Joyeux Noel Holiday Dinner Party: Part 1

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Joyeux Noel Holiday Dinner Party: Part 1

If you have not already, meet the fabulous Paula of Frog Prince Paperie. She helped design a darling birthday banner for a party I was helping with, and I have loved following her every since. She shared with me this Joyeux Noel Dinner Party she designed and enjoyed with her husband’s family for Christmas.

Paula shared:

This Christmas is a special one for my family. The pictures shown on this post are our actual Christmas dinner with my husband’s family, who came down this week to celebrate the holiday. As I said, my father’s side of the family is from New Orleans, so family cooking always has a decidedly Cajun flavor, and was part of my inspiration. And I admit, there is a Christmas song from my favorite New Orleans Christmas CD called “Joyeux Noel” that I sing all year long that I couldn’t get out of my head and on to paper quickly enough as a design.

Paula shared some of her design details and inspiration:

“I’d like to say that each piece of decoration here was specifically chosen just for this dinner. But really, everything but the magnolias and ribbon was already around and it was just a matter of rearranging. And if I were at Grandma Nita’s, I would have just wandered out to her back acre and climbed my favorite magnolia tree for some blossoms!

It was fun weaving in a little family history and heirlooms when I planned this dinner. I used Scott’s grandmother’s buffet to set our pre-dinner-wait-for-the-turkey-to-be-done appetizers out.

The dinner table was set with a hand made table cloth and set of napkins from Malta that were gifted to us last Christmas layered over burlap for texture. I also set out our wedding silver and candlesticks, magnolias, antique silver chargers and my collection of plates I bought just because I thought they were pretty—none of them match. I was thrilled when Nicole of Tradewind Tiaras sent over a dozen of her sparkly crystal napkin rings to use for my place settings. I accented each one with boxwood sprigs after consulting my new favorite florist around the corner, Buds and Things.

I love Kate Lander’s style—the cotton ruffles she uses just inspire me. So I took a little time to sew some ruffled chair accents that turned out just wonderfully and added a little something extra special to the table! I left mine unfinished, as it suited the overall look of the room and added a knotted ribbon, Christmas bulb and sprigs of boxwood.”

Appetizers

Paula served a delicious array of appetizers that we just had to share with you! And stop back by later today to see the desserts! You’ll be oh so WOW’d!

Paula shared details of her love for the holidays,

“Holidays around here are very much about roots and tradition. And an obsession with really good food. I recently came up with an explanation why we are all so crazy about eating at our gatherings when, of all things, I was reading a Rachel Ray magazine where she equated her recipe stash as a scrapbook of memories and adventures. I think this is why food is so important to us; as a military family, we didn’t grow up next to grandma and grandpa or aunties and uncles, and we associated the very different food we ate on our visits with family as memories.”