Buy on of those table clothes that kids can draw on and maybe even write Christmas messages on. A jar of candy canes in the center and lots of bon bons.

I would try and get some butchers paper or brown paper and cover the whole table in it – give them stamps, crayons and shapes – add some bon bons for fun and maybe depending on how deep you want to go and the children’s ages – you could create a Christmas activity book?

A cheap white table cloth with a group of textas at each setting. After they have finished they can draw on the table cloth and keep it as a momento.

on the kids table at Christmas my mum used to put butchers paper down as a table cloth and give us each a small packet of crayons and told us to design our own table cloth and I remember it was so much fun seeing what each of us did.. Also we used to play noughts and crosses.

Id be realistic kids are so messy and anything nicely set up will last about two seconds, plain old paper big enough to cover the table a handful of pencils and let em go crazy a few stocking fillers on the table, and expect alot of spilt drinks and food aswell as some nice drawings stress less and enjoy the day

Be creative and present individual plates with food that each child will eat, ask the parents as children have choices too. Use the food to create faces or animals I wish I had a camera to photograph. It is not really hard you may even be able to Google for ideas. Do not overload the plates, they can always ask for more if still hungry. Also keep to healthy options.

If you use a plastic table cloth as suggested and give them washable markers, you can put the cloth aside and wash the drawings off later, then use it again another time. If giving them markers to draw with, I would give them washable ones so whatever it goes onto by mistake can hopefully be cleaned off. If they put paper on the floor unless they have 2 or more layers the marker colour may go through onto the floor covering. If the floor covering is vinyl it will wash off OK. If the children are old enough I sometimes draw a border near the edge of the paper and try to ask them to draw in the middle part of the paper.

Probably depends on the age of the children but you could have a plastic Christmas tablecloth on the table and then cover the centre table part of it with plain paper and have soup of crayons that the kids can use to draw, write and decorate.

To keep any child sitting for any length of time you need to keep them amused! I that fails move them to a TV & put a video on so at least the adults can enjoy their lunch.

A few ideas: a plain Christmas hat with pencils/textas to colour in and wear; a personalised Christmas placemat with their name and they have to colour it in and draw a picture; a sheet of jokes and riddles and they have to take turns in asking and guessing; a find the food and eat it game-a good way to get the kids to eat their Christmas lunch with a food/menu sheet and stickers and they get a reward at the end of Christmas lunch. Hope some of these ideas help!

Why not create your own with sharpies and older white dinner set. Maybe the kids could design their own place settings.

Target has a great range of Christmas melamine stuff. Those glitter cups that you shake up are awesome!

Christmas placemats that the children could colour in or decorate. Make up little packs of pencils/crayons and stickers or other stick on craft depending on the child age and let them go for it
If the children are a little older, they could colour in or decorate a Christmas calico bag that and then can be filled up with special treats (balloons, bubbles etc)