Christmas is upon us and, like every year, it will be a wonderful opportunity to gather family and friends around the table for lunch or dinner. Here are our ideas for decorating and setting your Christmas table in a creative and original way, but always in the name of recycling, reuse and do-it-yourself, respecting our planet as much as possible. The first two creations that we propose were presented to us by a reader, through our Forum.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Il Christmas is upon us and, like every year, it will be a wonderful opportunity to gather family and friends around the table on the occasion of the lunch or the dinner. So here are our ideas for decorate and set your Christmas table in a creative and original way, but always and in any case in the name of recycling, the reuse and do-it-yourself, respecting our planet as much as possible.
The first two creations that we propose were presented to us by a reader.
Index
A fir as a centerpiece
For its realization Elisa recommends to use a magazine compact, for example a comic. The pages will be folded one by one so that they all have the same inclination to obtain the shape of a fir tree. At this point you will need to brush the surface of your tree with water and vinyl glue and let it rest overnight before moving on to the decoration. When the glue has dried, you can paint the fir with tempera e decoration with ribbons, glitter and colored stars, but also with beans, acorns, cardboard shapes and all that your imagination suggests.
Candle holder with recycled materials
To achieve this candle holder it will allow you to give new life to some recycled materials. You will first need a glass jar, so remember to keep one or more aside, as you can make your own candle holder by customizing it to suit any festive occasion. For the base of your candle holder you can use coarse salt, sand, ash, pasta, or grains of rice, or other materials of your choice. The jar can be decorated with straw, raffia, colored ribbons, cinnamon sticks, spikes or berries. Inside, of course, you will insert your candle. What better time to make a new one recycling old candles? Another idea can be that of transform your glass bottles into candle holders, taking advantage of their mouth. To decorate them you just need to use a nice bow.
Salt dough placeholder
With the salt dough you can make gods place card to decorate your table, which will turn into a little thought from give away to your guests. To make the salt dough, mix fine salt and white flour in the same quantity, adding the necessary water to obtain an elastic and easily moldable dough. With the help of a rolling pin, roll out the dough and cut out your place cards using the cookie cutters. With the help of a straw you can make a hole in the upper end of the placeholder, so that you can insert a ribbon. The placeholders will dry out faster if you store them near the heater for a few hours. When they are ready, decorate them as you like, using for example tempera or watercolors.
Aromatic centerpiece
With pine cones, oranges, cinnamon sticks and cloves you can make a centerpiece which will be appreciated by your guests both for its pleasant appearance and for the good scent it will give off. You will decorate the oranges, or possibly mandarins, depending on the size of the centerpiece you want to make, piercing their peel with cloves. Link the cinnamon sticks with ribbons chosen so that their color matches your table. Arrange everything artistically inside a basket or one glass bowl, which you can keep and reuse for future occasions.
Dishes, glasses, cutlery and napkins
Our advice is of course to avoid everything that is as much as possible Single-use disposable, but if you really can't do without it, since your guests will be very numerous, orient yourself in the choice of products in completely behavable and biodegradable, as the mater-bi or the bioplastic derived from corn. A similar argument also applies to the paper towels. If you need them, we recommend that you choose them exclusively in recycled paper. To guide you in the choice of forest-friendly brands, you may find it useful to consult the list published by Greenpeace. Also take a look at our instructions for making beautiful ones DIY napkin holder. And if you want to put into practice aalternative idea, you could try to amaze the guests by serving your dishes in edible dishes or a great soup in a plate of bread.
Marta Albè
ALSO READ:
- Christmas decorations with fruit, wild plants and aromatic herbs
- Christmas: 10 DIY greeting cards
