Holiday-specific dish ware

Do Christians call Christmas "the high holidays"?

R1, I don't think they do. But I think using that term best suits the point of my thread, whether Christian, Jewish, etc.

We did not have Christmas-specific dinnerware. We just used the "good" china. White porcelain with a 1/2" blue and floral and gold encrusted edge.

This one, of course !

Blue Willow.

From Corelle.

Our family used the GOOD Chinet, OP

My mother's disdain for traditional patterns and love affair with deep red called for Waechtersbach Christmas Tree. Most of her pieces were marked "W. Germany" but she purposefully bought pieces marked "Germany" after reunification. Sadly, both the pattern and she expired in 2012.

Ever practical, she also had several sets of holiday Corning Corelle patterns for the visits of many nieces and nephews. R6 - that was her first set. She bought additional sets as the family grew larger.

r8 the red is perfect, and I love the modern tree design. She had good taste! I really like the charger plate. These would look nice for displaying cookies.

My family isn't Jewish so we didn't observe "high holidays". On Xmas, my mother set the table with the "good china", which was a Noritake pattern that my father found in occupied Japan soon after WWII (at the link). It's OK but I've never loved it -- I'll be inheriting it soon, so I hope it's worth money by now.

R8 - thank you for the kind words. She only had one of the chargers and it was used solely for Christmas cookies. I agree on the color. Red glazes are hard to control and the imperfections adds character in contrast to the nearly geometric pattern. The design is incised on the surface and the surrounding glaze is nearly 3-dimensional.

R10, do you know what your father paid for that china? During the Vietnam War, my father purchased a complete set for 12 of Noritake Stella. It cost a princely sum of $40 including shipment from Asia back to the US. He joked that it cost him no more than 2-bits per piece.

"Funny how in America, we're so spoiled that for generations, we've had holiday-themed china and dinnerware. "

Okay, I'm not sure what to reference first, but here we go:

Do you think there HASN'T been a similar tradition of holiday dinnerware being passed down?

Like America is the only country with holidays? Or other countries have holidays and holiday dinnerware but they're buried with the dinnerware in order to take it with them to the afterlife? Basically:

WHAT IS SO FUCKING SPECIAL ABOUT AMERICA? It's just a country like any other.

And by the way Miss Spode, do not think for one minute that you can convince anyone that your holiday dinnerware wasn't anything other than Dixie. That was the special extra splurge, right there. Not judging that. You could stage that shit. Have your kids make decorations and display them on the table. No candles obviously, but some little portable light source. You can probably find one with some red or green element in the design. There's your cute factor. You work the cute out of that basic shit.

And suddenly this becomes a critique of your average CW show.

Lauren Bacall and I impress our guests with "Winter Tulip Tumblers" from Arby's. It's what all the grande dames on the Upper East Side use at their chic holiday soirees.

Lauren and I both know the fine art of entertaining.

r10 Try not to get your hopes up. Check out Replacements on the web. It is a great resource, and you can get a solid idea how much your set is worth. Warning, it can be kind of a let down. I was certain a set I had passed down to me would fetch me a pretty penny. I was so very wrong...

One of my mother’s “things” is china. Meaning, she has 7 complete sets of service for 12 - including the requisite serving pieces (this is after her gifting 5 sets to my siblings and I). One is a Christmas set, but not Spode-I believe it’s from Germany. It’s decorated with holly and poinsettias. She uses the set for every (yes, every) meal between Christmas Eve and the Epiphany whether she’s dining alone or has company. She also she has a ruby stemware set she pairs with it. It really gives her a lot of joy using her Christmas dishes.

She also has a dessert set (not the only one) that I prefer. Each cup, saucer, and plate is decorated with one of the Twelve Days of Christmas. There’s a matching cake stand and tiered server with the set. No teapot, but you guessed it, she has a number of teapots, and she pairs a big white china one with it.

I do wonder occasionally, who is going to want all these sets when the time comes. I’m guessing my sister will swoop in and claim them, only to sell them (a few sets are pretty valuable). But in the meantime, my mother enjoys her sets, breaks them out when she has her lady friends over, and loves the compliments they give her on all the sets/patterns.

LIke R8 my family had Waechtersbach Christmas Tree. My mom was very frau-y, but, considering we didn't have a lot of money, it sort of made no sense that we'd have holiday-only dishes - service for at at least 8, plus ALL the serving bowls, platters, etc., plus matching glasswear. But, she built up the collection over years. When we were kids, we'd get her different pieces for Christmas as a gift. Looking back, she thinks it was a waste, but we did have a lot of fun holiday times with those dishes.

At special times such as Christmas my mom broke out the Enoch Woods English Scenery (in pink/red) pieces.

For everyday use it was the Mikasa Mediterrania, which eventually my mom passed on to me in the 80's and now is my own everyday dishware. Made in the 1960's it declares on the back it is "dishwasher safe" and some pieces are showing their age but I wouldn't have expected them to last this long!

Mikasa Mediterrania in burnt orange

Chinet. Drinkware by Solo.

But R19 were they the GOOD Solo cups?

r18 What holiday is that for -- Halloween?

Any twat who has to shame people for holiday ware has no right to start a thread on it.

"Americans are spoiled, but it's still a little fun, if I do say so myself in my twat-SJW way."

I've inherited enough Spode, Lenox, Tom-and-Jerry, and other china and glass Christmas, winter and Hanukkah ware to serve the population of Bethlehem. None of it was purchased, over the 1930s to 1980s, out of being "spoiled." The lower- and middle-class families who had it meant it as a sign of enough prosperity that their most cherished time of year would seem all the more festive and grateful. Naive, perhaps. Spoiled? No.

Fuck you, asshole. We all hope your mother doesn't die on Christmas Eve, and "spoil" your nouveau Puritan vegan casserole as you feed your cats fresh tuna.

You seem really nice, R22.

R21 it was purchased for Thanksgiving/Hallowe'en/Christmas use, reflecting the beginning of Fall mood. "Mediterrania" actually came in a lot of other colors of which blue is probably the nicest.

Lenox Winter Greetings

R25, that's quite pretty.

R20, we had both colorways of Solo, red and blue.

Who doesn’t have Spode Christmas Tree?!

[quote]I don’t have Spode Christmas Tree. I hate Christmas. The last thing in the world I'd do is buy it dishes.

R15 , my my my, pass the smelling salts. Your lady privates smell of Jasmine , magnolia and honey suckle.

We never had these, but we're Jewish AND not American. We did have a few vintage seder plates from various makers...(never really paid attention to the maker). We did have a few menorah themed cake/dessert plates, but we didn't even use them every year for Hanukkah, as there weren't enough for a large group. The only holiday heirloom piece of china I use is a white porcelain footed egg, with a cracked shell design at the top, with gilt hebrew characters that spell out horseradish. It always comes out. It is very old and carries no marks.

Nikko Christmastime

Unfortunately it's a bit out of my price range, but I've always wanted to have Villeroy & Boch xmas china. I drool over it in the stores every December. Too bad it's so fucking expensive.

My mother uses the Spode Christmas Tree the entire month of December. My grandmother was a china freak, so there are 13 complete sets of various patterns- I have most of them now, including a lovely Meissen set that was a wedding gift to her in the 30s.

R8, still have pieces marked West Germany. Damned things survive any fall in mishap.

We did not have special holiday china. If I hosted the family holiday dinners, I'd go with the Lenox holly pattern above or a plain, red-rimmed dish like this from Bernardaud:

BTW, the Spode Christmas Tree used to be expensive. My mom bought her set at Bullock's Wilshire back in the day. It wasn't until years later you could find it at Home Goods.

I've never really been a fan of the Spode.

So only Americans have holiday themed dinnerware? I had no idea.

Targé had some Christmas melamine for a few years, several years back. It's fab.

R16 here. I should add that my mother would use her Waechtersbach Christmas Tree dinnerware for the entire holiday season. Right after Thanksgiving until maybe a week after the New Year. Maybe too much, but she wanted to get full use of it.

That's so...RED, r41.

Yep, Spode Christmas Tree was indeed expensive back in the day. Up until the mid-to-late 80's I think. Now you can find it at Steinmart and the like. I'm not a huge fan either, although it's what my family uses for Christmas. Tradition, and all that.

You say that like it's a bad thing, r42!