Royal Copenhagen Christmas Tables 2024
A Beloved Event
Royal Copenhagen’s Christmas exhibition first took place in 1963. Every year since then, new contributors from the arts and culture scene have set their own unique tables for Christmas.
For the 61st year in a row, Royal Copenhagen is opening its doors to the annual Christmas exhibition, which this year presents an exciting mix of art installations and table settings that celebrate the magic of creating something for yourself and the joy of using both your hands and your imagination.
A mix of art installations and table settings
Three colourful artistic personalities, who all work in the crossover between art and craftmanship, have created their own inspiring Christmas universe. Each of them share their holiday dreams and the traditions they have either brought with them or established for themselves.
Guests are invited into artistic displays of the Christmas table, which in the hands of floral-, room- and object designer Julius Værnes Iversen, paper artist Veronica Hodges and artist, florist and author Poppykalas takes on a whimsical, colourful, nostalgic, modern and classic expression. With widely different tools – but with a floral element in common – the artists have added an extra magical dimension to the holiday with three themed Christmas installations: Contemporary, Explorative and Heritage.
The world needs to be re-enchanted, and Christmas, with its sensory-rich traditions and warm gatherings is a shortcut to creating magical moments. Once again, Royal Copenhagen sprinkles stardust over the festive season and uses creativity as a guiding star – inviting you into a Christmas universe of beautiful tables wrapped in an expressive diversity of colours, scents, flowers, decorations and porcelain.
PoppyKalas
Poppykalas - Thilde Maria Haukohl Kristensen
Thilde is a visual artist, florist and author. Founder and creative director of Poppykalas. She is internationally renowned for her original floral decorations and has been featured by SMK, Glyptotektet, Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen Contemporary, Tivoli and more. Author of the book Poppykalas and the Magical Flowers.
@poppykalas
When the family gather around the table on Christmas Eve, they are surrounded by flowers, sea shells, silk, mother-of-pearl and organic glass, mirroring her installation at Royal Copenhagen. Thilde’s universe is warm and sensuous, with an emphasis on beauty and balance over formality and tradition. Everything she creates tells a story about humanity’s connection to nature and the changing seasons. Light and colours from Klitmøller’s sea sunsets fill the room, blending with Thilde’s own expressive paintings. The table is set with a combination of the Royal Copenhagen collections HAV, Blue Fluted Full Lace, Blue Elements and Royal Creatures.
‘Christmas to me is all about closeness, togetherness and love – and about enjoying the slowness that disappears in everyday life. Nature helps me with that,’ says Thilde, who will be spending Christmas with her family in their new home in Klitmøller for the first time. Here, the proximity to sea, sunsets and forest naturally invites to a slower pace. Not only has nature moved closer, but so have her mother and step-father, with whom she will be celebrating Christmas Eve. Her cousin and family also live nearby, and they will meet up later in the evening just down the road for a glass of champagne and oysters.
Julius Værnes Iversen
Julius Værnes Iversen (b. 1989) - Extravagant floral installations
Julius is a trained floral artist, founder, curator, designer, and creative director of TABLEAU – a creative studio and gallery dedicated to challenging conventional ideas in the art world and cultivating a new aesthetic where objects, botany, and materials intersect.
Julius is known for his extravagant floral installations, often filling entire rooms with their presence. This artistic approach shapes his Christmas installation for Royal Copenhagen, where he lets the iconic blue of the porcelain factory flow into the space as a tribute to the blue-painters and the many legendary collections.
‘For me, Christmas has always been connected to work. As the son of a florist and later on the owner of my own floral universe, December is all about tying bouquets and creating decorations for my customers, who are in a festive mood,’ says Julius, who also associates the busy December season with cozy moments in his shop and the informal holiday greetings that happen there.
On the blue wave, white porcelain pieces seem to pour from the ceiling, dripping onto a tableau where an abstract Christmas table comes to life with Blue Fluted Mega porcelain, Jeanne Grut’s blue fish and unika pieces. The room, fully immersed in electric blue, is adorned with works by Cathrine Raben Davidsen and Henning Koppel. A final triumphant touch is the blue-painted branches decorated with Blue Fluted Mega porcelain baubles.
Veronica Hodges
Veronica Hodges (b. 1972) - Nature shows us the way
Trained in fashion and set design in 2002. With inspiration from nature she creates impressive, poetic large-scale installations from paper. Her intention is to challenge the collaboration between room and installation. Her works have been featured in churches and museums in Denmark and abroad as well as in shops and public fora.
‘I spent my youth in Italy with my dad. Therefore I carry with me a constant longing for the landscape and atmosphere there but also a recognition of the fact that everything is in process, everything is eternally changing,’ says Veronica, who favours a solemn and generous aesthetic when celebrating Christmas with her family.
Christmas is first and foremost a beautiful time for reflection for Veronica. While not typically a ‘Christmas person,’ she greatly values the aesthetics of a well-crafted meal and loves to bring nature indoors, celebrating its diversity and immense beauty. This approach mirrors her artistic installations, where countless small components come together to form a unified, expansive work of art.
Veronica’s Christmas installations represent the longing for Italy. The scene is a palacio apartment with dark colours and stylized elements of nature. A round table is set for eight people underneath a ceiling installation full of Veronica’s flowers, birds and insects made from paper.
On top of the crisp white and green tablecloths, the table is set with white Royal Copenhagen collections combined with elements from Flora Danica and Flora, pink hortensia vases, vintage monogrammed napkins and hand-made flower ornaments. It is a celebration of nature’s generosity and transformative powers – a story about the need for change and how nature shows us the way.
