Not a dumb question at all. I often wonder about the truly frufrued tables. My table settings tend to have either a salad plate on top. Eat salad. Remove plate. Eat main dinner course. Or a soup bowl on top. Eat soup. Remove bowl. Eat salad. Remove plate. Eat main dinner course.

I'd call the PB plates - salad plates and use something else for dessert.

I know....right....if I had someone serving our courses and removing the plates to the kitchen, I could see layers of plates.

I usually put the salad plate to the right upper corner since we usually eat salad with our meal.

I am thinking about my table for Christmas brunch...quail, cheese grits, eggs, fruit, etc. I really want to use these dang plates but it seems so impractical to have to remove a plate to get to the dinner plate! Grrrr I guess I could use them as a bread/butter plate but they are a little large - I will be having homemade biscuits and jam.....

Thanks, Laxsupermom!

Smiles:)

Hi scooby - I'd probably use them either for appetizer plates so people can see how cute they are as they're standing around chatting pre-dinner, or as dessert plates that I bring out later with the dessert.

Or if you have room, you could set them on the table at the top of the dinner plates, maybe with the napkin in a ring placed on them, or something cute like an ornament with the guest's name on it if you do assigned seating, or a number if you like to mix it up and have people draw numbers and sit at the corresponding spot. (Or, have people draw a 'day of Christmas' and sit by that place.)

Oh scooby! I feel your pain. It is also very frustrating to me not to be able to view each and every beautiful plate. I lusted for those 12 day plates, but PB sold out before I could decide...and t'was for that very reason I hesitated. I knew they'd end up stacked, as I'd be using them as appetizer plates. I really just wanted to display them! If I had a wall of display plates I would switch them out for the Xmas plates.
chicagoan gave me an idea: (if they're not too big for this)
Place them upright on plate holders and place at the top of each guest's place setting. In front of the plates have a small flower vase with flowers or sprigs of pine, etc. Or, perhaps even better: no vase, just a small "bouquet" of pine and berries placed just in front of the Xmas plate.
Then, Chicagoans idea of guests picking a "days" number 1-12( or however many there are)
Hmmm, you could also encircle the centerpiece with four or so of the plates, upright again. Love that idea....if there's room on the table. Love to see what you do!

Scooby, I have a similar issue. My antique dining table isn't very wide so I want to use a placemat or a charger, there is barely any room for the glasses. And to try and have a wine glass and a water glass, well it's tough. We do serve everything buffet style because there's never any room for food on the actual table.

I just remembered my B&G Christmas plates! I'm going to try the above idea with these blue and white plates. Scooby, you inspired me to think outside the box...now, if only it works!

I would use these pre-dinner if you have appetizers, or for dessert.A highly formalized setting such as the place plate or charger is meant to be removed, and unless you are waiting directly on your guests or have someone who is waiting to gather them up and take them away, its just kind of a pointless exercise. When I was growing up we ate at a relatively formal table several times a year and I had elderly relatives who had, well, staff, and even they never went to the extent of chargers and place pieces that needed to be removed except, I suppose, at very formal things that I was never a part of.

IMO the beautiful, ornate, and very complicated table settings one sees are really only for show. I've been to a lot of very formal dinners and never seen anything like that. It's really a recent 'hobby' for women who like to collect dishes!

When setting an appropriate table one needs to think about the menu, the type of service (staff or self-serve buffet), and use the plates and dishes that make sense. Having 3 plates of various sizes on top of a charger really doesn't work for many menus. It's just kind of a fun exercise to show off dishes. I know whenever I've done an elaborate table setting I take a pic then remove what isn't going to work for the actual dinner.

I'd use those pretty dessert plates on the dessert buffet table.

One kinda needs to separate real life from internet imaginary life! LOL

I used to use my pretty chargers for fancy dinners and I loved how they looked with the china, crystal, and fancy linens. But if you put the dinner plates on top of them, the plates kind of spin around when you try to cut food. Not so handy. I've read that etiquette calls for removing the charger either before the entree course or before dessert; well I'm too busy or having too much fun chatting with my guests to hop up and take away the chargers. Too bad -- they sure look pretty.

Serve the dessert (if possible) on another table or surface. Stack the dishes on one corner -- then have a silver tankard to hold the silverware -- and then the dessert(s) -- and then a stack of the napkins. Guests can wander over, grab a plate, dessert, silverware and a napkin -- and then find a spot to sit. And champagne is always lovely with dessert. LOL!

As for stacking the dishes when setting the actual table -- the TOP dish should be used for the first course. Then it is removed and reveals the main course plate. The chargers can stay in place!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

People do leave the chargers in place but really they are meant to be removed prior to the main course but if you leave them, never left for dessert. I guess one aspect of leaving them for soup or salad is that they are drippy(?). But if you go to a French restaurant or someplace that has chargers and waiters...they are removed form the table.

Many who post tablesettings on blogs are not really using the tables to eat a meal. It's an activity in creativity.
IRL, there's no sense to much of what you see in those blogs. For example, a centerpiece that totally dominates the table and prohibits dinners from viewing the person across the table. The layers of plates that simply don't work with a real meal, but sure look pretty in a virtual setting.

So, in terms of practical, real-life application: set your table for dinner. Clear it and bring on the dessert plates. Or, for buffet as you mentioned, simply stack the pretty dessert plates when it is time for dessert. When serving buffet syle, you have a choice: set the table (thus, using your napkins), or let people pick up their flatware and napkin at the buffet table and sit where they choose.

To me, the stacks of dishes are pretty - but just for marketing. They aren't usable.

The traditional formal food service rules assume you have servants. In a formal meal there is no bread & butter plate. (That item was for an informal place setting even though most people probably think of it as formal today.) Your unbuttered roll goes directly on your white linen damask tablecloth. In fact, the only plates and utensils on the table are the ones for the course at hand. Traditionally, chargers or service plates were used as decorative placeholders, because the place in front of you was never supposed to be empty. Over time, things loosened up a bit and courses that came before the main course were served on top of the charger or service plate. The charger was removed with the last of these course. As far as I can tell, anything goes now.

It helps to keep in mind that as precious and archaic as some table rules seem now, they had their origins in formalizing rituals to make diners feel safe while eating with others when everyone was heavily armed. (Those dinner knives weren't always so dainty, so as a gesture of non-aggression your knife blade faces your plate rather than your neighbor!) You can use any ritual to delineate the in-crowd for the out-crowd, but if you're goal is hospitality, keep it simple. If you have to think twice about how to use it or how to do it, your guests will have the same problem and be less than relaxed.

For a buffet, I like to have napkins and utensils at the tables so that folks don't have to juggle them along with their plates. If you have the space, it's nice to have a separate buffet for the sweets to minimize maintenance while guests are present. If you have to mix savories and sweets on the same table, try to get the plates for each near the foods that are to be place on them.

I'm so glad to see this discussion! I've been lurking on the "Holidays" forum, and became downright ashamed by my tablescaping!

I will say, that the elaborate table settings with all of the layers of dishes and scrunched table linens, and centerpieces that would make most 3 star hotels blush...all of that does make a pretty photograph. But I would never set that table for people to eat at! It is pretty, and it is creative, and it does seem to give the impression of extravagance, but otherwise it falls flat for me.

This coming from the person who was annoyed that I had to remake my Thanksgiving table runners because DH commented that they would be too wide and bulky, and people would spill their drinks! Well, of course he was right, so I did, and even with my minimal foof and table decor, once everyone got seated and eating, it was still a pinch crowded. And to think I was too emabarassed to post pics of my table on that forum, because it just seemed so...inadequate. Oh, and even the minimal decor was sort of unceromoniously shoved aside when it was time for the multi-team game of Trivial Pursuit after dinner!

I'd use those pretty dessert plates on the dessert buffet table.

I agree with Luckygal, wholeheartedly.

.....Jane