HOSTING FOR HANUKKAH; SET A BEAUTIFUL TABLE

Hanukkah may be late this year, but latke alert, the first night of Hanukkah is this Saturday night on Christmas Eve!

Eight nights, eight lights is the theme of this year’s Hanukkah fest and I couldn’t have had more fun designing this table. While I wanted it to be a typically pretty holiday table, I also wanted to mix in some whimsy for the kids, because after all, Hanukkah is all about the kids. Oh, and eating a ridiculous amount of latkes. If your family is anything like ours it’s also about our traditions, and at least one night during Hanukkah we get together with our closest friends for a great big latkepalooza. And like any other year, we’ll all be ready and waiting for the first latke to come out of the frying pan.

On the Hanukkah table: White, silver, shades of blue and my collection of menorahs, which really do all the work. By now you all know I love to layer my placesettings. Here, I layered a white felt snowflake placemat from Pier 1, a Lenox Federal Platinum Dinner Plate, a Lenox Federal Platinum Monogram Accent Plate (I'm all about monogram right now!), a silver trimmed napkin and topped each placesetting with these adorable Hanukkah Gelt Bags from Mark and Graham. The gelt bags absolutely made the placesettings and the table. I added gelt to the bags and dreidels to the placesetting so everyone can spin!

From pretty linens to your favorite latke platters, an easy way to play up your Hanukkah celebrations is with your glittering menorahs.

Let's talk about these Etched Footed Blue Wine Glasses from Lenox, because I love that they have a vintage feel and are absolutely the most perfect shade of blue for a Hanukkah table.

For the latke station, I folded these DII Eight Nights, Eight Lights kitchen towels as napkins, added a menorah, a gelt bag, a few dreidels, some snowflake charms to the glasses and finally, the stars of the show, latkes, applesauce and sour cream!

Love all the pretty, but more about easy entertaining? Create it! Sophistiplate is the pretty paper line from Italy I've been talking about and I treat on my table just as I would my fine china, layering and accessorizing it with my flatware and stemware. You can get the look with Sophistiplate's navy and silver Hanukkah set.

Speaking of glittering Menorah's, how beautiful is this kate spade new york Oak Street Menorah? I really love all my menorahs, but being the huge kate spade fan that I am, adding a modern day menorah to my collection that reflects my own personal style was just a little special to me. And, you can never have enough menorah's or Hanukkiah's on the table for Hanukkah.