Royal Copenhagen Opens Its 63rd Christmas Tables Exhibition
Royal Copenhagen opened A Fabulous Christmas on 6 November, the 63rd edition of its annual Christmas Tables exhibition at the flagship store on Amagertorv in Copenhagen, running until 31 December. Each year the brand invites a group of cultural figures to interpret the holiday through its porcelain. This year the five contributors are all women, and the exhibition takes as its premise the idea that Christmas does not have to look a certain way, but can be as individual as the person who celebrates it. The tables were curated and produced by stylist Cille Grut, who describes the process as “a great privilege – being allowed behind the facade of these extraordinary, gutsy women, who dared to share their Christmas memories, the good and the bad.”
The Danish actress Ellen Hillingsø drew on Selma Lagerlöf’s story The Legend of the Christmas Rose, staging a table as though its guests had left in a hurry and the forest moved in to take their place: wild branches, moss, roots, and plants reclaiming the setting. The effect is quietly unsettling: an enigmatic fairytale rather than a conventional festive scene. Fellow actress Iben Hjejle set her table in collaboration with her younger sister, Naja Asbjørn Olesen, as a recreation of the loose, generous Christmases of their childhood: mismatched porcelain, different tablecloths, books and sheet music, and a hidden space beneath the table for children and dogs. The title is “Room for One More.”
Caroline Fleming, born and raised at Valdemar Castle, long based in London and now living in Dubai, brings a deliberately extravagant table she describes as a tribute to the art of living well. Inspired by the Danish Christmas tale Peters Jul, it is layered with family heirlooms: her grandparents’ glass baubles, decorations made by her children, and pieces gathered on her travels, all set alongside a complete Royal Copenhagen Christmas service. The result reads as a celebration of decoration itself, unashamed in its abundance.
May Lund Lifschitz, Danish-Argentinian model and actor, known from the DR series Orkestret and active in the fight for minority rights, set her table for a Christmas lunch with six women, using Royal Copenhagen’s classic black and white porcelain as a foundation before building upwards into kintsugi gold, Christmas reds, glitter, and a disco-ball glow. The ritual she devised for her guests asks each of them to write a letter about something imperfect in their own life that deserves celebrating, then hang it on the tree.
Tessa, the Danish rapper, actor, and cultural figure born Theresa Ann Fallesen, most recently seen as Sille in the TV2 series Løgnen, divides her table into two halves, drawing on a childhood spent moving between two homes and celebrating Christmas in both. The design refuses to rank one tradition above the other. “You have to bring your own joy to the table and let go of the many expectations that can come with Christmas,” she says.
