THE DREADED CENTERPIECE

BY CHARITY BISHOP

The middle of the table is always a point of interest... or disaster. Nothing looks worse around the holidays than an empty table. Not even a runner or a tablecloth can salvage it from utter boredom. So do something to dress it up. You don't have to go all out, or do much research, just try things out and see what suits you best.

My year-around table centerpiece consists of a shallow, painted wooden box filled with black pebbles (that didn't cost me a dime; I gathered them from the yard and spray-painted them the color I wanted), and three candles of different sizes and textures inside. None of the three candles are the same height. (I actually had to put two coasters underneath one to make it taller!)

For the holidays, here are some ideas for dressing up your tabletop:

Purchase a decent runner that looks festive, but stay away from wild patterns. Get a solid color, perhaps with some interesting embroidery around the edges. Patterns limit what you can put on the runner, because you don't want to clash.

Candles. It may sound obvious, but I have seen gorgeous, eccentric, eclectic centerpieces made up of a bunch of candles, just make sure that no two are the same size. You can go with different colors or all the same (even different shades of a color work -- some burgundy, purple, mixed shades and tones, are all gorgeous!). If you don't have a cat to carry things off, you can string some colored or wooden beads around the candles, or put some fabric underneath.

More creative people can use silk flowers. But most of you who are creative already know that. My suggestion there would be considering baskets instead of vases, since it gives you much more texture to work with. Ribbons are neat woven through flower arrangements as well, or having a pretty bow peeping from underneath.

Pine cones and evergreen make an awesome centerpiece. You can spray paint the cones or leave them natural; put glitter on them with glue, or put berries into your pine wreath with them. Find someone who has a pine tree and ask if you can have a bag full of cones. You would be amazed all the ways you can decorate with them!

If you really want to get wild, use something totally unexpected -- an old clock from an antique store, a few pretty silver photo frames (without color pictures in them) and a single golden rose to represent the passing of time (silk is preferable). Remember, there are no rules when it comes to decorating. If you can make it look good, and love it, that's all that matters. The most important thing about centerpieces is that they represent who you are! So have fun with it, and don't stress too much over the result.

Heather says, "You can put bulbs of a similar color or complementing colors in a glass bowl. Or, you could highlight a single ornament and place it in a dish filled with sugar to pretend it's snow." The same goes for ornaments as centerpieces. What really looks amazing is an ornament arrangement around a candle, so you can light it in the evening and have a beautiful display of light on your table.