DECORATIONS Table toppers set the mood for seasonal feasts

Festive centerpieces can be created from simple materials
By JURA KONCIUS
WASHINGTON POST
There's hope for all of us who have yet to focus on the holiday tables that are in our futures.
Sure there are those domestic dynamos who have been planning their centerpieces for weeks. (They're also the ones who are already wearing their candy-cane sweaters.) Most of us find ourselves wracking our brains for ideas that don't take a lot of time, money or a hot-glue gun.
With Thanksgiving dinner kicking off the holiday marathon, an infusion of new ideas comes not a moment too soon.
"Sometimes being in a hurry forces you to come up with some great ideas," says designer Taylor Wells. "I like to make my table settings personal by adding family things. Place cards also signify a special occasion." If all you have is white china and white tablecloths, he says, invest in some inexpensive underplate chargers in gold or silver or some colored napkins.
To dress a bare table for Operation Christmas Joy, a display in Bethesda, Md., of 20 festive dining tables, trees and holiday home decor created by Washington area designers, Wells pulled out a glam cocoa brown embroidered silk tableskirt that had arrived too late for his own vignette. At Macy's, he picked up oversize chocolate brown pottery plates, snagged a dried evergreen wreath from Pier 1 Imports, and found amber glass goblets at Hecht's.
Designer Christina Dutton, meanwhile, went home and returned with a bag of pine cones, some to heap into a clear glass bowl set inside a wreath, and some to be made into napkin rings. (She simply took a large pine cone and wired it around the napkins, and then tucked in a few sprigs of boxwood.)
Bringing joy
Their inventive use of simple materials was exactly what Bethesda, Md., designer Kelley Proxmire had envisioned for Operation Christmas Joy.
"I knew everyone could use some fresh ideas for holiday decorating," says Proxmire, who asked designers to decorate 42-inch-round tables or Christmas trees with ideas people could duplicate at home. She was presented with a variety of themes, from Great Falls, Va., designer Anne Dutcher's sweet Children's Holiday Dessert Table laden with peppermints and popcorn balls to Alexandria, Va., designer Carrie Loveless' Tuscany table featuring fragrant rosemary wreaths.
Tips from designers
Other great tips from designers' vignettes:
UChoose a lively and unexpected accent color, like pink, and assemble a variety of fun objects in that color for your table: pink M & amp;Ms, pink candles, pink cocktail napkins, pink Christmas tree ball ornaments. Sally Steponkus of Washington
UMake a red linen skirt for your table and add fabric fastener along the hem. Then it's easy to alter the look for special occasions -- Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July -- by adding borders in green, red and blue or any color you like. Kelley Proxmire of Bethesda, Md.
UMake your own old-fashioned paper ornaments using scissors and interesting papers. Or make paper crowns for your Christmas ball ornaments and write family members' names on them. Michael Roberson of Arlington, Va.
UUse large paper clips to clip family photos and hang on the tree for a personal touch. And for inexpensive glamorous ornaments, check out www.chandelierparts.-com. Jerry Dawson Begley of Washington