Two Easy Holiday Tray Styling Ideas with Ornaments and Candles
I’ve been busy popping into clients home to do some holiday decorating and last minute sprucing up. It’s been a challenge because of everything going on. I am making it a point to mask in their homes and distance. I have a tray styling video below (and you’ll see me masked because I filmed this in a client’s home during the pandemonium). For her island, we wanted an easy centerpiece of Christmas decor that could be easily moved for baking and cooking on their island. I also needed to make a smaller kitchen table centerpiece for our own home(As you may know, we have one table and we have to be able to eat there, so anything that is going to stay has to be skinny and have room for our plates.). I thought it was the perfect time to show you two easy holiday tray styling ideas with ornaments and candles. You know I believe in shopping a home first, and decorating what what’s on hand before buying anything. Most people tend to have extra ornaments and candles hanging around. If not, they are inexpensive things to buy.
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For my client’s home. She had a larger rectangular tray. I mixed pretty gold taper candles and pillar candles in glass containers. The one pillar candles was a little tall for the container, but once she burns it a bit, it won’t matter anymore. It’s important to not stress about the perfection of it, and enjoy it for what it is. You can watch a video of the styling in action if you didn’t see it on Instagram, and then see the other table centerpiece below.
After placing the candles around,I filled in the rest of the tray with extra large and small mercury glass ornaments which were pretty and sparkly and make a nice accent By varying the size, it’s interesting to the eye, and super easy to put together. It’s also easy to place them around a candle holder that way.
Styling a tray for the holiday season can be eve more personalized by adding Christmas ornaments you love, berries and pine cones.
For my own table centerpiece, I used a long slab of wood from the craft store, and placed my vintage brass candlesticks on top.
Around it, I layered glass ornaments and fresh boxwood from our yard. Once the boxwood starts to dry out, I’ll replace it. And of course, you never want to leave a burning candle unattended, or let any fresh greenery dry out. If there are any questions about it, don’t burn the candles and just use them unlit for show. Fresh evergreen would also be pretty.
These were just some extra ornaments that didn’t make it on the tree this year. This is a good way to use random ornaments too. Using a thin slab of wood like this for Christmas table decor leaves enough room for place settings. For more Christmas centerpiece ideas, see this post.
Even though this looks so pretty lit, I don’t tend to burn my candles too often, though I do love the warmth of candlight. As an ex-firefighter, I am paranoid (can you tell? Keep the wreath red!) about them and am just as happy with them unlit. I also love a good battery operated taper candle.
Of course I had to light them for the pictures so you could see how pretty they were at night. I am busy getting my house ready for the Holiday Housewalk next Monday! I can’t believe it’s come up so fast. Our oven conked out, so we are waiting on our new one to get delivered. Of course it’s coming after Thanksgiving. Hubby is going to do the turkey in his pit barrel and really every other side can be done stove top pr crock pot. It’s just us this year, so we don’t need a ton of food. My kids have already eaten the fried onions meant for the green bean casserole as a snack, so I’ll have to pick up more of those.
I hope these two easy holiday tray styling ideas with ornaments and candles gave you a little holiday inspiration. If you’re looking for more, make sure to check out last year’s housewalk! And of course, you can always find my book on Amazon!
pardon me while i go style all the trays in my home!