Thanksgiving Table Linens: Buying the Whole Set

Table linen is not one purchase, it is four — and they do different jobs, which is why buying all four is usually wrong.

• Tablecloth. Covers the table. Use one when the table underneath is not the point, when you want to protect it, or when you are joining two tables and need to hide the seam.
• Runner. Runs down the centre. It anchors the centrepiece and gives the eye a line to follow. Works over a cloth or straight onto bare wood.
• Placemats. Define each setting. They are the layer that makes a bare table look intentional rather than undressed, and they are the practical one — hot plates land on them.
• Napkins. The layer nobody plans and everybody needs. Cloth napkins are the cheapest upgrade in the whole set.

Three combinations work. Cloth plus napkins is traditional and the easiest to get right. Cloth plus runner plus napkins is the dressed version, and the runner is where the seasonal colour goes. Placemats plus runner plus napkins on a good wooden table is the modern one and the least washing afterwards.

What does not work is all four at once. Placemats on top of a cloth on top of a runner is three textures competing in the same twelve inches, and the plate ends up sitting on a ridge.

Measure the table with the leaves in. This is the step people skip and it is the reason a cloth arrives too short.

Tablecloth. Add 20 to 24 inches to both the length and the width of the table — that gives a 10 to 12 inch drop on each side, which is right for a dinner. A 72-inch (six-foot) table wants roughly 60 by 104; a 60-inch table wants about 60 by 84; a 48-inch round wants a 70-inch round.

Runner. Either the length of the table, or the table plus about 12 inches so it overhangs 6 inches at each end. Both look deliberate. A runner that stops two inches short of the end does not.

Placemats. Rectangular mats run 12 by 18 up to 14 by 20 inches, oval about 13 by 19, round 12 to 15 inches and square 13 by 13 to 14 by 14. Leave about four inches between mats, and check your table can take that: eight settings at 19 inches wide plus gaps needs a table close to eight feet, or you accept the mats touching.

Napkins. Twenty-inch squares for dinner, 16 to 18 inch for a lighter meal. Twenty inches is the one that folds well and covers a lap.

Counting is where linen budgets go wrong, because almost everything is sold in fours and almost nobody seats four at Thanksgiving.

• One tablecloth — unless you are joining two tables, in which case buy two matching cloths rather than one enormous one. Two cloths on two tables look intentional; one cloth sagging over a seam does not.
• One runner, or two laid crossways on a very long table.
• Placemats: guests, rounded up to the pack. Eight guests is two packs of four. Buy the spare pack anyway — one mat always takes a spill it does not recover from.
• Napkins: guests plus four. This is the one to over-buy. Napkins get used as coasters, as pot grabs and as emergency cloths, and four spares cost almost nothing.

If you are hosting a big table for the first time and counting everything from scratch, the whole equipment list is in the first Thanksgiving starter kit, and the quantities for twenty people are in Thanksgiving for 20.

Cloth napkins are the cheapest thing on this page and the one that changes a table most. Paper reads as lunch; cloth reads as dinner. There is no complicated buying decision here, which is why there is no roundup for them — four things decide it.

Size. Twenty-inch squares for a dinner. Smaller than about 18 inches and they stop covering a lap and start looking like tea towels.

Material. Cotton or a cotton-linen blend. Pure linen looks best and creases hardest; polyester resists stains and feels like it. For a table with gravy on it, a mid-weight cotton is the sensible compromise.

Colour. Solid, in a colour that picks up the cloth or the runner rather than matching it exactly. Solid napkins are also the ones you can use in December. A patterned cloth with patterned napkins is one pattern too many.

Folding. Flat under the fork, or folded in three and laid across the plate. Both are correct. Elaborate folds take time you will not have on the day — where everything else goes on the place setting is in how to set a Thanksgiving table.

Napkin rings are optional and the cheapest place to add a seasonal note — a length of twine and a sprig of rosemary does the job as well as anything bought.

Press before, not after. Linen out of a packet has fold lines that a tablecloth will show all evening. Steam or iron it the day before, and put it on the table straight from the board — folding it again undoes the job.

Deal with spills during the meal, properly. Blot, do not rub. Cold water on red wine and cranberry; nothing hot, because heat sets a stain. A spillproof finish buys you time, not immunity.

Wash soon, and separately. Gravy and butter set into fabric over days. Wash the linens within a day or two, on their own, and check stains have gone before anything goes in a dryer — a dryer sets what the wash missed.

Store rolled, not folded. A cloth folded on the same lines for a year develops permanent creases along them. Roll it around a cardboard tube, or fold it differently each year. Keep the whole set together in one bag so next November it is one object, not four searches — the same discipline that makes the rest of the seasonal kit survive is in fall decor storage and reuse.