11 Holiday Centerpieces That Will Spruce Up Any Tablescape

Gather round the table and get ready for a delicious holiday feast. Much of the holiday season is spent enjoying festive treats and mixed cocktails, but you need somewhere to serve the food and drinks first. The table you plan to sit down at with your guests or the buffet where you'll display your tasty bites and sips can benefit from a festive upgrade in the form of a beautiful centerpiece.

These centerpiece are essentially the glue that holds a holiday party together, marrying essential elements of dinner duties with style. You'll have ideas for sophisticated place settings, festive napkin folds, and gleaming china and serving sets at the ready, and these centerpiece ideas become the star of a fantastic holiday spread. 

Florals are always welcome for the holidays, and a classic is shown here: fresh paperwhites. Taking inspiration from the snowy landscapes outside, these paperwhites will turn heads in their birch-covered pots. The addition of reindeer moss helps elevate the flowers, which can be harvested from winter gardens or sourced from local florists and home centers in your area. Among platters, trays, and serving bowls, flowers stand proud and lovingly invite your guests to take a seat. 

But Christmas celebrations also give hosts a chance to play with more vibrant colors and materials that only come out once a year. From glowing candles to edible candy displays, all of these holiday centerpieces embrace some of the most creative tactics known to interior designers. Our editors share the very best holiday centerpieces and how you can nail the concept in your own home.

Here's an idea you'll tip a party hat to: Plant these conical conifers on your holiday table, sideboard, or mantel. Drizzle their tops with clear gel glue, let it drip down the sides, and dust with white glitter. Then arrange them on a blanket of faux snow.

Shop Now: Meri Meri Multicolor Party Hats, $20 for eight, merimeri.com; Meri Meri Mini Party Hats, $16 for eight, merimeri.com; BluePanda Store Metallic-Foil Cone Party Hats, $14 for 50, amazon.com; Wondershop Decorative Snow, $3 for two quarts, target.com.

Bring the outdoors in with a winter-centric arrangement. This one was inspired by a snow-filled landscape and features birch bark, which was wrapped around glass cylinders filled with timely plants. We finished the setup by adding holiday tree trimmings and scented geranium leaves.

An amaryllis and orchid in complementary hues makes for a cheerful display when nestled on a buffet table. The blanket of moss hides the individual pots, so the plants appear to sprout up from the ground.

A tree topper is a quintessential Christmas decoration. Instead of keeping your extras in storage, put them on display on a metallic tray, like we did here.

Welcome guests with this elegant assortment of greenery. The terrarium-like setups feature an array of plants and fresh blooms in open bowls and glass cloches. To make a closed flower cloche, place floral clay on the bottom of a flower-pin frog to secure it inside of a small, sturdy cup. Fill the cup three-quarters full of water. Set a glass cloche next to it, so you know how high the blooms will be, then cut flowers and greenery, and stick them onto the pins. To finish, set the cup on a plate and cover it with the cloche. Check the water daily—the display can last about a week.

Shop Now: Ashland Glass Cloche with Metal Base, 12", $2.29, michaels.com; Ashland Pin Frog, $6, michaels.com. 

A gleaming grove of triangular trees makes an enchanting centerpiece. Cut from pearlized card stock, the trees are trimmed with loose sequins and small paillettes. You'll need to cut two triangles out for each tree; find the midpoint, fold it using a bone folder, and join the two triangles with glue. You'll then let it dry before adding sequins and other features on the tree's exterior.

Shop Now: Pearl Metallic Card Stock, 11" by 17", $44 for 50 sheets, paperandmore.com; Creatology Assorted Cup Sequins, $3,  michaels.com; Martha Stewart Collection Fine Glitter, $19.47, amazon.com.

Make your mantel look amazing with a colorful assortment of vintage and inexpensive evergreens. The bottle‐brush variety are readily available online and at crafts stores; the miniature ones were plucked from a model train set. Votives make the snow-dusted landscape sparkle. 

Shop Now: Department 56 Bag-o-Frosted Topiaries, $15, department56.com.

Even the smallest dollops of red (in this instance, a few ranunculi, miniature roses, and parrot tulips) will stand out when set against ivory walls, pale wood, white china, and silvery ornaments. Gray-green eucalyptus pods and pine needles create a muted backdrop for this festive centerpiece.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Collection Metallic Deer Salt & Pepper Shakers, $30, macys.com. 

You don't need to melt any wax in order to make these candles; both taper and topper are made with beeswax sheets, available online and at crafts stores, where you can also buy wicking.

Shop Now: Smooth Beeswax Sheets, $15 for 10, etsy.com; Threshold Stainless Steel Holiday Cookie Cutter, $1, target.com; Fiskars Detail Knife, $4, michaels.com.

Create a trail of brilliantly lit candles with this simple DIY addition to a votive holder. Tape off the top outer edge of a clear glass with masking tape, and starting at the top and working downward, squeeze a thin coat of glass paint over the entire surface. The paint drips evenly down sides while drying. To dry, snip an inch off a paper-towel roll, and set the bottom of the glass on top of it, so the paint doesn't accumulate along the base. Let paint cure according to manufacturer's instructions.

Shop Now: Pebeo Vitrea 160 Glass Paint, from $5, dickblick.com; Whole Housewares Glass Cylinder Vases, 4" by 4", $27 for 6, amazon.com.

While this frosted centerpiece isn't actually edible, your guests wouldn't guess just by gazing upon its crystalized appearance. Cut styrofoam balls in half to create mushroom caps and place them on pipe cleaner stems; you'll need to frost them with glitter, and then cut out moss to fit upon smaller gift boxes. Glue the moss to the top of your boxes and place your "candied" mushrooms atop it all. 

Shop Now: Smoothfoam 2" Balls, $6 for 12, michaels.com; Creatology Chenille Stems, $3 for 100 Count, michaels.com; ArtMinds Paper Mache Round Box, $4, michaels.com.