Christmas Dishes and Glassware

[ronandannette]

My sister and I "share" the Christmas dishes and we've been known to schlep them back and forth 500 miles between whomever is hosting. It wouldn't seem right without them, but our seasons of life are changing and unfortunately it seems we may have seen the last of our big family gatherings for the holidays.

The dishes are with me right now and have been for several years. Christmas feasting is a huge thing for us and we do a ton of it. We entertain steady between mid-December and New Years and I love to set a pretty table. I feel like I get a fair amount of use out of my stuff. Enough so that I don't feel like storing it and hauling it out again is too much trouble. This thread has actually made me a little bit excited about seeing it all again in a couple of months!

After losing things in two hurricanes I have minimized what I own. No fancy china/glasses, regular stuff works just fine. Nothing to store, worry about or lug around.

In your shoes I can really see the importance of keeping things minimal. It would be pretty discouraging to acquire things and love them, only to have it all literally blown away.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I have winter dishes - Pfaltzgraff "Evergreen Ernie." We use daily from the time we decorate from Christmas until late February/early March.

I wanted a set of Christmas dishes for 25 years, and finally bit the bullet. They're fun, and hardy enough to use daily.

I have Christmas china that I use from Thanksgiving to January- every night. Don't take it out for only a couple evenings during Christmas. I take my everyday dishes/glassware out of the cabinets and replace it with the Christmas set. Life is short - enjoy it as much as possible.

This is exactly what I do!

Thanks for your comments. I'm now curious to hear if this is a regional thing since some of you mentioned this was traditional. I'm also curious where you store your Christmas tableware during the year. We have a downstairs apartment with a kitchen from when my MIL was alive and lived with us. I use to store my set in the attic but moved it downstairs to the kitchen cabinets after she passed. My DD and SIL may be taking the apartment and that's made me think about what I want to do with it. I also have filled the walk in closet in the bedroom down there with holiday décor and know that needs to be thinned out.

I keep it in my china cabinet - there's a large section in the lower right -- I keep the winter stuff in there through the year, and then switch it out for the day-to-day stuff in the winter.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I also have the Pfaltzgraff WinterBerry and love it. We get it out around Thanksgiving and keep it out until January. Packing up isn't a huge deal. I bought some of the quilted china keepers on Amazon and we put it in there and store it in a closet in the basement.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I do have a set of everyday Christmas dishes - Tienshan/Bella Ceramica Antique Christmas (below). I use them all season long (from after Thanksgiving to Epiphany) for everyday meals. I almost got rid of these and bought Jolly Old Snowy from Target when it went on clearance several years ago but decided not to spend the money. I still use my wedding china (Lenox McKinley) for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners and special occasions. I have always coveted the Lenox Holiday china pattern but never could justify the expense. Lenox also made a similar pattern for a couple of years called Presidential Holly. Someone gave me a large platter in Presidential Holly as a wedding gift. I contemplated getting some of the holly salad plates to mix with my McKinley pattern to make it more holiday-ish but never did it. Hmmm...maybe I'll check out ebay today.

My SIL inherited DH's grandma's Christmas dishes (Naif Christmas by Villeroy & Boch). She uses them all season long too.

I also have spring dishes that I use for the Easter/Spring season - Bordallo Pinheiro Cabbage. I LOVE these dishes!!!! My salad plates have bunnies on them!!!

My regular everyday dishes are a white basket weave china from JC Penney. I wanted Wedgwood Nantucket Basket for my everyday, but it was expensive, and I was afraid my kids would break it. I also have two complete sets of Corelle (Blue Lily and Friendship) for my kids' college apartments. However, neither of them is using them this school year, so I am storing them at my house. As you can probably tell, I have a problem with dishes!

 

[lovesmurfs]

My mom has Christmas Dishes that we only use for Christmas Eve. The rest of the year they are stored in the basement.

This thread made me realize that I have an obscene amount of dishes. I own two sets of china that were my grandma's. I have a set of Fire Kings that were my other grandma's. My dishes are plain white Fiesta, but I also own a place setting in each and every color as well. I have regular Corelle from when the kids were little and they could not break it. I now own holiday Corelle as well.

I think I will start using the Christmas Corelle for the whole season. Good idea!

I've had to reject several sets of dishes that my mom and grandmother wanted to give to me. It was really hard to do, but they were able to give them to people who would use and enjoy them, rather than me storing it until foisting it on my kids.

 

[scrapquitler]

We have a lovely set of Christmas dishes and matching glassware. We really only use it on Christmas Eve and I am considering whether I want to keep it anymore. It seems a waste of space to store this set when we rarely use it more than once a year. We've had this set for more than 20 years. It started as a gift and grew to more than 12 place settings and many serving pieces to accommodate family. I could easily use the china we now have and decorate with table linens and some easy to store décor items.

I'm curious how many of you have holiday tableware and how often you use it.

I had a set when we were first married. Then I said why am I storing this to use it just a couple days out of the year? So I got ride of it. These days, we use paper plates and cups on the holidays because we don't do formal, and I don't want to be washing dishes on Christmas Day. On Thanksgiving (the only other holiday that I host) we eat on our regular daily dishes, but we don't have a lot of company for dinner, only 2 or 3 people more than our regular family meals. And my husband does the dishes for me that one day of the year.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I've had to reject several sets of dishes that my mom and grandmother wanted to give to me. It was really hard to do, but they were able to give them to people who would use and enjoy them, rather than me storing it until foisting it on my kids.

I know I should probably get rid of most of it, but I just can't. My one grandma died when I was young and grandpa died right after I got married. My aunt insisted that I take a china set. I picked one and that was the set she wanted. I took my second choice. About two years later, she gave me the China that I wanted.

I took other grandma's Fire King set because of the memories of all the meals we ate on them. I've honestly never used them. They are gold rimmed and not microwave safe. I'm not sure they can go in the dishwasher either. Grandma didn't have one.

My kids will hopefully make make a few bucks selling all my treasures after I'm gone.

 

[Aliceacc]

I have a Nikko set I love. I use it from Thanksgiving until New Years-- every night. It's dishwasher safe.

When my mom downsized she gave me her set of Royal Albert Poinsettia china. It's GORGEOUS, but only serves 6. So it doesn't get as much use.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I used to have a set of Christmas dishes along with some Christmas glasses. They were not terribly expensive. They got used like once a year. I ended up donating all of that when I moved a couple years ago.

 

[powellrj]

I have totes full of a Debbie Mumm pattern that I got years ago that I can't part with. I haven't used it for years because we started using holiday paper plates. We don't have a dishwasher and our family keeps getting bigger. I just don't have the heart to get rid of it yet.

 

[kimmar067]

We have a lovely set of Christmas dishes and matching glassware. We really only use it on Christmas Eve and I am considering whether I want to keep it anymore. It seems a waste of space to store this set when we rarely use it more than once a year. We've had this set for more than 20 years. It started as a gift and grew to more than 12 place settings and many serving pieces to accommodate family. I could easily use the china we now have and decorate with table linens and some easy to store décor items.

I'm curious how many of you have holiday tableware and how often you use it.

....a few years ago, we experienced an earthquake, which cause the shelves in our china cabinet to crash (at 3:30 in the morning - scared us half to death!); our Christmas china happened to be stored in the china cabinet. Needless to say, we lost almost ALL of the dishes and serving pieces. I haven't replaced them with a new set because of the storage aspect. In fact, when family has come over to enjoy a Christmas meal (eve or day) I've just gotten really nice PAPER plates and used plain white serving dishes and platters....

 

[kimmar067]

....OMG, I have the two-tiered serving platter (I guess it's like a cookie dish?) with this pattern that I received from one of my students for a Christmas gift 19 years ago!

 

[karmic]

I have collected the Spode Christmas Tree China for years- have 20 plates and many serving pieces- love them nad will eventually give them to DD as she hosts Christmas now since she has little ones.

 

[AppleDumpling]

No, I don't have Christmas dishes. Never thought they were worth it for the limited use they'd get, and I don't have a lot of storage space in my home.

If I'm hosting Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner (we rotate each year among family members), I use my good china, good silver, fancy crystal stemware (all stuff I got when I got married, and use maybe 4 to 5 times a year), and complement it with Christmas-themed linens and other accessories like napkin rings, candlestick holders, salt and pepper shakers, sugar and creamer, cake plate, etc. I also always get a fresh floral centerpiece with pine.

It's a personal preference of course. My feeling is, if it makes you happy, even if only for one day a year, then you should keep it.

 

[wonder whisper]

....OMG, I have the two-tiered serving platter (I guess it's like a cookie dish?) with this pattern that I received from one of my students for a Christmas gift 19 years ago!

Pretty nice gift from a student. The piece you described now goes for about $70+ if you can find it. The serving platter I got back in 2003 now runs almost $200.

 

[wonder whisper]

I use my Christmas dishes from early December thru New Year's Day and a little beyond. It's really not that difficult nor time consuming to exchange them for the everyday dishes. They're in the upper corner cabinets in my kitchen and it takes maybe 30 minutes tops. I do have to get out the step ladder.

Service for 8 of this pattern I got at Target in the late 90's. Dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, mugs, and glasses. Plus about a dozen serving/accessory pieces: large platter, 10 x 13 baking dish, elevated cake plate, S & P shakers, candy dish, etc.

Furio Christmas Tree Sponge


I also have 4 dinner plates, just the plates, of an old Fiestaware pattern.

Those Fiestaware pieces are very similar to the "casual" holiday china we have that I mentioned in my earlier post. My son found them at Homegoods and they were yet another gift to my wife. We use them from early December through Christmas Eve.

 

[trip]

Yes, there certainly is! That is what led me to impulsively purchase a large set of the Lenox Winter Greetings china (pic below, IMHO the nicest holiday pattern they have ever produced) as a gift to my wife when it came up a holiday lightning deal on Amazon back in 2003. We only use it once a year for Christmas Dinner on the 25th (have other more casual holiday pieces we use through the whole season). We also have a dedicated set of china we only use for Thanksgiving Dinner (Johnson Brothers "Barnyard King" pattern, pic below, made in the UK and which is no longer in production). I understand the storage issue some people have with these; ours are carefully packed away up in the attic when they are not in use.

I have the same Turkey dishes. My Grandmother had purchased them for my mother and after she passed I got them.

 

[wonder whisper]

I have the same Turkey dishes. My Grandmother had purchased them for my mother and after she passed I got them.

Your Grandmother had excellent taste and you are fortunate to have inherited one of the most desireable Johnson Brothers china patterns. Johnson stopped producing it in the early 1970s and if you can track down one of the plates now, they're selling for close to $100 apiece.

FYI, I like you inherited the ones we have; my mother purchased them circa 1960 and after she passed my father retained custody of them. When he passed my siblings and I actually held a lottery to divide up the choice family heirlooms (which -- to keep things equitable -- included a quota on how many a given sibling could win). I was lucky enough to walk away from that emotional process with most of the items I really wanted, which included that china.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Welp, thanks to this thread I've had tableware and entertaining on my mind the past few days... Which led to me googling... Which led to me thinking that I have been wanting to upgrade my everyday dishes to something nicer for quite a while... With more place settings... That go better with our decor... And... They'll be here Friday.

I blame all of you! (But I am really looking forward to replacing my old dishes.)

 

[DeniseJH]

TipsyTraveler those are gorgeous - enjoy!!