I often see the end of the year as a moment maker, a time for us to gather with friends, colleagues, and family members--sometimes around fireplaces or in the kitchen. It is also a time for us to eat, often around a table amidst a beautiful tablescape that sets the tone and provides a sense of beauty for the meal.

This gathering season, take your inspiration from eight National Trust Historic Sites and members of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.

Embrace Cultural Connections like Filoli (Woodside, California)

The holiday season brings with it a range of celebrations each with its own traditions and symbols. For the last few years, Filoli, a National Trust Historic site, has opened its doors to community partners so that they can display traditions from a variety of winter holidays. In 2023 these partners created 7 tablescapes in the Grand Ballroom Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year), Hanukkah, Shab e Yalda (Persian Winter Solstice), Las Posadas, Christmas, Lunar New Year, and Kwanzaa. In each case different elements on the table hold meaning for the communities they represent.

This year cultural partners are invited to create a display that shares food traditions behind their holiday, whether its traditional ingredients to make their favorite recipe or the finished project. The results will become a part of the kitchen décor during “Holidays at Filoli.”

Filoli is a National Trust Historic Site.

Create a Breezy Outdoor Experience Like the Florence Griswold Museum (Old Lyme, Connecticut)

At the turn of the 20th century, Florence Griswold opened her family home-turned-boardinghouse in Old Lyme, Connecticut, to contemporary artists. “Miss Florence,” as she was known, provided the artists with three meals a day with the help of a cook, and incorporated produce from the lush gardens seen in the background into offerings like her asparagus soup (now served in the museum's café).

During the summer, the artists had Griswold's permission to pull her tables out of the stuffy dining room and on to the breezy side porch, where they were spread with simple white cloths and laid with glasses of water and soup in bowls that Griswold had dined from her whole life. The homey setting encouraged conversation, and the artists nicknamed their gatherings the “Hot Air Club” for the fiery opinions about art and the artistic profession that were expressed during these outdoor meals.

The Florence Griswold Museum is a member of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.

Use Found Objects Like the Roger Brown Study Collection (Chicago, Illinois)

A painter, sculptor, and printmaker Roger Brown’s home is now a is now a special collection and house museum in Chicago, Illinois. Brown's dining room table is a convergence of Brown's life and interests, doubling as a pedestal for the artworks and found objects he collected. Mismatched chairs surround a tabletop designed by his life partner, the architect George Veronda, which is supported by a DIY wooden base that Brown may have constructed himself.

The few historic photos we have of this table in use show Brown dining with friends and family as bowls, plates, and glassware rest beside sculptures by established artists and items of origins unknown, contributing to the ecosystem of objects and stories that fill his entire living space.

Roger Brown Study Collection is a member of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.

Bring in Tradition Like the Tenement Museum (New York, New York)

One of the hallmarks of the Tenement Museum is the stories it shares about immigrant, migrant, and refugee families. Two exhibit apartments in 97 Orchard Street share the stories of different Jewish families whose kitchens and tables are set to usher in the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah).

The Levine family apartment is set to the late 1890s with a woven challah dough ready to proof, ropes of challah dough ready for weaving, a bowl of apples, and shabbat candle sticks on the kitchen table.  Almost twenty years later in the early 1910s, the Rogarshevsky family parlor has a dining table featuring a baked round loaf of challah and bowl of apples, and eleven holiday cards on the parlor mantle wishing the family a happy new year.

The Tenement Museum is a National Trust Historic Site.

Use Your Festive Glasses Like Villa Finale (San Antonio, Texas)

Villa Finale is a home filled with spectacular objects collected by civic leader and historic preservationist Walter Mathis. He purchased the home in the King William Neighborhood of San Antonio in 1967 and after two years restoring Villa Finale, he worked to partially restore up to fourteen properties in the same neighborhood which were sold to preservation minded individuals.

Mathis used a Hawks cut glass bowl to serve a punch mixture for a gathering at his home in the early 1970s. In the mid-1980s Mathis acquired a set of English goblets through Christie’s Auction House. He frequently used these at parties where they added a sense of character and charm to his events. These two items provide a sense of how meticulous Matthis was in his acquisition and curation of objects for his home – creating a sense of delight for those that visited the home.

Villa Finale is a National Trust Historic Site.

Show off Your Handmade Tableware at Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation (Rancho Cucamonga, California)

One of the most prominent woodworkers of the 20th century, Sam Maloof had a dining room filled with his own extraordinary furniture, sculpted and organic in style. In 1953 Sam and his wife Alfreda and family moved to a home that began as a modest cottage before growing over time into a much larger hand-crafted showcase for Maloof’s unique vision.

The dining room (which flows into the kitchen and living room) includes as a centerpiece a wooden table with wooden bench-style seats designed and built by Maloof. This table was often used to host dinner parties, including one for President Jimmy Carter.

Carter, who was an avid woodworker in his younger years, took classes from Sam Maloof, and on one evening, joined the Maloof family for dinner. On this occasion, Alfreda Maloof cooked casserole in a handmade ceramic dish, served family-style. In later years, Carter would keep a Maloof rocker in his private office and describe Maloof as “a moral philosopher,” one of a small number of influential voices who had helped shape Carter’s views.

Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation is a member of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.

Highlight Your Travel Souvenirs at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park (Cornish, New Hampshire)

At the height of his popularity, the influential artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens spent much of his time in his studios or travelling abroad. After he became ill with cancer, he spent more time at his home in New Hampshire with his family. His dining room was decorated with souvenirs and objects of artistic inspiration, right down to the English dinner plates with a delicate design featuring exotic peacocks and the Chinese serving bowls.

Saint-Gaudens was not born into elite social circles, so the display of global taste and wealth on the family's dinner table was also a way for them to signal their ascended social status when they hosted friends. The silver bell meant for summoning servants functioned as another status symbol; there is a hidden signal button built into the floor beneath the table that can be discreetly pressed by a diner’s foot, so whenever the bell was used it reinforced Saint-Gaudens’s place in the home as well as in society.

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park is a member of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.

Create Moments of Surprise at The Glass House (New Canaan, Connecticut)

Sometimes an object designated for a specific purpose can play different role on the dinner table. Built between 1949-1995 The Glass House was home to Philip Johnson and his curator David Whitney. Johnson often used a Chemex coffeemaker when he entertained, bringing guests into this modern architectural landmark.

Visitors to The Glass House can see the Chemex functioning as a vase on the kitchen sideboard in the Glass house front window and serves as an example of how you can use a common kitchen appliance as part of a tablescape.

The Glass House is a National Trust Historic Site.