Ward Christmas Dinner

End of November I was contacted by our Bishop's wife, asking me to be in charge of decorating tables for the Ward's Christmas Dinner on December 15th after church. Of course I accepted the "challenge" but goodness, did I stress over the budget: $70 for room of about 250+ people. All through our trip to Utah, I worried about getting to stores and getting things at wholesale, and when nothing seemed to be working out, I decided to do the simple approach. 

I spent a total of $32 on: 

ribbons

cranberries

burlap 

For Free: 

pinecones from our yard (summer collection)

pine boughs cut from our huge Christmas tree!

mason jars from a friend who hadn't used them for canning this year

white butcher paper from under the church's stage, unused for a long while

I haven't mentioned the delicious pine smell! It welcomed you as soon as you opened the door to the gym.. and it was SO Christmasy. Hallelujah!

When I began laying things out on the 'demonstration table' for the people who showed up to help, I was nervous.. is this going to be enough?? is it pretty? is it nice? is it what I hoped for?? Well, they loved it right away. Oh, I was relieved! And I admitted to myself, I liked it too. 

It was simple, understated, warm, colorful, and still festive. I was approached by our Stake's First Councilor, later after the dinner was done and he had nothing but nice things to say about the table decor. I can't tell you how nice that was to hear. I have never taken on a 'job' like this! ha He and his wife had grown up in a Lutheran church, and he said that these decorations were so "classy" (he said - he is a pretty stylish guy, so I took it!), and that you could bring anyone here to the dinner and they would feel at home and welcome. I'm tooting my own horn pretty loudly, and you might be thinking these don't even look that great! Yikes! Haha So I am going to sign off and say this was a fun project, and I was happy to be the one to do this after all the stress over it in the beginning.