Fresh Holiday Apple centerpiece by Fiore in Davidson.   A berry and poinsettia centerpiece at Ashley Carol in Cornelius.

Details are key to any successful dinner party, especially during the holidays. For many, the holidays are the only time of year when fine china makes it to the table. And if you’re going to all that trouble, it’s essential to top off your table with an exquisite centerpiece.

When it comes to the right centerpiece, you can opt for an arrangement from your favorite florist, a natural motif or a personal creation.

What to consider
As the owner of Fiore, a European-style florist in Davidson, Leigh Webb says it’s important to consider presentation when selecting a centerpiece. “How do you want to make your guests feel?” she asks. “To welcome your guests you would want to think of where you would want that special bit of color in flowers. If it is for the holiday table, you want it to be complementing. You don’t want it to distract from conversation. You don’t even want it to take away from the food, so to speak. You just want to know it’s there and know it’s beautiful.”

One way to make sure your centerpiece blends rather than distracts is to consider the style of your home. More contemporary furnishings call for centerpieces along that same vein. If you’re using a floral arrangement, the type of container used generally dictates the theme of the design. At Fiore, you can bring in special containers and have floral designers create a custom arrangement. “You can make a beautiful arrangement in a bowl, a soup tureen or a water pitcher,” says Webb.

Whatever you decide, be sure to keep the height of your centerpiece low so that guests can see each other across the table. Taller arrangements work well for beverage or dessert stations.

Mickie Jones, owner of Ashley Carol Home & Garden, a home furnishings boutique in Cornelius that offers interior design services, says color is also an important consideration. “There are so many color schemes out there. It’s not just the traditional red and green anymore,” she says. “In more contemporary settings, I think people use golds and silvers and other colors.”

Jones, whose Cornelius home is painted in neutrals such as chocolate, mocha and taupe, says she takes advantage of color during the holidays. “I’ve always felt like that’s the one time that you can really just be creative,” she says.

Jones says she likes to add color to her holiday table by incorporating poinsettias, especially now that the flower comes in so many colors. To add shimmer to the traditional holiday flower, Jones lightly sprays glue on the petals and adds just a touch of gold or silver glitter. “It gives it a really nice reflective glow in the evening,” she says.

Webb says other flowers that are popular for the holiday table include floating gardenias, green or white hydrangeas, red roses, and red or white tulips. During last year’s holiday season, the floral designer says she used cotton blooms for a lot of arrangements.

Go green
For those who want to create their own centerpiece, you’re in luck, as North Carolina’s Piedmont offers plenty of natural resources. Both Jones and Webb suggest gathering greens such as holly berries, magnolia leaves and pine branches and cones for your holiday table.

“Instead of just going to get the Christmas tree, gather greens and ‘green’ your house,” says Webb, adding that the natural scent of pine gives your home even more of a holiday feeling. Often, Jones will use the excess branches of her Christmas tree as a centerpiece. “I just place them,” she says. “If I’m doing a candle in the center as the actual centerpiece, then I start adding greenery to form a long, flowing swag on the table.”

Want some color in your greenery? Simply add cranberries, kumquats, oranges or red roses. “We have customers who do mostly greenery and they’ll come in and add red roses to it,” explains Webb. “When they need to be refreshed, they’ll come back and just get new roses and stick it back into their arrangement.”

Combining personal items with greenery is also a great way to create a centerpiece, Webb says. “You might have your grandmother’s silver tea service set and think you would never use it as a tea service, but it’s beautiful for Christmas with just pine branches and a few pine cones in there,” she says. “Think out of your box.”

Jones agrees. “You should pull out and use those things that mean so much to you,” she says. “I just think you need to kind of let your mind run wild…, and I don’t know that there’s any wrong or right thing that you can’t do.”

For more information:

• Leigh Webb, Fiore, 704-655-2650
• Mickie Jones, Ashley Carol Home & Garden, 704-892-4743