I Love Christmas China

It's true, I love Christmas, who doesn't love it? My wedding china is Lenox Holiday, and my husband and I tied the knot during the Christmas season. I enjoy the decorating and baking, and my favorite table to set is the Christmas one after Thanksgiving. I'm a Christmas traditionalist, favoring reds, greens, and golds as my holiday colors. Vibrant reds and all shades of green resonate with me, especially since emerald green is my favorite color. That said, I have decorated a Christmas tree in aqua and peach and another in teal and silver, but those were during my younger years (and it was the '90s!) and were only done for one year each.

Fiesta has had a wide range of green shades, including Evergreen, Jade, Shamrock, Juniper, Meadow, Chartreuse, and Sage. The selection of red shades is somewhat narrower, featuring Scarlet and Cinnabar, with Rose and Peony as charming additions. Fiesta also has had various Christmas patterns; one of my favorites features a VW bus. Another loved Fiesta decal showcases adorable gnomes, which are also works for Valentine's Day.

We usually have meals on Christmas Eve for dinner, breakfast on Christmas morning, and dinner on Christmas Day, and I prepare the tables for each. The Fiesta is often used for the Christmas morning breakfast.

Christmas Eve usually isn't a sit-down dinner; instead, we opt for appetizers or charcuterie. Last year, we celebrated with the Feast of Seven Fishes. You can learn more about it here: https://www.astheluckycrowflies.com/post/holiday-traditions. For Christmas Eve, I like to use a variety of dishes. Franciscan's Ivy is a lovely option; it evokes the Christmas carol "The Holly and the Ivy," with the lyrics, "The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown, of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown."

When I change my dishes in early December, I bring out the Lenox Holiday collection and some of the more casual pieces from that line, which we use throughout the month. I recently included "Holiday Plaid" (image courtesy of Lenox.com). These dishes complement the more formal Holiday pattern, but the plaid design adds a casual flair that pairs perfectly with Fiesta or Franciscan!

Planning the Christmas Day table requires as much thinking and planning as setting up my Thanksgiving table. I have a huge collection of Christmas linens, both new and vintage, and I enjoy giving each table a unique touch by changing the linens.

A plaid tablecloth and vintage napkins create the setting for this table. The plate stack features Lenox Holiday dinner plates and clear Holiday salad plates on a platinum placemat.

This table setting uses a stunning April Cornell Holly tablecloth, complemented by two plaid patterns found in the Tommy Bahama charger and napkins. An emerald green mid-century plate finishes the plate stack. My preferred glassware for Christmas includes Anchor Hocking bubble bottom glasses in Ruby and Emerald green, which I pair with my Waterford Mourne pattern.

Throughout my childhood, every Christmas was celebrated at my grandmother's home. For Christmas dinner, she used her wedding china, a Thompson Aladdin pattern with a beautiful Greek key design in green and ivory. The colors of her wedding china matched mine so perfectly that I couldn't resist setting a table using both sets together!

I love combining different china patterns on my tables. This table features a Spode Archive Collection dinner plate in cranberry and vintage green depression glass as the primary plates, complemented by a Homer Laughlin Harvest Fruit and Flowers plate in the stack.

These aren't even all of my Christmas dishes. I recently bought an adorable pattern on Etsy from Farberware named "White Christmas." I fell in love with its design and the lovely colors that pair perfectly with Fiesta. The dishes were produced from 1997 to 2003. The Replacements website doesn't display many serving pieces, so I'll incorporate these with my Fiesta for everyday use in December. Aren't they fun?

In addition, I have various pieces of Royal Staffordshire, Friendly Village and Williams Sonoma patterns that I use for mixing and matching with meals or appetizers.

I look forward to pulling out all of my Christmas china after Thanksgiving and starting to set tables!