Can you use lace doilies on a Christmas dinner table?

Q. Can actual large lace doilies be used in a place setting? My girlfriend sent me some she found at a thrift shop and suggested I use them as part of my place settings for my Christmas dinner. She didn’t say how and I don’t have a clue as to what would be proper because I didn’t know it was the thing to do. They are about 12 inches in diameter. I thought maybe I should wash them and use heavy starch and then put them on top of the charger plate. Would that work or should they be under the charger plate? Confused.

A. What a lovely gift from your girlfriend. Although it is not often done, it is not totally uncommon to use actual lace doilies to add a very elegant touch to your dining table. There are a number of possibilities for incorporating them into your place settings:

▪ Since they are 12 inches in diameter, they could be used on top of a charger, and could still be seen. They are not wide enough in diameter, however, to be immediately seen if placed underneath the charger plate unless the charger plate were a glass charger plate of perhaps red or green. Ideally however, if used in this form, it would be better if the lace doily were another 2 inches in diameter. Either way, If the doilies were heavily starched, they would be more likely to stay in place and maintain a more exact dimension.

▪ If you chose not to use a charger plate, you could also place a heavily starched doily on top of the tablecloth in the center of each place setting. It would remain in that location throughout the entire meal because it would be serving as a place mat. Cloth place mats, round or rectangular, are often used on top of a tablecloth at each place setting because they add another dimension and perhaps a color contrast to the color of the tablecloth. For example, if your tablecloth is pink, a white doily, especially a white lace doily, used as a placement would be a lovely contrast. It would be especially beautiful if your china were a floral pink and white, such as the Desert Rose pattern. Matching pink napkins to the tablecloth would be perfect.

▪ If you chose not to use heavy starch, you could place the doily on top of the tablecloth, underneath the charger plate or a dinner plate, with a drape off the edge of the table of a few inches. Each doily would have to be starched stiff enough to maintain its shape but not so stiff that it could not be creased enough to stay in place. What a beautiful presentation if your tablecloth for your Christmas dinner were a dark green or red! Napkins could be the dark green, or red, or perhaps white.

▪ Instead of incorporating the lace doilies into the place settings, you could also choose to use them as a runner in the center of your table, on which you would place a centerpiece and candles. I would suggest they be slightly overlapped on the edges rather than having space in between each doily. What a beautiful look if they were placed directly on top of the table without a tablecloth. If on top of a tablecloth, how lovely if the tablecloth were a darker color than the doilies to show more contrast.

▪ A very heavily starched doily of this size, could actually be used as a place mat on a beautiful dining table without a tablecloth if it were a lunch or a tea, wherein the lace doily would be larger than the luncheon plate or tea plate. Thus, there would be room on the doily for the utensils to be placed on the doily next to the plate and not on the table. The only concern could be the possible movement, or sliding, of the doily as the diner is using the utensils. If you chose to serve your Christmas dessert later, rather than as the final course of your dinner, you could then add the doilies as a place mat under the dessert plate. Voila, a new elegant look as your finale!