Christmas Eve

Four tales at the table: setting stories consistent with the home and style of the host

For the festive lunch or dinner, an intimate, family or public mise en scène that unfolds over four themes. Fashionable fabrics and designs, handcrafted one-off pieces, cosmopolitan curiosity cabinets, decorative maximalism.

24 December 2024

Sulla tavola centrale, da sinistra, piatti delle collezioni Feston e Cadena Azzurro e Feston e Cadena Rosso (da 60 €), Chinesi Fiori Finiti (da 53 €), A Striche e Oro (da 91 €), Foglie de Tabaco (da 104 €), Striche (da 53 €). Tutto GEMINIANO COZZI - VENEZIA 1765. Fa da sfondo il piatto decorativo Aurora Gold in vetro artigianale con decorazioni in foglia d’oro 24 carati e applicazione di elementi in vetro, CASARIALTO (285 €).

7' min read

Throw away your darkness and you will be rich. Like an evening after the snow,' wrote Olav H. Hauge. The Norwegian poet, translator and horticulturist had condensed the spirit of the holidays into a handful of words and an image. Light and wealth set within the walls of the home, while outside it is cold and dark and the table is the secular altar around which to celebrate.

Each in his or her own way, assembling and composing, without hesitation, beautiful and precious things - plates, glasses, tablecloths and bowls - perhaps unique in their refined workmanship or craftsmanship. A personal, familiar, public mise en scène.

Beware of fashion, always and in any case, even at Christmas: those who seek stylish details for the table choose the unmistakable spirit of the maisons. Hermès, for example, does not miss the return to its roots in the series of precious porcelain Tressages Équestres, born from the study of the company archives, in which the designs of the products that made the Parisian workshop that produced saddles, harnesses and horse harnesses famous in the mid-nineteenth century are kept. In the hands of the French Virginie Jamin, a children's illustrator who has already signed several textile accessories for Hermès, the details of the harnesses and trimmings have been transformed into graphic motifs and refined designs that stand out against the kaolin white of the porcelain (plates from 110 euros).

Coppa da champagne in vetro decorato a mano con elementi decorativi a effetto 3D, colorati in pasta, DOLCE & GABBANA (295 €); ciotola-centrotavola Ginger dalla forma sinuosa, in ottone dorato, GIORGIO ARMANI (15 x 12 x 7 cm,95 €).

Dolce & Gabbana glasses do not escape the swirl of colours - and how could they? - of the Sicilian Carretto, an icon of the tradition so loved by the designers. In the glasses the colours are delicately interpreted by master glassmakers: they are tumblers, wine goblets and champagne glasses in mouth-blown clear glass in which the drink is embellished with polka dots and lines in coloured glass (champagne goblet, €295). If the centrepiece is to shine, the choice falls on gold, but the distilled and almost impalpable gold of Giorgio Armani: the two Ginger bowls, of different sizes, irregular and pure in their roundness stripped of all decoration, are in gilded brass, handcrafted one by one and treated on the inside with a special process that allows contact with food. They contain grapes to serve at the stroke of New Year's Eve or Mediterranean-scented mandarins to put on the table at the end of dinner, when the chatter gets more intimate and the children fall asleep. Or, even more simply, the Ginger become the luminous centrepiece of the table, in which pine branches, red berries and cinnamon sticks can be arranged like an ikebana (Ginger medium centrepiece, 95 euro). Fantasy and art also meet on the Dior table, in the guise of Pietro Ruffo's fantastic sea creatures. The Roman artist is the author of the imaginative world of Cabinet de la Mer, which inspired Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Cruise Collection 2025. A starfish, a creature from that underwater universe, with the maison's cartouche between the points, is embroidered with pictorial mastery in the centre of the new white cotton placemats (€350 each); circular and with wavy edges, they highlight each place setting or offer themselves as a romantic setting for a dinner for two under the tree.

Centrotavola in bronzo e acciaio disegnato e realizzato a mano da Joy de Rohan Chabot, edizione limitata, DIOR Art de la Table - Cabinet de la Mer (19.400 €); ciotola del set Tressages Équestres, ispirato al mondo equestre, con disegno originariamente realizzato a penna e a guazzo, HERMÈS (modello grande, 420 €).

If precious is synonymous with unique, it is necessary to transform the Christmas table into a stage on which to display objects with unusual stories. Such are the creations of the Atelier of Simone Crestani, a young master glassmaker who trespasses into the field of art. His story is singular: fifteen years old, he started by chance as an apprentice in the workshop of master glassmaker Massimo Lunardon in the Vicenza area. The trade won him over, he discovered a vocation; gallery owner Jean Blanchaert noticed his work and invited him to exhibit in Milan. He is considered, today, a star of lamp-blown glass (borosilicate), the material in which the trio of pieces that make up the Coral Collection is made: a vase (730 euro), a multi-tiered riser (840 euro) and a domed riser in which transparent coral branches act as supports for the tops or as a precious handle (915 euro); they lend themselves to serving panettone or pralines in the most regal of ways.

Piatto collezione Italian Views Agave in sottile terraglia bianca lavorata al tornio, rifinito e decorato a mano, LABORATORIO PARAVICINI (diametro 27 cm, 105 €); alzata in vetro borosilicato, Coral Collection, SIMONE CRESTANI (altezza 37 cm, 840 €).

Mangiafumo-porta candela cilindrico soffiato a mano in vetro cristallo di Murano, inciso a mano, GIBERTO VENEZIA (1.400 €).

Surprising your guests will not be difficult with Giberto Venezia's Murano glass glasses, engraved with the initial of your name or a motto or, for the more sentimental, the verse of a poem. The Venetian brand conceived and led by Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga uses the best craftsmen on the Venetian island to give body to glasses in transparent or coloured crystal, made unique by personalised engravings on request (from 900 euro per piece with personalised engraving). From glassware to porcelain, handmade is the playing field at Laboratorio Paravicini in Milan, where the elements of fine white earthenware tableware are finished one by one, then decorated by brush or print. They can be decorated on request, but the collections designed by the Laboratorio are no less original, such as the bucolic Italian Views (from 95 euro), in which six imaginary landscapes with a distinctly Italic character are set in orange and blue (the names of each plate are also evocative: Agave, Primroses, Amphora, Orcio, Lemons, Cypresses). Completing the table is Casarialto's Via Lattea tablecloth, a novelty that combines technology and craftsmanship: along with cotton fibres, the blue background incorporates optical fibres that draw a galaxy of stars. At a simple touch of the host, the stars will gently illuminate, giving the illusion of lighting up the night (€4,250).

Piatto in porcellana della collezione Royal Creatures, ogni pezzo è decorato con una differente creatura marina, ROYAL COPENHAGEN (diametro 25 cm, 149,90 €); bicchieri Circle realizzati a mano da artigiani vetrai, le. delicate incisioni lineari derivano da un processo di produzione di ogni oggetto in sottili fogli di rame plissettati, da un’idea della designer Milena Kling, LASVIT (set di 2 tumbler, 200 €).

Trendsetters, real or imaginary travellers, lovers of eclecticism will find satisfaction in setting the table like a cabinet de curiosités, where each piece, different from the next, echoes stories of sky and sea, of secrets and traditions, of witty inventions. The enigmatic creatures of the abysses or of the coasts appear in their fluidity on the porcelain services of Royal Creatures, a Royal Copenhagen collection signed by the designer duo GamFratesi (Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi), who have reproduced with synthetic precision the silhouettes of rays and manta rays, of lobsters and shells, in the classic blue of the house on a white background. Each plate can be different, so that each diner can have his own totemic creature (from 100 euro). Similarly, the new Zodiaco series by Fornasetti, part of the large family of Themes and Variations with the face of Lina Cavalieri, depicts the twelve astral signs, to be chosen according to the date of birth of the guests (€160 each). It too is somehow linked to the sea, since Piero Fornasetti chose the astronomical theme to decorate the Zodiac Suite of the Andrea Doria liner in 1951. This was followed by a drawing of the sign of Aries with the face of Lina Cavalieri, which remained so; and today it is her son Barnaba Fornasetti who develops the entire series, as a stimulus to get in tune with the stars - a good resolution for the year that is about to begin.

Tovagliolo con pizzo Rinascimento ricamato a mano in Italia con cotone makò su lino, CIBELLE (set di 2, 100 €); piatto Zodiaco in porcellana, FORNASETTI (160 €).

All different from each other are the Circle glasses by Lasvit, an ethereal collection born from the skill of the Bohemian glassmakers and the idea of designer Milena Kling to shape the thin walls of the glass with a pleated and flexible copper foil, so that it is the molten glass that finds its own harmony, inconstant and always distinct. At the bottom, on the other hand, the glass generates concentric circles, so that it succeeds in the miracle of giving shape to the water, without betraying it (set of 2 tumblers, 200 euros). Framing the continuous surprises of the eclectic table is the Rinascimento tablecloth by Cibelle (from 500 euros), which tells ancient and lost stories: made of pure linen certified by Masters of Linen, it is decorated with the lace that bears its name, rigorously executed and applied by hand. It is the dream translated into reality by Raffaella Gemiti, who in embarking on the entrepreneurial adventure of her family's textile business in Apulia intends to keep the local art of embroidery alive (and thriving): 'My maternal grandmother, an embroiderer, passed on to me her passion for trousseaus and sense of hospitality by laying beautiful tables,' she reveals.

Oggetto decorativo in argento a forma di carciofo della collezione Armatae Flores, BUCCELLATI (2.650 €); piatto piano in porcellana con decoro Castagna e filettatura oro, Collezione Oriente Italiano, GINORI 1735 (diametro 26,5 cm,125 €).

Ban minimalism: festivities allow one to indulge in grandeur, and classicism is a splendid tool for this. With the Oriente Italiano service by Ginori 1735, crockery, cups, soup tureens and trays, in the timeless and historic forms of Ancient Doccia, are decorated with the carnation floral motif that the Faenza tradition borrowed from the Orient. The fascinating series of colours has been joined, just in time for the festivities, by two soft colours, the soft Meringue Ivory and the velvety Chestnut Brown, which, combined, balance the relationship between light and dark, light and shade. Triumph of the classic also in Buccellati's craftsmanship, with silver bringing the artichoke, the heraldic symbol of hope, to the table. The collection is poetically entitled Armatae Flores and includes a limited and numbered edition of 100 handmade silver artichokes in 11 variations, as well as two centrepieces with garland. The individual elements lend themselves as placeholders or simple ornaments, scattered here and there on the table (from EUR 2,000). Preciousness relies on marble - what could be more classic? - in the table accessories designed by the Veronese brand Antolini, a reference name in the natural stone sector. Designed by Alessandro La Spada, the Tableware Collection includes trays, place setting plates, risers and other serving accessories in the sloping hues of Irish Green marble (table setting, 985 euro). Velvet, the favourite fabric of royal houses, lends itself to finishing off this table: handmade velvet, produced in Venice, borders the hand-woven Italian linen of the Once Milano tablecloths, in warm hues, from red to gold, or natural, from green to brown (from €257). No decorations, just flat fabrics, worked with sartorial care to dress with crisp beauty. Like an evening after the snow.

Tovagliolo in lino naturale con orlo smerlato cucito a mano, ONCE MILANO (set di 4 pezzi, 236 €); vassoio ovale a barca Dondolo in marmo Irish Grenn, collection by Alessandro La Spada, ANTOLINI (1.105 €).

FEST AT INVITATIONS ANTOLINI. BUCCELLATI. CASARIALTO. CIBELLE. DIOR. DOLCE & GABBANA. FORNASETTI. GEMINIANO COZZI - VENICE 1765. GIBERTO VENEZIA. GINORI 1735. GIORGIO ARMANI. HERMÈS. LABORATORIO PARAVICINI. LASVIT. ONCE MILANO. ROYAL COPENHAGEN. SIMONE CRESTANI.