southern fried gal

Continuing on with the women’s event at our church… I facilitated a Christmas Centerpieces class. I was asked to share cost effective ideas and also help the ladies craft a centerpiece in the class for $10 or less. We shared 10 ideas and I’ll summarize a few of them here.

The class was a lot of fun! I have a few disclaimers before we get started…1) the pictures were taken after 3 classes so the items were a little jostled from being moved and shared, 2) some pictures are a little fuzzy but hopefully you will get the idea and find some inspiration here! and 3) my fabric was too wrinkled!

I prefer to put together tablescapes instead of just centerpieces. Here are a few items I would put together and run down the table for a classy holiday dinner. The idea here is that you can shop for the glass containers from around the house. The larger piece could be your favorite hurricane or glass cylinder or chunky vase as pictured here. Fill it with real cranberries for a pop of red. I used a bag that I bought at Walmart for $1.98 to do everything in this class and still had a few left over. Then grab a few sticks from your yard and tuck into the cranberries to add height. Finally tuck a few sprigs of greenery (fresh or faux – whatever you have) around the top to add texture. For ideas to spread down the table, you can fill glass votive holders with cranberries, add an evergreen wreath around the top, and then a granny smith apple to get that pop of lime green. For added interest, scoop out the top of the apple and tuck a tea light in the top. You can also core out the apple and add a taper candle. It’s fun to mix and match the tall and short! Finally grab some glasses and fill with cranberries and tuck a votive or tea light in the top. When I went through this idea I added to a bed of greenery in my center table.

This idea was inspired from another Southern Living at HOME consultant. A great way to get twice the bang for your buck on a centerpiece is to make it edible as well! Now it is serving two functional purposes! Here I’ve put down fresh greenery that I got from a friend’s yard around the bottom of my tray. Next I hollowed out the center of a round loaf of bread to made a bowl to hold my veggie dip. If you have small decorative bowls like the red one pictured here you can add your veggies and cheese to those OR you can craft bowls from bell peppers as seen to the right. Sprinkle a few cranberries (or cherry tomatoes) around the greenery and voila – beautiful, edible centerpiece!

My friend, Kimberly, crafted this idea. Don’t forget about the kiddos! Help them craft a cute centerpiece for their table. All items were shopped from around the house!

I’ll save my top two ideas for separate posts with detailed instructions. You will LOVE them!