Alternate title:: Buffet setting up for lazy people who don’t want to think too much plus two super great giveaways

Our family is hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and maybe one more get together in the coming months and I’ll certainly be setting the table a few times but, I’ll also be setting up a buffet on our table as well.  I thought I’d share how I think about buffeting.

The buffet set up must be functional.

Clearly, we need a place to get plates, utensils, napkins and most importantly food into our guests in a rational manner.  And since a buffet is self serve, you want everything to be organized {maybe even labeled} so you can sit back and relax.

The buffet set up can be beautiful.

Here’s how I like to think about prepping a buffet::

Gather a variety of food holders. Stay away from a bunch of the same flat plates.  Think about what you have that you can use to hold food and napkins.

  • I’m partial to white dishes so I start gathering all shapes and sizes from around my house and {ahem}, walls
  • cutting boards, cheese boards, lazy susans~all can be used to create different levels of interest
  • trays of different shapes, pizza boards, bread boards these can hold or create a boundary for food
  • wooden bowls~personally, I just love the warm rusticness that wood bowls and dough bowls add
  • baskets lined with a cloth or burlap for rolls or pastries

Also, think about varying heights.  I’m looking forward to using my three tiered wired stand {winners announced tomorrow} and Old Faithful {my double decker plate stand}.

And I also grab any pedestals, cloches and apothecaries and consider those.

Then I put it all on my table and play around with it. And once all my serving choices are out, I think about what I want to use to decorate.  I’d rather spend my money on things I can use all year around {like servers or candles and such} but, since I just made my coffee filter wreath and tree, I plopped those on the table too.

This buffet is just a mock up. If my mom and dad and sister’s family were coming, they would arrive and we’d make all the food here together and I’d think about what we are having and then choose the appropriate containers that look nice together.

So here’s what I came up with.  A rustic yet classy wintery table that includes various heights, shapes, colors, textures and all works together and reflect our house because it was stuff I was already using in my home.

However, I did work in two new items that I wanted to share with you–the centerpiece and the workhorse of the table.

For the centerpiece I set the Wood Pedestal from DaySpring into my huge coffee filter wreath {added note, the coffee filter tree sits perfectly on top of the pedestal too}. They sent it to me a few weeks ago and naturally, I’ve used it in 4 rooms of my house already.

It is hugenormous. and HEAVY. And it has beautiful words on it: To Live With Joy Is To See God’s Goodness.

Did I mention it was big?  In the photo where it is the centerpiece, that is a dinner plate on top of it.  They really should brag more about how big and heavy this thing is.

I can even fit my glass cake cover on top of it and it looks like a huge cloche on a stand.  So if someone in your family makes a special cake every year, this could work out really well and make them feel like a cake baking queen.

There’s a giveaway coming up so hang in there for the conclusion of the longest post in eternity…

I also mentioned the workhorse of the table.  The most practical item on my buffet.

It’s the Give Thanks Wooden Caddy. I admit, I’ve gone 15 years of wifeing and never had one of these.  It’s a luxury that I now wonder how I’ve lived without.  We’ll be using real forks or my favorite wooden forks this year because I don’t want to junk up my pretty caddy with my hillbilly plastic forks.

Then again, this is how I’ve been making use of my pretty caddy for the last 3 weeks and clearly, it’s not possible to junk it up.

Lastly, a quick idea if you are not hosting something this year. Whenever I’m invited somewhere for a major holiday I try to bring a little gift {cream cheese with green pepper jelly anyone?} and put it on a pretty plate and cover it with a thrift store glass cheese dome {you can find them at practically every thrift store for $2}.  DaySpring has the perfect plates to give as a hostess gift for the upcoming season.

Giveaway Alert :: this giveaway is closed winners announced here.

DaySpring is giving away 3 Wooden Pedestals to random commenters and for every 100 comments left, one random person will win a Wooden Caddy.

Leave a comment and tell us which you could use more, the pedestal or the caddy.

Special thanks to DaySpring for sponsoring this post and giveaway and for providing us with meaningful beauty for our homes.