Celebrate a Canine Christmas with a “Bark-Worthy” Tablescape!!

Canine Christmas Catalyst

Welcome to the lake!!! I’m so glad you could join us for this Canine Christmas Tablescape!!! It was inspired by our dog, who like most Golden Retrievers, is still very much a puppy, even though he is 18 months old, and 80 pounds!!! When I saw this Golden Retriever table runner at Homegoods I knew I just had to do a Tablescape with it!!! Then this year I found the adorable Golden Retriever plates at Dillard’s, and the table kind of took off.

The Plate Stack

The foundation for the plate stack is a fake fur place mat I purchased from Homegoods last year. I love the way it gives a snowy winter look to the table, and also the way it coordinates with the faux fur on the dogs Santa hats (on both the plush dogs ad the dogs on the plates). I added some faux fur tablerunners under the Golden Retriever table runner to give a snowy look to the table runner too!

On top of the place mat, I placed a Gold Glitter Charger from Sparkleshome.com (the red on the charger, is just a reflection of the red goblet)

On top of the gold glitter charger, I placed a red bordered scalloped plate with a gold edge made by Robert Stanley and sold periodically at Hobby Lobby at Christmastime (i.e. October to early December). This was an impulse buy for me as I already had a red bordered plate set, but I really love both the scallops and the gold edge on these Robert Stanley plates.

On the very top of the stack, I placed one of the two different salad plate designs from the Southern Living plates from Dillard’s. This first plate shows a Golden Retriever puppy with his mom,

while the second plate shows a Mom or Dad Golden Retriever with a Candy Cane in his mouth. Having something in the mouth, and/or eating something at all times, seems to be the standard behavior of a Golden Retriever!

Real-Life Canine Inspiration for the Tablescape and Centerpiece Dogs

You may be wondering about the Husky in the Dog Sled Centerpiece in this post, so before I go further, I want to introduce you to the Real-Life Husky who inspired the centerpiece. Below is a picture of my Grandpuppy – Athena, checking out the Golden Retriever plush on the tablescape. Athena is 5 years old and a bundle of fun, love, and brain power that keeps my old brain well exercised, as I try to stay one step ahead of her intelligence. I just had to have her represented in our mostly Golden Retriever Tablescape. Also, you can’t really have a dog sled without a Husky, can you?

The other “real life” inspiration for our Canine Christmas Tablescape is our dog – “Simba”- Simba is very interested in this tablescape (see below) possibly because he sees the plush dogs as one more thing he really needs to put in his mouth!!

Canine Christmas Centerpieces

You may recognize the plush dogs in the centerpieces, as all but one of them were used in my Puppy’s First Birthday Tablescape. On the birthday tablescape, the plush dogs had birthday bows and party hats and the real dogs had party hats too.

You can see the puppy birthday tablescape by clicking on the link below.

Two fun Tablescapes for My Puppy’s 1st Birthday – one for Our People Friends and One for Our Dog Friends!!

For today’s Canine Christmas Tablescape, the dogs are dressed in some hats from the doll and dog clothes sets I purchased for my recent Mickey and Minnie Snowy Christmas tablescape, plus a red dog sweater I purchsed at Homegoods.

The above Golden Retriever is wearing a Santa hat from the following 18″ doll clothes set as well as a Christmas sweater from Homegoods.

The other 2 golden retrievers are wearing hats and scarves from the following Pet Dog costume set, and the Husky is wearing the antlers and scarf from this set as well!! Both the doll clothes set and the pet dog set were purchased at Amazon and use in last week’s ‘Mickey and Minnie & Friends’ Snowy Christmas Tablescape’ as well. I love it when something I purchase works with multiple tablescapes!!

More Items in the Place Setting

I chose our gold “wedding gift flatware” – “Golden Affection by Oneida” for this place setting, as it goes well with the red and gold Robert Stanley plates, as well as the golden color of the Golden Retrievers on the plates and the table runner.

I chose to use our Morgantown Glass Golf Ball Goblets for the glasses on this tablescape. These are “made in America” Depression glass, and I love knowing that Jaclyn Kennedy purchased Morgantown goblets for White House State dinners, for both their elegance and their representation of beautiful American made products. (Although hers were clear, I prefer Morgantown’s colored glass) but its fun to think that my guests are being served beverages in goblets from the same makers as some of the goblets White House!

For more on Morgantown glass and depression glass (including possible safety concerns and precautions with depression glass) please see my “Will you be my Valentine?” tablescape post, where I first wrote about this brand.

“Will you Be My Valentine?” Romantic Valentine’s Day Tablescape

Napkin Rings and Napkins

As always, choosing a napkin ring is one of the harder decisions on my tablescape.

I considered the following sets:

Ceramic Golden Retriever and Yellow Lab napkin rings (above)

and

Vintage and Vintage remakes of Golden Retriever and Husky (or wolf) silver plate Figural napkin rings.

and the following puppy with bow – vintage napkin rings from Fitz and Floyd.

Ultimately I decided on the Fitz and Floyd “Arlo” Puppy and Bow napkin rings, because, even though the puppy is neither a Husky or a Golden Retriever, I thought the fact that it is a “Christmas Puppy” and it is playing with the ribbon, was a match with the spirit of the tablescape.

The tablescape with the Fitz and Floyd puppy and bow napkin rings and red napkins. (above)

I did try one more thing with the table – and that was adding my gold organza napkins to the red napkins – see below.

Although I normally love this napkin and organza look, I’m not sure I like it as well with this tablescape as the bright red look of the napkin alone. What do you think? Also I would love to know your opinion about the 3 napkin ring choices. Which do you think looks best? Please let me know your thoughts on this and the tablescape (if you have time) in the comments section at the very bottom of this post! I would love to hear from you!

Around the Dining Room

I added a few other dog things to the dining room, to go with the Canine Christmas Tablescape. One of those things is the above Golden Retriever figurine with a light up snow flake on his nose. My son got a laugh out of it, because as he put it, “can you really see Simba letting a snowflake land on his nose, or do you see him trying to EAT all the snowflakes?” as you can probably guess, he would be more of an ‘eat the snowflake” kind of dog. However, I still love the look of the figurine!

In addition, I decided to move Simba and Athena’s stockings from the fireplace to the china cabinet, during this Tablescape, as I think carrying out the Husky and Golden Retriever theme throughout the dining room is fun!

After I first published this post, I found an additional Golden Retriever Plate from this collection on eBay (it likely is from an earlier year). I was very excited to find it, because the 3 Golden Retrievers on this plate are more of the coloring of my dog Simba, who is an “English Cream” Golden Retriever. Golden Retrievers come in 3 basic colors – the gold, reddish – similar to an Irish Setter color and the whitish color of an “English Cream”. I purchased this plate and it arrived in time to be a part of my tablescape. It sure brings back a lot of memories of Simba at this age.

“Just In” From the Living Room

Recently, our friends came to visit, and we exchanged Christmas gifts. Our friends gave us a brand new tree skirt that matches the “Golden Retriever Table Runner” that was used in this post. We love it! It carries the dog theme into the Living Room, which is so much fun! This tree skirt, like the table runner it matches, came from Homegoods.

Close-up of the Golden Retriever Tree Skirt that matches the Table Runner

Since i was in the living room to photograph the tree, I decided to photograph some of my doggie ornaments for this post. They are shown below.

While I photographed the tree, I decided to share two of my favorite “old timey” Hallmark Animated Ornaments. This is a sneak peak at a post to come next year regarding animated ornaments. I hope you can visit my website for that post to come also.

Cinderella

Bambi, Thumper, and Flower

Meanwhile, on the Lake

While I was first putting up this tablescape, we were fortunate to have an extra beautiful sunset. This one was very different than the bright orange and yellow ones that we have had lately. This one was mostly blues with just a small streak of white and yellow.

I decided to step outside to get another picture to share with you!

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! And I wish you good times with friends and family! I would love to hear from you about your plans, your decorations, and the Christmases you most enjoyed! Please scroll down to comments and join me in reflecting on this special time of year!!

If you liked this post, I hope you may also like…

… the following Christmas posts …

Mickey, Minnie and Friends’ Snowy Christmas Tablescape

and…

Christmas Tree Tablescape of “Christmas Present”

and

“Christmas Tree” Tablescapes and Snow Village of Christmas Past

as well as the following “dog” post…

Two fun Tablescapes for My Puppy’s 1st Birthday – one for Our People Friends and One for Our Dog Friends!!

From Our Home to Yours…

…Wishing you a

Very Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year!!!!

Tablescape Origins and Details

Golden Retriever Table Runner – Homegoods – Christmas season 2022 and 2023

Tree skirt to match Golden Retriever Table Runner – Homegoods – Christmas Season 2023

Red Napkins – Homegoods

Golden Retriever plush – Amazon

Husky plush – Amazon

Southern Living Golden Retriever salad plates – Dillard’s 2023

Luminous Glitter Charger – sparkleshome.com

Robert Stanley red scalloped plate with gold edge – Hobby Lobby Christmas 2022 and 2023

Golden Affection flatware by Oneida – eBay

Faux fur table runner and place mats – Hobby Lobby – 2022

Golden Retriever figurine with light up snowflake on nose – Homegoods 2023

Husky Needlepoint stocking – Houston Nutcracker Market – 2021?

English Cream Golden Retriever Needlepoint Stocking – Amazon

Fitz and Floyd Christmas Puppy with Ribbon Napkin Rings – eBay

Golden Retriever and Yellow Lab oval napkin rings – eBay

Silver plate vintage dog Figural napkin rings – eBay

Gold Organza Napkins – Amazon

Dog Sled for American Girl Doll – eBay – search “dog sled for American girl dog” note: American Girl has made 2 different sized dog sleds over the year’s. The one on my table seems to be one from the 1990’s, it is the larger of the two and the sled is approximately 22″ long

Morgantown Ruby Golf goblet – eBay

18″ doll clothes -Santa hat from this set was used on 1 plush dog-Amazon

Dog Christmas outfits – Amazon

Dog red sweater – from Homegoods Pet Department 2023

Animated Disney ornaments – Hallmark Store in approx 1992

Dog Ornaments – Bronner’s; the old Pier 1; Hobby Lobby, American Greetings approximately 1989. Older ornaments are occasionally available on eBay.

Link Parties 

Following is a list of websites I really like!  They are listed under the day of the week where they also host a Family Friendly “Link Party” aka “Blog Hop”.

If you click on the name of the blog (in blue) on the evening of the day of the week they are listed under, it should take you to the Link Party, where many bloggers have joined with them to share their own ideas.  I love how the link parties connect you with both a great blog, and other blogger’s ideas as well!  Many thanks to all these bloggers for bringing so many ideas to all of us!!! 

You can actually find these link parties any day of the week, by clicking on the website name below, but once you click, you may need to scroll thru a few entries to find the link party you are looking for. 

Sunday 

Life as a Leo wife (Nikki), Eclectic Red Barn (Beverly),  Décor Craft Design (Mel) ,A Labour of Life (Linda),  Ducks ‘n a Row (Sinea),  Love My Messy Messy Mess (Katie)   host “Happiness is Homemade” Link Party.  I love checking out the home decor, holiday decorations and current projects of all the hostesses as well as the ideas from their link party !

Life and Linda hosts “Love Your Creativity Link Party”.  I love checking out Linda’s gorgeous holiday decorations and tablescapes, and her chandelier decorations are a beautiful finishing touch!!

The House on Silverado  hosts – “Sundays on Silverado” link party. I am fairly new to Niky’s site but am loving her holiday decorating and her new grandma stories!!

Ridge Haven Homestead  – “Sunday Sunshine” Blog Hop.  In addition to the blog hop, I am enjoying reading about Laurie’s homestead, the “off the grid” lifestyle they are living and the cabin they are building.

April J Harris – hosts Hearth and Soul Link Party monthly on the first Sunday of the month. I am enjoying reading about April’s traveling adventures, as well as her projects at home!  

Monday

Life Tales Books Blogspot  hosts Will Blog for Comments Link Party. Jennifer is a Photos and Story Treasures Consultant, and I am enjoying her ideas on photos and memory books, as well as her link party!  

Holly-Pink Lady(Holly) and Sunshine and books blog (Sarah) host “Hello Monday Link Party”. In addition to the link party, I am enjoying Sarah’s book recommendations, and Holly’s recipes and party ideas.  

Between Naps on the Porch hosts  “Metamorphosis Monday” posts, which are all about “Befores and Afters”. I love seeing Susan’s amazing home projects which are very inspiring!! I always come away with some great ideas from her posts and from those who have linked up!!

The following link, Senior Salon Pit Stop will get you to the link party on Esme’s site as well as getting you to some great recipes and other ideas!

Charlene at A Pinch of Joy hosts “Busy Mondays”. Charlene’s website is all about home decorating, and holiday decorations and recipes. The first two things are things I love to do and the Recipes are things I like to eat!

Good random fun blogspot hosts The Good.Random.Fun. link party  Tamar’s website has some great photography, interesting places to visit, and thoughts on many things. Recently, I enjoyed reading about Hanukkah celebrations!

Beverly at Eclectic Red Barn, Nicky at Life as a Leo Wife, Michelle at Moms are frugal and a few other hostesses host “You’re the Star Blog Hop” I love checking out these websites and the link party for holiday decor, crafts, money saving ideas and tablescapes.

Tuesday

A Stroll Thru Life   hosts  the “Inspire me Tuesday” link party. Marty has an eye for design and decorating, and turning your house into a home. I always enjoy reading about her projects.

Eclectic Red Barn (Beverly)  and Penny’s Passion (Penny) host the “Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop” which often opens on Tuesday evenings. I have enjoyed Beverly’s Red Barn project and her projects and decorating . Penny’s website has both projects and recipes I have enjoyed reading about – and more – see “Thinking Out Loud” under “Thursday” in this list.

Masterpieces of my Life hosts the “Home Imagined Link Party” on Tuesday every other week. This is a relatively new link party for me to attend, and I am really enjoying it the many home projects and decor ideas found here!

Jenerally Informed  hosts the “Happy Now Link Party”. Jen from Jenerally informed and Leslie from playmates to parties host “happy now” which brings many craft and decorating ideas and recipes for fun holiday foods.

Perfectly Imperfect-LWL hosts the “Tell It To Me Tuesday Link Party” which brings many decorating ideas, recipes, and ideas for family activities.

Kim and Cassie from Lou Lou Girls host the the “Fabulous Party”. Lou Lou Girls post unique recipes, family activities, DIY and party ideas!

Marci at Stone Cottage Adventures hosts “Tuesdays with a Twist”. Marci posts on gardening, sewing, recipes, crafts and books! Marci’s link party contains many other fun ideas as well.

Wednesday

Karin’s Kottage hosts the “Karin’s Kottage Link party”.  I am also enjoying keeping up with Karin’s Italian Palace remodel! as well as her decorating ideas, crafts, grandchild activities and home projects.

French Ethereal hosts a “Share Your Style”  link party where decorating, recipes, fashion, tablescape styles are all shared.

Esme Salon recently began hosting a “Wordless Wednesday” photography link party – I can’t wait to link up!

Creatively Beth  hosts the “Creatively Crafty” Link Party. Beth’s website contains wonderful craft posts, including amazing up-cycle, from scratch, and Dollar Store Crafts. Beth’s link party contains a variety of family friendly posts including recipes, crafts, and holiday decor.

Ridge Haven Homestead hosts the Homestead Blog Hop.  I am also enjoying reading about the off the grid home that Laurie and her family are building.

Karin at Fifth Sparrow No More, hosts “Whimsy Home Link Party”. Karin posts about Finding the Beauty – in decorating, travel and faith and family!

Cecelia at My Thrift Store Addiction hosts “Vintage Charm” link party. What Cecelia does with her thrift store finds is so creative!

Thursdays

I often participate in Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday. I have been following Susan for quite a long time, and absolutely love her Tablescapes!!! I also love the ideas shared on her Tablescape Thursday link party! 

Katherine’s corner hosts the  “TFT – Thursday Favorite Things” blog hop.  I love the assortment of wonderful decorating, recipe, tablescape, and inspirational ideas found here.

Southern Sunflowers   hosts their “Home Matters Link Party” at 8 CT on Thursday.  I have really enjoyed linking to their link party and the various decorating, recipe, tablescape and craft ideas found on this website and their “Home Matters” Link Party.

Penny’s Passion  hosts the “Thinking Out Loud Link Party” which often begins on Thursday. Thinking out Loud is a great post published each Thursday, and covers many interesting topics. Today the topic was “elf on the shelf – for empty nesters”and I love the traditions Penny has started in her home. So cute!

Roentare.zenfolio blog hosts a photography link party each week.  The photography is absolutely gorgeous, as are the places he and his wife photograph!

Good Random Fun  hosts the “Little Things” link party, which I enjoy. Its a place for sharing and reading about lots of different topics and ideas.

Marsha in the Middle and Melynda, from Scratch Made Food for Hungry People, and Lisa, from Boondock Ramblings host “Weekend Traffic Jam” which goes live on Thursday at 8:30 pm CT. Marsha posts about Fashion and the link party contains holiday decorations, fashion, and recipes (to name a few of the family friendly links).

Friday

Stephanie at Crazy Little Lovebirds hosts the “Crazy Little Lovebirds link party.” It is a gathering for home decor ideas, recipes, tablescapes, reflections, etc. I am enjoying being a part fo this group.

Building Our Hive hosts the “Funtastic Friday” Link Party which includes recipes, home decor, tablescapes, crafts, travel and other family friendly posts.

Cindy at County Road 407  hosts the “Farmhouse Friday” Link Party, which begins at 6:30 am CT each Friday and features home decor – all styles; holiday decorating, tablescapes, crafts, etc.

Andrea at The Cottage Market hosts “A Morning Cup of Joe” link party. Both the website and the link party feature DIY projects, Recipes, home decor, crafts and holiday decorations.

Erika at A Little Bit of Everything and Andrea at Momfessionals, host “Friday Favorites”. Both websites and the link party feature family activities, home decor, fashion, entertaining, recipes, and holiday decorations and traditions.

Saturday

Pieced Pastimes  Hosts “Saturday Sparks Party”  which includes home decors, recipes and holiday fun foods, tablescapes, crafts, etc. Among the many things I appreciate at Pieced Pastimes is the first picture of many posts, where Suzanne shows her current view at home (in New Hampshire) I love her wonderful view in all weather!

I hope you will enjoy visiting these wonderful bloggers on the above websites as much as I do!

Comments

I would love to hear from you about this tablescape, your holiday plans, your decorations, and the Christmases you most enjoyed! Please scroll down to comments and join me in reflecting on this special time of year!!