Christmas Dinnerware

Looking for that perfect Christmas Dinnerware set for this years celebration?

What are your Christmas meal traditions and memories? Do you remember your special Christmas dinnerware that made the meals that much more special? In my family, we had 3 ½ meals with each having different traditions that I’m passing on to my kids.

Growing up in Michigan, it was easy to get in the spirit, since we usually had snow, and of course it was cold so we had a nice fire in the fireplace. Very Currier & Ives! The first meal we had was Christmas eve dinner. We’d first go to church, the early service for kids that had the Christmas carols. Then back home where we would pull out our special Christmas dinnerware and stack it full of what can only be described as a weird Christmas eve, especially for Michigan. Boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce, cole slaw, cornbread and Christmas cookies for dessert. Why shrimp? Turns out my grandfather, born in 1901, always asked for shrimp because in his childhood it was considered a rare, expensive delicacy. And since Christmas eve was such a special time, when better than to enjoy it? So we had shrimp. For Christmas Eve. In Michigan. That’s a fun thing about traditions, they get started for odd reasons and stick.

The second meal we had was not exactly a meal, more of a disorganized grazing. Christmas morning, after the stockings were opened but before the Main Event, my mom would pull out more Christmas dinnerware, in this case a huge blue Currier & Ives pattern platter, and put on a round cinnamon and walnut coffee cake. That was breakfast. As huge as it is, it doesn’t last long!

The “half” meal was lunch. Again, more of a grazing than a sit down meal, with a huge honey baked ham already spiral-sliced, read for sandwiches or just eating ripped right from the ham. Being of German descent (came to the US before WWII), my grandmother would cook up some very tasty vinegar based potato salad which went PERFECTLY with the ham.

Finally, the last meal of the day was dinner. Now this one WAS a sit down meal, again with completely different Christmas dinnerware that my mom had stored. Dinner typically called for the red and white Christmas tree set, along with candy cane glasses. I have NO idea where my mom got them, but they were tumbler sized, with red and white candy cane stripes going up the side in a sort of swirly pattern.

So those are some of the traditional meals we had in our household at Christmas time. Over time, the people changed as grandma and grandpa passed, and new grandchildren came into our world. But we still have the same Christmas dinnerware every time we go home. It makes the season sweet to have those memories of family sharing a meal off the same plates!