The season is abuzz with holiday parties and open houses. Use flowers and other floral materials to create stunning holiday tables for your event.

The first step is to choose your table coverings and napkins. These will determine the color scheme for your table’s decorations.

For buffets, tabletop topiary trees make ideal holiday decorations.

Gingerbread houses are a traditional holiday decoration. These make good centerpieces. Decorate the gingerbread house with various kinds of floral materials, such as berries, and tiny dried flowers. Bits of fresh holiday greenery can serve as garlands around doors and windows of the gingerbread house.

Fill bowls with pomander, dried fruit slices, and pot pourri.

Candles play such as important role for holiday tables. Candle holders can be decorated in various ways. There are many possible options. Decorate these with berried stems, greenery, and other holiday materials. Stems of variegated ivy also work very well for this project.

Create a candle ring wreath with holiday greenery. Then, add flowers, baubles, or other items that fit into your decorating theme. This makes a good centerpiece.

Candles also look beautiful when combined with fruits. For example, you could use blueberries or purple raspberries for a lilac or purple candle.

Flowers, berries, greenery, and other materials can be used to decorate candles. Just be sure that this doesn’t touch the flame.

Create mini-wreaths or swags. Hang these on the backs of the dining chairs.

Instead of plain napkin rings, use floral materials. Tie these with ribbon, and then tuck in flowers, herbs, or sprigs of berried holly. Both fresh and dried flowers are suitable for this.

Create mini decorations for each place setting. Take teeny terra cotta pots or mini galvanized buckets. Fill these with cranberries, snowberries, or other small berries/fruits.

Down the center of the table place boughs of greenery, bunches of cinnamon sticks tied together, or stems of crab apples, hypericum berries, or rose hips.

For a centerpiece, try something a little different this season. On an elevated cake plate, place seasonal fruits. Then choose flowers that will complement the fruits. Purple figs, red pomegranates, and deep red roses would be one combination. Cut the stems of the flowers very short so the blossoms can be nestled among the fruits. Other suitable flowers include amaryllis, white hyacinths, artichokes, and sea holly.