Setting the scene

Whether you have Christmas china or Chinet, it just takes a little forethought to turn your dining table into a dining experience.

'You really need to start planning your table a couple of weeks before your Thanksgiving or Christmas (gathering) because you forget what you have,” said Nina Swan-Kohler of Robins, a home economist, culinary professional and instructor of 'Cooking in the Kitchen with Nina.” She's also a consummate hostess.

She likes to mix up her table settings each year, adding heirloom pieces or different linens and centerpieces. The first thing to do is open your cupboard doors, and get out the pieces you might want to use, she said. Get out the platters, crystal, silver service, cloth napkins, place mats, napkin rings - all the items that tend to lurk in the dark recesses of a cabinet or hutch.

STRATEGY

And play around with different ways to use linens or table runners. For Thanksgiving this year, she tied a loose knot at either end of her table runners to just give them a new twist. And she found some glasses at her mother's place that complemented her dinnerware.

'For me, it's a wonderful experience to just put something different together,” she said. 'Every year I do something different and combine different napkins or different looks. It just makes it more fun for me, but also hopefully, more fun for other people.”

Little touches can make a big impact.

Even if you're using paper plates and cups, placing them atop a real tablecloth will add a festival flair, she said. Flowers and candles also up the ante, but beware to use unscented candles, since scented candles can overpower the aroma of the meal you've prepared or even change the taste of the food, she said.

Charger plates are another inexpensive addition to holiday place settings. Larger than a dinner plate, they come in a variety of materials and colors. Just for decoration, not for food, they are placed under the plate. Using gold, silver, red or green will add circles of color and 'just totally upgrade” your table.

Even though they weren't commonly used in the late 1800s and early 1900s, silver chargers also add a little more holiday elegance to Brucemore's dining room.

FORMAL DINING

If you're wanting to serve a formal dinner this year, but don't quite know how to begin with all the plates, goblets and silverware, the historic mansion at 2160 Linden Dr. SE in Cedar Rapids is open for daytime tours through Dec. 31. It's also open for other special holiday tours and events, noted under the events calendar at Brucemore.org

'It's reflective of the way the Douglas family ate their meals and celebrated the holiday season,” said Jessica Peel-Austin, manager of interpretation and collections. 'It's pretty typical of how a family of the Douglases' social standing would be taking their meals.”

The family lived there from 1906 to 1937. Captains of industry and culture, their developments included Quaker Oats.

'In the Edwardian period, meals typically were an elaborate affair, very formal,” Peel-Austin said. 'Every evening they would dress for dinner and enjoy each other's company for two or three hours.”

Servants would bring each course to the table, rather than placing bowls and platters there family-style. Even today, Swan-Kohler prefers to plate her meals in the kitchen, garnish them, then serve them to her guests.

'It's also fun to just pass the bowls, and let people take what they want,” she said. 'But the plates never look quite as pretty.”

The Douglas table would have multiple plates, silverware and goblets. For the holidays, Peel-Austin set out four forks to the left of the charger plate, topped with a shallow bowl rimmed in red and gold for soup or salad, and a stemmed goblet for a palate cleanser such as sorbet, served between courses.

The forks are specific to salad, meat, fish and dessert (which also may be placed above the plate). An oyster fork is placed over the palate-cleanser spoon on the right side of the plate.

The setting also includes a soup spoon and teaspoon, as well as knives for meat and fish. A bread knife is placed over the bread plate at the top of the setting, along with a ruby red finger bowl and goblets for sherry, wine and water. Mr. Douglas' place at the head of the table also sports a cigar/cigarette holder.

Don't know which utensil to use for which course? Just start from the outside and work in toward the plate.

Not having serving bowls and platters on the table left plenty of room for centerpieces, Peel-Austin said.

'One of the main things about choosing a centerpiece for an elaborate setting is to use something that doesn't obstruct the view, so people can carry on a conversation,” she said. 'A very popular piece was called an ‘epergne,' a multilayered vase for flowers or floral decorations, made out of a high-quality material like colored glass or silver. We chose the silver and filled it with Christmas greens and flowers.”

Brucemore's dining room features a sideboard, where bowls and platters of food could be placed after being passed. Since servants brought the courses to the table in the Douglases' day, decorative pieces or extra silverware would be placed on top instead.

'It was a way to show off your fancy things,” Peel-Austin said, including a decorative silver coffee urn belonging to Mrs. Douglas' family.

The ornate sideboard, which was an antique in the Douglas era, is topped on either side with a cutlery urn, in which the silver pieces could be stored upright 'in a really attractive way” to keep from tarnishing, Peel-Austin said. It also featured a rolling beverage cooler, lined with tin and filled with ice, so Mr. Douglas could choose which beverage to serve with the varying courses.

Candles were for used for decoration and ambience, since Brucemore was electrified around the turn of the 20th century. The ruby red goblets also were important for dressing a holiday table.

'During the Victorian and Edwardian periods, it was important to have a lot of color on the table, so they would choose brightly colored tablecloths, plates and flowers,” Peel-Austin said.

The setting always draws oohs and aahs from today's mansion visitors.

'People are always amazed by the complexity of what a dinner service would look like, with so many pieces of china and silverware and accoutrements,” Peel-Austin said. 'People are blown away. We eat in front of a television or at a dinner table with a few plates. People aren't used to seeing big, elaborate dinner settings anymore. They seem to be amazed.”

SPECIAL TOUCHES

The key to a successful dinner party, from formal to family style or buffet, is to make the guests feel welcome, Swan-Kohler said.

For sit-down meals, placecards not only let your guests know you planned for them specifically, but it also allows the host to seat people in a manner to encourage conversation. A little gift at each place, to either nibble on at the table or take home, adds a warm touch, too.

'It just upgrades the whole experience for people, because it makes them feel special,” Swan-Kohler said.

Children can be worked into any dinner setting, she added, from letting them eat picnic-style on a blanket placed on the floor, to seating them together at their own 'kids' table” so they can be with others their own age and eat more kid-friendly foods.

But she also advocates having them join the adults at the dining room table, using the same china and crystal as the grown-ups. With a little guidance, done in a friendly way, she finds 'they rise to the occasion.”

'You can have a lesson at the meal without being condescending,” she said. 'I teach etiquette classes for kids and adults, and the kids really do take it seriously, because they don't want to be in a situation that they don't know what to do.”

If you're hosting a sit-down meal with more guests than room at the table, she advises either placing two tables together to elongate the seating, or placing other tables nearby, all set and decorated in style.

She also doesn't use as many pieces of silverware as the Brucemore display. A more typical setting today might include a salad and dinner fork, soup spoon and teaspoon, knife, and a dessert spoon or fork at the top of the plate.

Paper plates have their place, too, and many are very decorative, she noted. They make cleanup faster, and are especially good when feeding a crowd or hosting a 'second meal” of sandwiches and leftovers.

'That's just a personal thing,” she said.

Still, she's all in favor of splurging for holiday entertaining.

'If you have dishes to use and it's Christmas or Thanksgiving, when else are you getting to use them? Use your real dishes.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com