The table at a good New Year party is one that hardly anyone sits at. Guests arrive at nine, drift between the sofa, the balcony and the kitchen, eat when they feel like it, and are standing up with a glass at midnight. A table laid like a formal dinner, with a plate and a folded napkin at every chair, gets ignored until half of it is in the way.
So set it as a counter people walk past, not a place they sit. For most home parties of more than six or eight people, that means a buffet against one wall: a washable cloth with a long drop, a runner down the middle to carry the food, plates at one end, napkins and cutlery at the other, and drinks somewhere else entirely.
Buffet or sit-down: which suits your party?
The deciding number is chairs. If everyone can sit at the dining table at once, a sit-down dinner is possible, and for a family New Year with six people it is often the nicer evening. Once the guest list goes past the seats, a sit-down meal means two sittings or people eating on their laps anyway, and a buffet becomes the better plan.
| Sit-down dinner | Buffet | |
|---|---|---|
| Works for | Up to the number of chairs at the table | More guests than chairs |
| Table position | Middle of the room, chairs all round | Against a wall, one side open |
| Tablecloth drop | Short, so it stays out of laps | Long is fine, nobody sits at it |
| Napkins | One dinner napkin at each place | Stacked at the end of the line, plus small ones at the bar |
| Runner's job | Decoration between the plates | A path for serving dishes |
| Main risk | Spills on laps and the cloth | Queues and drips along the edge |
There is also a middle way that suits many Indian homes: a sit-down dinner for family early in the evening, then the table pushed back to the wall and turned into a snack and dessert buffet when friends arrive later. If that is your plan, lay the cloth for the buffet from the start, so you are not changing linen at ten o'clock.
The order to lay a buffet in
A buffet works when guests can move down it in one direction without doubling back. The trick most home buffets miss is where the napkins and cutlery go. Put them at the start and every guest walks the whole line holding a plate, a fork, a spoon and a napkin, with no hand free to serve. Put them at the end and people pick them up once the plate is full.
Within that, a few smaller rules help. Put the dish most people want, usually the biryani or the main curry, in the middle of the line rather than first, so the queue does not stall at the start. Keep the gravy dishes away from the front edge, since that is where drips land on the cloth and on clothes. Leave a gap of bare runner between dishes so people have somewhere to rest a serving spoon.
The drinks belong somewhere else: a kitchen counter, a side table or a shoe cabinet with a runner thrown over it. When the bar sits at the end of the buffet, the people refilling a glass block the people trying to eat.
How many napkins does a New Year party need?
Think of the evening in two parts. Early on, guests hold a drink and pick at snacks. That calls for small cocktail napkins, kept at the bar and next to the starters. Later, people eat a full plate, which needs a proper dinner napkin. One napkin cannot do both jobs well. A 43 cm dinner napkin is too much cloth to hand someone holding a glass, and a 23 cm cocktail napkin will not cover a lap with a plate of biryani on it. Our table napkin size guide has the exact sizes if you want them.
So the simple plan is one of each per guest, plus a stack of spares at the bar for spills. Take a party of twelve. That is twelve small and twelve large, or two packs of twelve. The cocktail napkins we sell come in packs of twelve, so the maths works out neatly. The jet black cotton napkins are a good example, because the 23 cm and 43 cm sizes are sold on the same listing, so the bar napkins match the buffet napkins exactly. Paper napkins can cover anything beyond that, such as a guest who spills a whole glass.
If you would rather a colour other than black, the cocktail napkins collection has the small size in many solid colours, so you can match the dinner set you already own.
New Year party decoration for a rented flat
Many people hosting on New Year's Eve are in a rented flat, where you cannot drill, paint or stick much to the walls. That makes textiles the easiest place to put your decoration budget: they change the room in an hour and leave nothing behind when you move.
The table: hide it and dress it
A cheap folding table or an old dining table both disappear under a long white cloth, and on a buffet that nobody sits at, a long drop is an advantage because it hides whatever is stored underneath. Here is how the numbers work on a common 180 cm table that is 90 cm wide, pushed against a wall.
A 118 x 56 inch cloth is about 300 x 142 cm. On that table it hangs about 60 cm over each end. Push it back so the wall side is flush, and the open side drops about 52 cm, which comes most of the way to the floor on a standard-height table and hides the boxes, bags and spare chairs you have pushed under it. On a table people sit at, that would be far too long. On a buffet it looks deliberate. The spun polyester white tablecloth comes in that 118-inch length, and its product page describes a water-repellent finish that makes spills bead on the surface. That suits a party where drinks will get knocked over. If you want to go back to a normal seated drop on 1 January, the tablecloth size chart covers the sizes for everyday use.
Over the white, a black runner gives the classic New Year black, white and gold look with very little effort. Add a few gold or brass pieces, such as candle holders or a serving bowl, and it is done.
Notice in the photo above how a black runner almost disappears on a dark wood table. Over a white cloth it does the opposite and draws a sharp line down the buffet. The jet black cotton runner comes in 150, 183 and 230 cm lengths, and cotton can go in the wash with the napkins the next morning, which matters more on 1 January than it seems at 9 pm on the 31st.
The sofa and the bar
The other two places guests gather are the sofa and wherever the drinks are. Swap the sofa cushion covers for something that catches evening light, such as gold velvet cushion covers, and the room looks dressed for a party without anything on the walls. The covers come off and go back into the cupboard afterwards. For the bar, a runner across a counter or shoe cabinet marks it as the drinks station and protects the top from wet glasses. Pick a cotton or faux leather one from the table runner collection rather than velvet here, because a cotton runner goes in the wash and a faux leather one wipes clean, while ice-bucket water and spilt soda soak into a velvet pile.
On the night: a short timeline
The hour before guests arrive is when most hosts run out of time, so do the linen the day before. Lay the cloth, put the runner down, and set out the napkin stacks. Fold the dinner napkins, if you fold them at all, in something simple that stacks flat; our guide to folding napkins has a few that work in a pile.
When dinner is cleared, take the main dishes off and leave the runner for desserts and the midnight sweets. Change nothing else. A buffet cloth with a few marks on it is normal at that hour, and nobody is looking at it during the countdown.
On the 1st, soak any stained napkins in cold water before you sleep, or first thing in the morning, and wash the cloth and runner together once the oil marks are pre-treated.
Frequently asked questions
How do I decorate a dining table for a New Year party?
Start with a plain base, usually a white or cream tablecloth, then add one strong colour in a runner, such as black, navy or gold, and a few metallic pieces like candle holders or a brass bowl. Keep the centre clear enough for serving dishes if you are serving a buffet.
Should a buffet table be against the wall?
For a home party, yes in most cases. A table against a wall takes less floor space and lets guests move along one side in a single direction. A two-sided buffet only makes sense when the party is large and there is room to walk all the way round the table.
How many napkins per guest for a party?
Plan two per guest at a party with both drinks and a meal: a small cocktail napkin for drinks and snacks and a dinner napkin for the main meal. Keep a few extra at the bar for spills, and some paper napkins in reserve.
What is the cheapest way to make a room look festive for New Year?
Change the textiles rather than buying decorations. A tablecloth, a runner and a set of cushion covers cover large areas of the room, so they change how it looks quickly, and you can use them again for the next party.
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