A 12 Days of Christmas Tablescape — Whispers of the Heart

The idea for this 12 Days of Christmas Tablescape has been in the back of my mind for a while but I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to create it. From time to time I browse several of my favorite stores online and when I saw these 12 Days of Christmas dinner plates at Pottery Barn recently I decided to buy them and start working on a tablescape with this theme even though I thought that it might take me a few years to gather everything and pull it all together. As it happened, I was able to finish it this season. The tablecloth choice changed a few times but I finally settled on this red paisley pattern tablecloth. I found it at HomeGoods several years ago, it was made by Ralph Lauren. I love using it on my more formal Christmas tablescapes. I used it on a Christmas Reindeer themed tablescape two years ago. You can see that tablescape and 270+ other tablescapes that I have created that are posted on my blog here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapes . I have the matching napkins for this tablecloth but I decided to use ivory napkins on this table setting to match the background on the dinner plates. My daughter and her wife came over and they helped Hubby move the table and add the two leaves to it (it is a Stickley table and it is all really heavy). They also helped with the design. My daughter is a tablescaper too and it’s fun to work on tablescapes with her. Each of the twelve place settings on this tablescape has elements that illustrate one of the twelve gifts from the 12 Days of Christmas song.

For many years I have collected children’s picture books with full page illustrations. This goes back to my days working as a Children’s Librarian fifty years ago and conducting story times when I wanted the illustrations in the picture book that I was reading to be easily seen by all the children. Now I mostly just buy a new children’s Christmas book every year and sometimes the theme has been The 12 Days of Christmas. Here are a few examples from my collection. I put them out at Christmas time and I enjoy seeing them and reading them again.

One of the Christmas children’s books that I bought this year is about the story behind the 12 Days of Christmas song. If I knew about it before I had forgotten it. The "12 Days of Christmas" in the song references the 12 days following Christmas, also known as Twelvetide in Christianity. The period begins with the birth of Christ on December 25th, and ends with the coming of the Three Wise Men on January 6th, also known as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. I was going to get really organized and post one place setting from this table every day during that time period and then the full tablescape on the last day but…life happens and I decided to just post them all in one post now.

These Pottery Barn stoneware 12 Days of Christmas dinner plates illustrate the twelve different gifts mentioned in the song around the rim of the plate starting with a partridge in a pear tree at the top on the right and ending with the twelve drummers drumming at the top on the left. I didn’t like the salad plates that were sold to use with these dinner plates so I found these 12 Days of Christmas ornaments on Etsy to set on the center of the plates to add some interest to the plate stack. They are laser cut wood and I love the graphics and the colors on them. There is one for each gift mentioned in the song.

I found these Chunful wood 12 Days of Christmas ornaments that I am using as napkin rings on Amazon. I attached them temporarily to a metal gold colored napkin ring that I have. I bought the Gee Di Moda ivory cloth napkins on Amazon. There is an interesting story about my search for things to use on this tablescape. I found a 12 Days of Christmas cloth garland from Scotland on Etsy and I bought two of them. There were 12 rectangles illustrating the 12 gifts from the 12 Days of Christmas on each one. (I didn’t look at it really closely, my mistake!) I figured that I could hang it on my hutch in the background or use the rectangles in some way as napkin rings. The napkin rings were one of the last things that I put on the table because Hubby cut them off the garland for me and then attached them to the napkin rings. I was at 9 ladies dancing and I suddenly realized that instead of 9 ladies dancing it showed 9 drummers drumming. As it turns out a Scottish version uses different gifts for the days. It was quite disappointing because the garland was really cute! Thank goodness I had found these other ornaments that I could use instead.

The gold plated flatware on this tablescape was a gift from Hubby a few years ago. I had bought a cheap set of gold flatware several years ago. It was poor quality and the gold started flaking off. You get what you pay for! We found this set on major sale at Macys. It is made by Wallace and it is called Mikasa Duchess Gold. It is heavy and I love the elegant design on the handles. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I decided to use my Waterford Lismore goblets on this table setting. The shorter ones were part of our wedding registry and we bought a set of the taller ones for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

The centerpiece on this tablescape consists of a faux pine garland from Michael’s, Waterford Lismore candlesticks, a few small gold and red ornaments from Michael’s, and a set of 12 Days of Christmas glass ornaments from Sharper Image online. The ornaments were illustrated by Mark Roberts. These ornaments don’t photograph well but the graphics on them are wonderful. I set them close to the place setting that they match. They are larger 4 inch ornaments and I love the designs on them.

I bought the wood place card holders on Amazon and set them on an acrylic stand. They are easier to see in some of the other photos. I was really lucky with this tablescape. The graphics on the 12 Days items are all wonderfully done. I found the metal gold chargers at Crate and Barrel several years ago. Crate and Barrel never disappoints me, their products are well made and of great quality.

The Waterford Lismore crystal candlesticks I am using on this tablescape are two different heights. There is a shorter one too but I decided not to use it on this table. They come in 6 inch, 8 inch, and 10 inch sizes. We bought them over the years for our anniversaries and other special occasions. I set a gold candle in them to match the other gold that is on the table.

This photo shows the french hen dinner plate center, napkin ring, place card holder, and centerpiece ornament on this place setting.

Though some scholars believe that the 12 Days of Christmas song is French in origin, the first printed appearance of the song was in the English children's book Mirth with-out Mischief. It was published in 1780 though it was a poem, not a song with music. The lyrics have evolved, with early versions featuring different gifts. In the original lyrics, the "four calling birds" were actually “four colly birds." The term "colly" is old English slang for blackbirds. In other old versions of the song, the partridge was replaced with a "very pretty peacock upon a pear tree." It wasn't until 1909 that British composer Frederic Austin wrote the version of the lyrics that we know today. By the way, for 2025, buying one set of each gift in the 12 Days of Christmas costs $51, 476.12. Since 1984, PNC Bank has been tracking the price of giving each gift mentioned in the song. The true cost including all 364 repeated gifts, totals $218,542.98, an increase of 4.5% from the previous year due to inflation in labor, gold, and agricultural costs.

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