Why a Simple Nordic Table Works So Well

Scandinavian homes at Christmas tend towards restraint: pale wood, plenty of candlelight, and natural materials that look better as they age. It is a style born of long dark winters and a practical dislike of waste, and it suits a British dining room perfectly. You do not need a cupboard full of themed china to make a table feel festive. A few pinecones, a stack of folded paper stars and a handful of beeswax candles will do more than any amount of foil and tinsel.

The best part is that almost everything can be foraged, folded or rolled in an evening, and then packed away in a box for next December. Here is how to put it together without spending much or sending anything to landfill.

Start With What the Garden Gives You

Before you buy anything, take a basket outside. Late November and early December are ideal for gathering, because the cones are ripe and the hedgerows are still holding colour. Look for:

• Pinecones and larch cones, dry and open rather than damp and closed
• Sprigs of holly with berries, ivy trails, and offcuts of spruce or fir
• Bay, rosemary and thyme from the herb patch — they smell wonderful next to a candle
• Bare birch or hazel twigs for standing in a jug

Only take from your own garden or where you have permission, and leave plenty behind for the birds and the wildlife. A light trim of an established holly bush does no harm; stripping a hedgerow does.

Pinecones: Clean Them, Then Let Them Work

Pinecones brought indoors straight from the garden will slowly close up in the warmth and may bring tiny inhabitants with them. Ten minutes of preparation solves both problems. Spread them on a baking tray lined with foil — the resin will mark a bare tin — and put them in an oven at about 100°C (gas mark ¼) for 30 to 45 minutes. They will open out into proper little sculptures and smell faintly of the forest. Let them cool completely.

Then use them three ways. Grouped in a shallow bowl with a few sprigs of rosemary, they make an instant centrepiece. Wired onto a loop of twine, they become a garland to drape along the middle of the table. Best of all, wedge one into a slit cut in a piece of kraft card and you have a place-name holder that guests will pocket and take home. Write the names in a fine white or gold pen so they show up against the brown.

Paper Stars and Woven Hearts

Paper decorations are where this style really earns its keep, because they cost nothing but an evening. Use up old sheet music, brown parcel paper, last year's wrapping paper, or wallpaper offcuts.

For a folded star, cut a strip about 2cm wide and 30cm long. Tie a loose knot in one end, then pull it gently until it forms a small pentagon. Wrap the long tail round and round the edges of the pentagon, tucking the final end in underneath. Pinch each of the five sides between finger and thumb and the shape puffs up into a star. Thread them onto cotton and hang them from the back of each chair, or cluster them on a bare twig in a jug.

Woven hearts — the Danish julehjerte — are just as easy. Fold two rectangles of contrasting paper in half lengthways, cut a slit down each folded edge, then weave the two pieces together and bend the top strips outwards into a handle. They will hold a couple of chocolates or a clementine at each place setting, and they flatten beautifully for storage.

Beeswax Candles and Honest Light

Candlelight is the whole point of a Nordic table, and beeswax gives the warmest, honey-scented flame of all. You can buy sheets of beeswax and roll your own tapers in minutes: cut the sheet on the diagonal to make two tapered candles, lay a cotton wick along the long edge, press it down with your thumb, then roll tightly and smooth the seam with the warmth of your hands. A rolled candle this size burns for roughly half an hour — about right for the main course.

Please treat them with respect. Stand them in proper holders with a drip tray, keep them well clear of greenery and paper, trim the wick to about a centimetre, and never leave a room with a candle still burning. Keep them away from draughts and out of reach of children and pets. Odd charity-shop candlesticks in brass or pewter look far better in mismatched groups than a matching set.

Laying the Table, and Using It All Again

Keep the centrepiece low — under about 15cm — so nobody has to peer round it, and save the tall candles for the ends of the table or the sideboard. A plain linen runner or an undyed cloth is the right backdrop. Add a sprig of rosemary or bay tied to each napkin with garden twine, scatter a few loose cones along the runner, and let the paper stars do the rest. The palette that works best is white, birch, soft grey-green and the amber of the wax, with perhaps one thread of red for cheer.

After Twelfth Night, the greenery goes on the compost heap and the candles will have burnt down to nothing. Pack the cones and paper decorations into a box with tissue, store them somewhere dry — damp makes cones close up and paper curl, though a quick spell in a low oven will revive the cones — and you have a table ready to go again next year. Simple, warm, and nothing wasted.