How to set a Beautiful Table for EasterBrunch

What is Brunch?

Easter Table Essentials

Important Table Accessories

Brunch Decor Themes

What is the Right Way to Set a Table?

What Items are Included in a Proper Table Setting?

You love the artistically arranged dining table settings you see online – but how do you design one for yourself?

The key to creating a beautiful Easter table is to remember that details make the difference.

It isn’t enough to dig out the matching silverware and “good dishes,” if you still have them. Adding attractive table linens, a centerpiece and decorations helps elevate a table setting beyond the everyday.

One good thing for your peace of mind is that there seems to be less pressure to put out a pretty Easter spread than for other holidays. Easter requires less glitz and glam than at Christmas, and encourages a more flexible decor than the typical Thanksgiving autumn harvest theme.

Easter brunch is one of the few holiday celebrations held early in the day. The time of day and the spring season, celebrating new life and rebirth, inspires a lighter approach to decorating. Colors tend to be bright and the mood is more casual.

While you still want the decor and the meal to be amazing, Easter brunch seems more about enjoyment and less about perfection.

A blend of the words “breakfast” and “lunch,” brunch describes a mid-morning or early afternoon meal that mixes typical breakfast and “non breakfast” foods.

The traditional Easter symbol, the egg, stands out both as a decor and menu item at many Easter meals. The versatile egg can be served many ways, including hard boiled, devilled, fried, scrambled, or cooked into an omelet, quiche or casserole.

Breakfast-style accompaniments can include bacon, sausage, hash brown potatoes, fresh fruit, pastries, breads, rolls, pancakes, waffles, bagels, cinnamon buns and donuts.

But brunch also includes foods typically served later in the day, like soup, salad, raw vegetables, pasta, potatoes, carved meats or cold cuts – not to mention desserts like cheesecake and carrot cake!

Serving options vary, also. Since Easter brunch often is a less formal meal than Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, no one will mind if you make things a little easier on yourself by serving it buffet style.

The best way to plan your Easter table setting is to evaluate what you have and decide what you still need. Dishes and silverware are essential. So are glassware and serving pieces. If your set falls short, think about borrowing pieces or adding to your collection. Don’t neglect thrift stores for some great, inexpensive finds!

A table covering of some kind will protect your table’s finish and set the tone for your brunch decor. These days, however, a full tablecloth is just one option. Modern table settings use table runners, with or without placemats, to highlight a table’s natural wood finish.

You can use paper napkins for convenience, but cloth napkins always elevate a table setting. Napkin rings are a pretty and fun accessory. If you don’t have napkin rings, colorful ribbon works just as nicely. For a neutral color scheme, try using jute or twine. You could even string some colorful crystal or natural wood beads onto a short length of elastic for a quick DIY napkin ring set.

You won’t even need napkin rings if you search the internet for tutorials on “how to fold a napkin into an Easter bunny.”

Many hosts enjoy using place card holders to announce seating arrangements. Again, social media is a helpful resource, offering Easter decorating ideas and DIY crafts showing how to make place cards from Easter eggs, paper cut-outs and many other materials. 

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Spring and Easter offer many different design motifs for your brunch table. Try one of these or create your own:

Who isn’t excited by the sight of the first flowers of spring? Incorporate that same exhilaration into your tablescape with a floral-forward theme.

• Set flowered dishes on a flowered tablecloth.

• Create a floral arrangement or centerpiece of real or artificial spring flowers like tulips, daffodils and hyacinths.

• Place multiple low bouquets all around the serving and buffet table.

• Lay a fresh flower on each plate or tuck a stem into each napkin ring.

• Arrange a spring floral garland down the center of your serving table or buffet table.

• Hang a spring floral wreath on the wall above your buffet table or set it on the table with candles in the center.

Mother nature is a master at spring accessorizing, scattering pops of bright color across a winter-weary landscape. Here are some ways to add the same cheery greens, yellows, pinks and lilacs of spring to your Easter tablescape.

• Mix and match your colorful glassware and china.

• Make each place setting a different color: blue for Aunt Mary, green for Gary, and so on.

• A pristine white table covering makes the colors of your china and glassware pop.

• Scatter vibrantly colored easter eggs all around the table, gather them in bowls or use them as place cards.

• Choose a bright centerpiece as a focal point for the serving table and buffet, or group several Easter tabletop decorations together.

• Tie a bow of bright ribbon around each chair.

Color doesn’t have to be saturated to be impactful. Soft and romantic pastel colors are also springtime favorites.

• Set pastel dishes on a white tablecloth, or white dishes on a pastel colored tablecloth.

• Use pastel placemats and napkins to support the color theme.

• For a buffet-style brunch, corral your silverware in a pretty pastel basket.

• Scatter flowers or decorated Easter eggs in soft colors across each table.

• Drape pastel colored Easter string lights down the center or across the front of your buffet table.

• You can even place a small decorated Easter tree on your buffet table.

Easter is a joyful celebration held during a cheerful time of year.

Creating an attractive Easter tablescape and displaying Easter decor is a pleasant way to welcome your guests and express your own delight in the season.

Christmas Central offers decor for Christmas and all the holidays throughout the year. Browse our Easter section for more decorating ideas.

It’s no secret that Americans are ultra-casual about dining. From fast-food to take-out, from eating in the car to gobbling a snack while watching your kids’ after-school sports, families today often don’t share meals together regularly.

One result is that, when it comes time to host a big event like Easter brunch, many people realize they don’t know how to properly set a table.

If your table setting knowledge is shaky but you want your Easter spread to look just right, follow this visual guide: 

You don’t need to get fancy to set a beautiful table for your Easter brunch – although you can if you want to! However, there are several items that can be included on your table.

A table setting suitable for most modern entertaining needs can include:

• Tablecloth

• Table runner

• Napkin

• Napkin holder

• Placemat

• Plate charger

• Dinner plate, salad plate, bread plate, soup bowl

• Cutlery: Salad fork, dinner fork, dessert fork, dinner knife, butter knife, soup spoon, teaspoon

• Water glass

• Wine glass or goblet

• Candle holders or lanterns

• Centerpiece or table display

If you aren’t serving rolls or fresh bread you can remove the bread plate and bread knife; ditto for the soup bowl and soup spoon, if soup is not on the menu. No salad? No need for a salad fork and plate.

Table runners and placemats can be used with or without a tablecloth.

Plate chargers are optional, too, but they add a pretty touch if you have them!