Royal Norfolk dishes

“‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider🕷 to the fly🪰.” The sinister 1829 poem by Mary Howitt tells the cautionary tale of the sly spider coaxing the apprehensive fly into its web🕸. Creepy/Clever and well played, Mr. Spider. Hmmmm…the parallels of the 1829 spider web and the manipulative, seductive 2021 worldwide web are not lost on me.

I am joining other tablescapers from across the miles to bring you spooky fun with a “Halloween Tablescape Blog Hop” hosted by Rita at Panoply blog. Links to their BOO-tiful sites are listed at the end of this post, and I encourage you to stop in to visit each one of these talented ladies.

I chose this pintuck taffeta table linen for its resemblance to a spider web.

A🩸blood red🩸 Royal Norfolk dinner plate sits atop a mirrored charger that helps break up the moodiness of the setting. A black salad plate and spooky skull appetizer plate complete the stack.💀 Notice there are just daggers/knives to devour the beastly feast.🗡

Spine-chilling metal spiders lord over each place setting.

The flies have been coaxed into the spider’s web!🕷🕸🪰

I found these gravestones at Dollar Tree some years ago.

The end settings have the skulls of the host and hostess of this ghoulish event trapped for eternity beneath oversized cloches/bell jars. The hungry spider below the skull hunts its prey, the flies, that have overtaken the skull. (OK…I’m freaking *myself* out here now!😱)

Overreaching branches canopy the centerpiece below. I used faux branches, but this spooky look could just as easily be achieved with real ones.

If there’s a graveyard, you KNOW there has to be a raven somewhere nearby! This one, perched amongst the pumpkins and slithering serpents, shows no fear.

Ick! A serpent invading the hollow eye socket of a soul long gone is a weird juxtaposition to the beautiful onyx “Elegance” Mikasa stemware.

The morose table setting is capped off with the flicker of candlelight towering high above.

A haunted pumpkin patch sits on the vitrine just beyond the graveyard.

If you’re looking for more ghastly, ghostly, ghoulish tablescapes, check out these from my archives:

Ready, set, HOP!!! Check out *THESE* haunting entries!!!

Pandora’s Box – Black, White and BOO
The Little Yellow Corner Store – Let’s Meet Ferdinand Frankenstein
Panopoly – hOWLoween Tablescape
Home Is Where the Boat Is – Happy Haunting Tablescape
Hyacinths for the Soul – Whooo’s Ready for Halloween?
Debbee’s Buzz – Batty Black, White and Purple Halloween Table
The Sweet Sensations – Ghoulish Glam for Halloween
Everyday Living – No Tricks, Only Treats
Corner of Plaid and Paisley – Halloween Tablescape – Got That Feeling Someone is Wathcing You?
Life and Linda – Happy Hallow-Queens Party
Zucchini Sisters – Halloween Tablescape Featuring Creepy Plastic Spiders
Bluesky at Home – Halloween Tablescape Ideas for the Patio
The Bookish Dilettante – Halloween Tablescape Blog Hop
My Hubbard Home – Festive Halloween Party Decor Ideas
Dinner at Eight – A Haunted Table for Halloween
Red Cottage Chronicles – Black Magic Halloween Tablescape
The Painted Apron – Set the Scene, It’s Almost Time for Halloween
Me and My Captain – Halloween Tablescape
Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One (that’s me!) – Spider & the Fly

If it seems like I’m dumping an awful lot of Christmas tablescapes on you all at once, it’s because I am!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had 6 tables from the “Art of Tablescaping” class I taught back in October, PLUS 3 additional ones I had to get out of my brain. I hope I’m able to share them all before Christmas Eve for those still scouting ideas!
(Click on any photo to enhance/enlarge it to see up-close details.)

INSPIRATION: These fun bandanas to use as napkins found at Hobby Lobby over the summer.

INSPIRATION: These fun bandanas with a flourish of coffee labels to use as napkins found at Hobby Lobby over the summer.

I saw these bandanas at Hobby Lobby and immediately thought, “Christmas!”

Our eat-in kitchen is the place to be on Christmas morning as the sun begins its lazy ascent. I like to have lots of good food waiting, and along with that food is lots of coffee to get us through the long day. We’re grandparents now…just don’t have the energy we used to! 🙂 (Click HERE to see another Christmas morning breakfast tablescape!)

I draped our 45″ x 45″ counter-height table with a 108″ round Christmas-y red tablecloth and then topped it with an 85″ x 85″ espresso brown tablecloth, both from LinenTablecloth.com. While brown may not be a top 3 color choice that springs to mind when you think of Christmas, it looks great when paired with the bright red.

Bright red Royal Norfolk plates and coffee mugs from Deal$ (same folks who own Dollar Tree) pair with ivory cereal bowls. The napkin, positioned between the plate and bowl, picks up the colors from both the tablecloths and dishes.

Rays of morning sun stream in across the Hampton Silversmith “Patriot” flatware.

A simple centerpiece is all that’s needed for Christmas morning. This one consists of a deep brown basket from Dollar Tree filled with fresh, aromatic coffee beans topped with a handful of cranberries, a few glitzy ornaments and a sprig or two of greenery.

A cute reindeer made of grapevine stands ready to serve by this year’s kitchen Christmas tree. No fancy adornment here…just a few strands of lights to make it stand out in the corner. The stool that lends height to the tree is covered with a cheerful snowflake Christmas tree skirt from the Dollar Tree. For just a dollar, no worries if something is spilled on it!

A largely unadorned wreath in the window is accompanied this morning by a couple of prints that depict the wondrous glory of coffee. Amen to that!

A lush red poinsettia given to us by our neighbor is displayed in a dark urn on the breakfast bar. The espresso sign leaves no doubt what this morning is all about: the coffee!

This tiered table was moved from the living room to free up floor space for the Christmas tree, so it had to get a little something-something in the way of decoration, too. The top is adorned with a large greenery spray dotted with red berries. A big bowl of cranberries picks up some of the elements in the table centerpiece. On the shelf below is a soup tureen with a holly and rosemary motif from Home Goods. Placing it atop a few books gives it little more prominence.

I hope you’re just about finished with your shopping and decorating so that you can relax and soak up the joys of the season this weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by!

A few other Christmas tablescapes on this site include:
“Celebrate the Season”
“Christmas in the Woods”
“Kaleidoscope Christmas”
“Merry & Bright – Multi-Color Christmas”
“Christmas Through the Red Door”
“Life Is A Cabaret – New Year’s Eve”
“Waking Up to Christmas – Bedroom Decor”
“Black, White & Red All Over Christmas”
“Christmas 2012 – Red, Black & Silver”
“Checkered Christmas”
“Pink & Purple Chocolate Christmas”
“Sugar High Payback”
“Contemporary Christmas”
“Gentlemen’s Winter Retreat”
“Woodland Men’s Tablescape”
“Cranberry Christmas”
“Cranberry Christmas Squared”
“Get Me To the Church On Time”
“Christmas Progressive Dinner”
“White Hot”
“Winter Brunch”
“Really Red Christmas”
“Roman Holiday”
“Cardinal Christmas”
“Frosty the Snowman”
“March of the Penguins”
“Winter Cardinal”
“Ideas for Throwing a Winter Dessert Party”
“Christmas Fiesta”
“Over the River and Through the Woods”
“Black Friday Luncheon”
“Noel Progressive Dinner”
“Old-Fashioned Red & Green Christmas”
“Timberland Christmas”
“Christmas Coffee”
“Warm Metal Christmas”
“Let It Snow”
“Tuscan Holiday“