Nice plates grobby! Different in a very good way :)

No photo of mine at the moment because they're packed away, but my mom gave me Pfaltzgraff Winter Frost when I first moved out - it's white with a blue snowflake/polar bear theme so you can use it most of the winter, and it made it easy for me at the time because I could accessorize with plain white and blue glass pieces instead of having to have all the serving bowls and everything in a small kitchen in England. (Blessing when I moved back to the US, too.)

She collects Lenox Winter Greetings china, which is fancier, so I'm not in a rush to get anything nicer than the Pfaltzgraff. (For those who aren't familiar, they're more everyday type dishes than fine china.) I figure I'm going to end up with both eventually, and the Winter Frost actually looks pretty nice on a more formal table if you put some effort into the decor and use fancier serving pieces. (Crystal, cut glass, silver, etc.)

(Photo attached I grabbed from the web - it's one of the additional pieces I do have because I thought it was fun, a cake stand.)

Hi Jeannie, exactly the same as usual. Zero difference. ( Sorry! :)

For special events, I would go for something like these, I like fine dining ware:

Spode Christmas tree. Lots! My mom started me out and my mother-in-law finished up. We have 13 place settings including wine and water glasses. I love to display in dining room hutch but, it's a lot to store the rest of the year.

My mother has Rosina Yuletide china that she brings out for Christmas. I've attached photos. Every woman in the family has a minimum of two sets of good china, one for regular use, the other for Christmas. Most of us have depression glass and other sets like dessert sets as well. We just love bringing our china out every week for Sabbath dinner with the extended family. This setting is on an antique "land and sea" tablecloth with a red cloth under it to bring out the lace patterns. The tumbler is red depression glass although the name of the pattern escapes me at this time. The paper napkins were purchased at the Cricket Book Store in Olney Maryland because my mother is an Anglophile and loves anything that reminds her of her college year in England.

Lenox Winter Greetings has graced my Christmas table for the past 18 years.

@deborahjarman - Yes, that's the one my mom has. She's made a particular effort to find pieces with birds other than the cardinal - her friends one year got her a set of the mugs with each of the available birds. It's really quite pretty. I like that at one point, at least, they had pieces that coordinated that were not quite as fancy, also. So you could leave out some of the nice pieces like a plate of cookies, but for everyday use the microwave safe plainer stuff. Those pieces seem to be harder to find now than the fancy stuff.

(I actually took advantage of that and got my aunt a very pretty Winter Greetings napkin container and then my parents got her some of the plainer mugs and bowls. She doesn't really set a fancy table these days and lives alone, so that was just enough for her to use during the holidays for herself or if a guest came over for a cup of coffee.)

@PirateFoxy - I collected this pattern for several years in the mid-90s. Have 12 place settings, with the luncheon plates and mugs with the various birds. Use ruby glass and red and gold glass platters and a burlap table cloth. I'm pretty casual most of the year, but love dressing a holiday table!

I have Portmeirion The Holly & Ivy that I have collected the last ten years. It is very casual & I use it everyday from the day after Thanksgiving till New Years Day. I also have a Tree on my kitchen counter that has Portmeirion ornaments on it.

I don't have holiday dinnerware. I am lucky if I have pieces of regular dinnerware that aren't chipped :) or busted!!

I have Spode "Christmas Tree" and Lenox "Holiday." I start using the Spode every day starting right after Thanksgiving. The Lenox comes out for more formal dinners and Christmas day.

Once I began to earn a healthy income, every Christmas I purchased Spode Christmas Tree dishes for my Mother. I centered her gifts around a breakfast service (tea; coffee; cream & sugar; jam pots; dessert plates; cups & saucers and some serving pieces). Meanwhile, my Christmas gifts to myself, were: dinner plates; bread and butter plates; mugs; salt & pepper; additional serving pieces; some decorating pieces [see picture of Advent Tree]; and linens. Mother and I agreed that when the time came for her to downsize, that she'd gift back her pieces to me. Now I have twelve full place settings with multiple servings pieces. Each year, I begin using Spode in early December and continue through New Years Eve.

I'm boring. My everyday dishes are plain white. My holiday dishes are plain white with a border of snow flakes. I chose simple white because I love to change the color of the table décor each year.

My MIL has the Lenox holiday dishes and it's beautiful.

This past week, a dear friend borrowed eight place settings of my Spode. A local non-profit asked women to hostess a table at their Christmas fundraiser. Each hostess was asked to decorate her table in a distinct Christmas theme (a la breakfast at Tiffany's). Later my friend told me that the Spode table was a resounding success. I love entertaining and sharing these pieces that are now entering their 30th year.

Not really any xmas-themed in our dinnerware, apart from gold or silver charger plates. I put together a few things cream-colored items (a very classic table cloth, our everyday plates which are cream with some fainted gold details) with some splashes of red like small glasses from IKEA which I can reuse in the future and this great table runner which I found on Etsy and which is an old obi turned into scarf (but which I use as table runner). It was a rehearsal table setting so I didn't iron it (so please disregard the wrinkles in it) and here is how the Xmas day lunch table will look like:

I don't use holiday dishes; I prefer to use dishes from my year-round collection for special occasions.

Block "Pointsettia" pattern

Strictly speaking, my 1950s Purinton Apple pottery collection isn't Christmas-themed, but Christmas morning brunch always looks darn cheery.

My mom used to have a set of Purinton Apple pottery. She passed about 5 years ago, and I was missing her this holiday season. As I was thinking about her, I remembered her apple dishes and wondered what became of them , so I went to eBay and Etsy and ordered some for myself. They just arrived yesterday, and now I can look at them and think of her! It was such a nice surprise to see Kathie Boucher's collection today on Houzz.

I also have Pfaltzgraff but in the Forest pattern. My best friend had it and I just loved it so I bought enough plates for Christmas dinner (after asking her if she cared). Decided this year that it isn't so totally Christmas and got it out the beginning of December and will use them for a month or two. Obviously I don't set a formal table.

Thanks for the comments about bringing out the Christmas themed china out at thanksgiving and using until Christmas. Great idea as I just cringe at the going through the work of carrying all the storage boxes up my 42 steps to the kitchen, unpacking for only one dinner and repeating. Funny how what my mother did for the holidays imprinted on me and it he Spode set was ONLY on Christmas day. My universe has expanded. Merci

I bring my Spode Christmas Tree pattern up from the basement on Thanksgiving and put it away after New Year's -- it is my only china for that month and I look forward to it every year.

I'm sorry but I'm still using my 'wedding china' (two sets of the gold pattern corelle ware from over 30 years ago) with a few extra odd rummage sale-d pieces that don't match (green and blue trim stuff). You *can* break corelle ware-the old formulation was a lot harder to break than the borosilicate. (my mother told me to go pick my china pattern... so I did, a lovely cream with gold rim Lenox with gold rimmed glassware and gold touched stainless flatware for $78 a place setting.... she meant go to Walmart and pick which of the two patterns of 'china in a box' that they sold for $115 for settings for 8... hence I got corelleware instead)This year I'll settle for takeout without a sprinkling of leveling compound or drywall grit on it for that extra crunch.

My husband decided he wanted some when he saw these at the antique store in Paradise, California! We use them for every meal! awesome! We got a gravy boat and a napkin holder and this set of dishes for less than $10! Love them! My husband is wonderful!

Darzy, you mentioned the white dishware. Actually, the dishware I use year round is all white. You can't go wrong with white and food looks good on it.

Waechsterbach snowy village I got while living in Germany 30 years ago. I still love it!

Fun and formal all in one! I have collected 24 place settings of this Dayton-Hudson China (Vintage Target, I think!) from various sources (mostly Goodwill and Thrift stores) over the past few years. I dress it up with the 'good' flatware and the Waterford crystal but it still has an informal feel. Since I have to hand wash it because of the gold trim, I don't use it for everyday but try to entertain several times during the season. It's always a good conversation starter!

johnece,

is that one plate or 2? Is the cobalt blue part of the white border? Beautiful!!!!!!!

@Barbara Holland. The nutcracker on the table is a fun touch! My husband has a collection that we didn't display this year (trying to be a little "less is more"). I think I'll bring out a few of his favorites for the table. He'll enjoy that. Thanks for the idea!

Formal china is Lenox Holiday with accent plates of Lenox's Holiday Tartan. Everyday is Christopher's Tree by Christopher Radko.

I've been collecting the St. Nicholas pattern by Fitz/Floyd for the past 25 years. I look forward to using it every Christmas, but since it has to be hand washed, I don't use it for the entire month. There are several different designs in the set, but my favorite pieces are the platter and dessert plates that have Santa's sleigh and reindeer flying across a snowy landscape!

@lindaleigh - That platter design is adorable. I may have to look for that as a gift - I think you could use that with many plain dish sets also. (Some of my friends don't have the space for christmas-only dishes, so they just have plain everyday stuff so they can dress up the table with linens and the occasional accent piece.)

@ Darzy- Thank you! I took a 'more is more' approach to this holiday season! I don't ever purchase fresh florals for the centerpiece as they have to be changed out often during the month, so I usually use Santas or nutcrackers with some bead garland and ornaments scattered on the table. This was a find- in the orginal box, straight from the local Goodwill! Have a lovely Christmas!

I use the same dishes year round.

Growing up, my mom had her everyday china, a special set and an extra special set. Both the latter were never used, stacked instead in the breakfront in the dining room. Fast forward to the day the movers came, and most of that special china was found cracked. All those years in storage. What a complete waste. I was 14-ish and promised myself not to bother when I had my own home. Yeah, so I use the same dishes everyday.

Plain white dishes in my house year round, so I have to get creative to dress them up for a Christmas ;)

One thing I don't see mentioned here are the annual collector's plates for Christmas companies like Bing and Grondahl or Royal Copenhagen release. I have about a dozen of them, normally hung on the wall but taken down, washed, and used for desserts during the holiday season.

The blue plate is on top of my Seaside china.

I have Lenox, "Winter Greetings Everyday" dishes for the kitchen table. It's a fun pattern of plaid, birds and fruit.

For the formal dining room I have Mikasa, "Ribbon Holly" china, and Arte Italica, silver etched glass chargers

white dishes for us year round as well. I do pull out the green cloth napkins though for large holiday gatherings. I don't want to store or buy stuff I only use once a year.

question for those who use their Spode Christmas Tree everyday in December… I just inherited a complete set from my mom - I got them out and used them for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - and hand washed everything! do you put these dishes in your dishwasher? i was afraid to…and if i have to hand wash and dry, they definitely won't get used for the whole month of December!

My Spode Christmas Tree pattern is about 30 years old and I have been washing them in the dishwasher for about 15 of those. I am not a purist about the age of the pattern (which has changed subtly over the years) so I figure that if the plates fade I can replace them. I don't wash the glassware in the dishwasher - the paint on those does wash off.

Check your dishes washer for a china setting. I've been using the dishwasher for all my china. I also let them air dry, no heat.

thank you so much for the info! i'll be using the dishes a lot more...

great advice, Spallina Interiors! thank you!

When I was a young bride and on a tight budget, I bought a set of clear glass china. Every holiday and occasion, I buy themed paper plates and put my clear glass plates on top. I change the design for every Christmas, but I also have Birthday, Anniversary, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc. I'm ready for anything and I love the variety!

that is an excellent idea!

Our Natale Collection is perfect for the winter season. The snowy trees with berry detail works through the holiday season. Each are handmade and hand painted in Italy.