CHRISTMAS IS ALL about tradition, and one of the most time-honoured customs is to gather with your loved ones for a meal.

If you’re trying to squeeze the whole extended family or a group of friends around the table for dinner, there are lots of ways to make the table feel comfortable (and festive) without cramming everyone in. 

You may be dreaming of a beautiful Christmas tablescape with a stunning centrepiece, festive placeholders, fancy tableware, and crystal glasses glinting in the candlelight, but if you’re stuck for space you can create a beautiful setting with a much more pared back look.

Here are some tips and tricks to ensure there will be elbow room for everyone.

1. Extend your table space

The handiest way to gain more dining space is with an extendable dining table, but if you haven’t already got one, don’t worry, this is an easy fix. Borrow or buy a folding table and a couple of co-ordinated tablecloths. If your room is long enough, you can put a small bistro table at one or both ends of your dining table; this little picnic table folds up very compactly and is great for outdoors in the summer.

If that arrangement won’t fit in your dining area, you could put a larger folding table alongside the main table and seat everyone in two groups. Covering the tables in matching tablecloths will help it to feel unified.

2. Keep table settings to a minimum

Keep your table setting uncluttered so people don’t feel overcrowded. Dress your table with a festive tablecloth and a table runner instead of cumbersome chargers or placemats. Encourage your diners to hang on to the same cutlery for their starter and main course, so that you don’t have to have multiple sets on the table (this saves on the washing up, too!), and avoid bread plates altogether.

Stick to one water glass and one wine glass per person, and bring in side tables or end tables from other rooms to put the bottles of drinks on. Lastly, instead of placeholders and crackers on the table, you could attach them to each person’s chair with a ribbon or a pin.

Shutterstock / SAQUIZETA Shutterstock / SAQUIZETA / SAQUIZETA

3. Short on seats? Think outside the box

Bench seating is very handy for squeezing in a few extra people, and if you don’t have a bench in your dining room set have a look around your home to see if there’s something you can repurpose from somewhere else – perhaps a large toy chest, or an ottoman from a bedroom.

Folding chairs are a staple that everyone should have on hand; you can often pick up wooden ones for a steal in army surplus stores (or hop to Ikea for the plastic version if it’s close by) and they look fantastic when sanded or painted. Stacking stools are another handy way to add a few seats for Christmas dinner and are handy for squeezing someone in on a corner. They can be used as plant stands or end tables for the rest of the year. 

4. Serve your dinner buffet-style

When hosting a big crowd, a space-saving way to serve Christmas dinner is to lay it out buffet style rather than at the dining table. Arrange all your mains, sides, gravy, and sauces along your kitchen counter, on your kitchen island, or on a side table in the dining room, and have guests serve themselves.

This will work really well if you can organise it in such a way that the final step in the buffet is close to the dining room table, so that your guests don’t have to double back through the queue with a heaped plate of food! If you have a light bar cart or a trolley, clear it off and repurpose it for the day as a dessert or drinks station – doll it up with some battery powered twinkly lights and a few sprigs of holly and it will be the talking point of your meal.

5. Split the meal into two sittings 

This option mightn’t be for everyone, especially if your goal is to have everybody sit together for a special meal, but there are certain groups that this might work really well for. For instance, if you have a big age range, from small kids right up to grandparents, then it might make sense to feed the kids first in one sitting, and let them go off and enjoy their Christmas toys and games while the grown ups eat separately.

Alternatively, you could allow the kids the special treat of watching a Christmas movie while they eat at the coffee table in the living room, giving the adults more space in the dining room.

6. Choose table decor with a small footprint

Instead of a traditional yule log or foliage arrangement as your table decor, go for something tall with a small footprint, such as candlesticks or a vase of flowers or pinecones. If you can hang decorations above the table as a focal point to free up space on the table, even better.

If you have a tiered cake stand or afternoon tea stand, you might be able to use this for your vegetable side dishes. Tiered organisers that you would usually use inside your kitchen cupboards, or even a bed tray, might be just the job for stacking a couple of dishes one on top of the other so that you can fit more on the table without it being too much of a squeeze! 

Follow Gráinne @parsekus on Instagram for more home hacks and décor inspiration.