While I don’t personally consider it needful or enticing to think in terms of making my house look like Martha Stewart’s, some simple decorations can certainly enliven the "groaning board"... And the food table is usually as much a focal point in a holiday party as a Christmas tree or menorah.

• Wrap the table top as a giant present - the bow would be the centerpiece!

• Hors d’oeuvres tree - Fancy, colorful hors d’oeuvres on sticks - or flower-formed vegetables - stuck into a styrofoam cone wrapped in green foil

• A "flower" arrangement of candy canes, lollipops, and other candies stuck onto sticks, some with ribbon bows tied on

• Small terra cotta plant pots covered in (glued on) whole cloves or cinnamon sticks

• Wreaths of wrapped candies - or of live succulents! - can be laid around the bases of candlesticks or candelabra.

• Yeast bread centerpiece - Select a fancy yeast bread recipe to make - perhaps the kind that has citron in it?; the kind that you glaze so that it’s surface is shiny. Shape it into a flat "flower" and leave a hole in the middle when you bake it (better bake it around a custard cup or some such thing)... Into which, on the table, you put a candle (set in a drip-catcher of some kind, if you aren’t going to use a dripless candle). Perhaps at the end of the meal, the breaking up of and eating the centerpiece will be dessert!

• "Living" doily - Place shiny, clean leaves as a "doily" under cakes or arrays of finger foods. Similarly, flat sprays of pine or fir can be placed under serving trays as holiday decorations to echo those elsewhere in the house. Or citrus leaves can be taped over plastic placemats (or onto burlap).

• A short yule log might make an unusual and festive table centerpiece. (See "Decorated Yule Logs" in Instructions.)

• Tiny, thin (i.e., very short, so that they’re quite flat) candles can be floated in water in a wide, shallow container. (You could easily make the candles if you can’t find any - little stars would be lovely.)
    
• Make collaged placemats from cutouts from old Christmas cards (each with its own theme?) and cover with clear contact paper

• Basket table decorations - Any basket, or series of them, would make a simple centerpiece... filled with pine or fir sprays and baubles, perhaps. Christmas Card Gift Baskets (also mentioned in the Packaging section to come - and see the Instructions) would make fun individual "bowls" (for a roll? a dessert? a small gift?) at a sit-down meal.

• Try a basket filled with tiny nursery pots of different herbs (you might want to give the pots to guests as parting gifts)
   
• A centerpiece of stacks of small gift boxes tied together with ribbons (e.g., gold and silver boxes with white ribbons; white boxes with red and green ribbons) - and if you wish, inside could be small gifts for the guests (homemade ornaments?; pinenut brittle? - see Recipes/Ideas; Hanukkah gelt?), to be distributed after the meal
   
• A centerpiece comprising old glass ball Christmas ornaments piled on a cake stand
   
• A single color of mismatched stand-alone candles on a mirror or a special tray

• Then, of course, there’s a gingerbread house! - see "Gingerbread houses (with or without scenery)" in Recipes/Ideas. (Or how about a gingerbread-style bird house that you’ve brought inside for the holidays?)

• …And then you might prepare personalized gingerbread men (and women/children) as place cards for each guest.

• Ask each guest to bring a special single candleholder and candle to contribute (on loan; a funky one made at the last moment will do) to a lighted centerpiece... transformational magic!

• And the menorah - always a beautiful centerpiece, in any part of the room... especially when alight!