for his dinner.
Dinner was not forthcoming quickly enough to suit His Majesty, and his expression became quite testy. She’s been fiddling around with this stupid table for hours. And now she’s bustling around in the kitchen, from which quite delicious smells emanate. But – not a morsel has passed these lips in days. I’m famished. Where is my dinner?
Rest assured, dear readers, that Mr Dundee got his fair share along with everyone in very short order.
A final bit of information on the plates. As aforementioned, I have been collecting them for a while. I had gathered eight when they featured in Entertablement—The Four Seasons, alongside a three-tiered chocolate peppermint cake frosted with cream cheese icing and decorated with sugar cookies.
The cake (recipe in the book) is chocolate peppermint. It was a big hit with the neighbours when I dismembered the layers and distributed them in July 2020.
EBay and Etsy are good sources for the early plates, and Dillard’s seems to be the place to get the new ones, according to The Daily Paws. In 2022, Dillards offered a mixed set of four (three of which were repeats from previous years) and individual plates in groups of two to allow additions to an existing collection. I have two of these four, but not the two golden retriever plates.
Photo courtesy of The Daily Paws.
That’s a wrap for the 2023 Christmas table! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.
Lots more to come in 2024. I wish all my readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!
These plates are too much fun to eat off of. Everything looks so beautiful and festive and must have been fun with the swapping of the plates. Which one did you settle for? You need a rest for new year’s eve so have a happy one relaxing! Happy new year. See you soon.
I had the one with the goldens in the truck which said Merry Christmas and Himself had the coveted golden with the scarf. I also managed to get small, Christmas-themed wooden puzzles in cracker boxes from Wentworth puzzles in the UK. As each person finished their dinner, they got to open their puzzle and amuse themselves while others munched on. Glenn (the slowest eater on the planet, as you know) had the assistance of all four grand girls with his puzzle, as they had finished theirs “ages ago, Nana”.
I love that your 33 year old had a favorite plate! This is a fun and lovely table. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thank you so much, Joy. It was a lovely evening and Christmas is the time for kids to be kids (even big ones)! Happy Mew Year to you and yours.
I love ithe plates says the owner of cats ! The cake is pretty amazing. Last year I found a kitchen towel with a dog in Christmas finery for a gift in local chain store you would never think of. One time only- I found a dog cookie cutter in World Market. Sometimes Walmart has ribbon with paw prints,- for a 2 foot Christmas tree. It’s really hit and miss. Sometimes it takes years of collecting for the big event.
Happy New Year to all.
Thanks, Myrna! I love cats, too. They’re as wonderful as dogs, just different.
You are so right on the hit and miss of pet themed items. When I find something to collect, I don’t rest until I’ve gathered all the pieces. There are a few more of the Southern Living plates to find. Our family keeps growing, so I’m sure there will be happy users of any additions I manage to track down.
Happy New Year!
I think that is your best table design ever, of course I love dogs!!
I wish I had tasted the cake, Yum !!
Good to see Dundee, as cute as ever.
Happy New 2024 Year to you
Thanks so much Patricia! It’s been a few years in the making, and still coming.
That cake took several days to bake, decorate and assemble and it was gone in a flash. If Covid was good for anything, it was improving both my baking skills and neighbourly relations. As they say, it’s an ill wind that blows no good!
Happy New Year to you , also. Dundee sends his regards.
Beautiful table Helen!
Well done!!
Wishing you, Glen and all your family a wonderful New Year!!!
Thanks Deanne.
Wishing Happy New Year to you, Colin, and the whole family.
See you in 2024.
Dear Helen,
Wishing you a very happy New Year! We had the usual amazing 360-degree fireworks extravaganza, with hundreds of thousands of euros of fireworks set off for about half an hour. I played The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ Auld Lang Syne as the booms and screeches of the technicolour rockets blasted overhead. Every hart and gemse, oachkatzl and fox (not to mention the dogs!) must have fled the scene. The hens will not be laying for weeks. And then it started snowing!
These plates are far too engaging to make me pay attention to what I am sure was a delicious dinner. Oh, those puppies. Fun table for an enchanting evening. Thanks for another year of inspiration. Best wishes, B
It sounds like a visually spectacular and audibly “interesting” evening. Spencer would have been in conniptions and so would we, trying to keep him calm. He does NOT like fireworks of any sort. I think your aural counter-offensive was an excellent strategy.
It was indeed an enchanting evening and best of all, once it’s done and dusted, Christmas Day is very relaxing. Everyone had a wonderful Christmas Eve and we were left with sufficient food to keep us in meals for a few days.
Happy New Year, Beatrice! Here’s to a spectacular 2024.
Best,
Helen