Why just save the "good china" for extra-extra special occasions? (parent, married)
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I don't have a good china dinner set but I have an antique fancy china tea set that I use every time my friend comes round for a cuppa which is usually once a week. Figure there's no point in owning it if I don't use it.
I have an ordinary every day dinner set (ironstone china), a fancier dinner set (not sure if its ironstone or stoneware. Staffordshire so probably ironstone) for if we have friends round for dinner and the fanciest ironstone set for special occasions like Easter, Christmas etc. I'm all for using it more often though, I don't mind washing them by hand.
Just inherited some wine glasses from OH's grandma (didn't get her good china though, OH's mum got that) so breaking those out with Easter dinner today. Even letting my 4 year old use the good plate and wine glass (not for wine, obviously!)
I don't have good china because I find it redundant. I have place settings for 8 people and that's the only set I use every day, day in and day out. I never understood the purpose of special dishes.
I don't have good china because I find it redundant. I have place settings for 8 people and that's the only set I use every day, day in and day out. I never understood the purpose of special dishes.
I like them because they represent special celebrations. Now that could mean anything - from Christmas to celebrating the first lost tooth.
But, for me anyway, when I break out "the good stuff," my family knows I put in extra effort for them, and for the occasion. Also, we really like "family traditions" and my grandmother's china is one of those traditions.
My husband inherited the china that his dad (who died when my husband was six) brought home to his mother after his tour in Germany right after WW2. Unlike my other set, this set IS valuable - for instance, the tureen is on the Replacements website at $700. (I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that!) However, we both decided that we're not going to let it sit there and collect dust. It is very formal, but we use it every Christmas and a few times during the year if I want to set a very opulent sort of table.
The thing is, with these antique family heirlooms, setting the table, and washing the dishes, is an act of love, of continuance, of connecting with past generations, thinking of all the occasions that have been celebrated over the decades within our family. Every time I use either my grandmother's or my husband's parents' dishes, I think of when they bought these - how young they were, how full of hope, how they cherished each piece. It's very touching.
I use the full service for "dinners" - mostly holidays and birthdays. It gets used pretty regular - maybe once a month?
When my daughter turned four or so - she really got into "tea parties". I was going to buy her some dishes we could use and then I realized that the tea/coffee dishes of my china set never get used, LOL. My family are big coffee drinkers so we'll go thru a pot (or more) after holiday dinners so the china tea cups are too small.
So we started having our "tea parties" with the good china cups and tea pot. My husband was a little surprised at first but I told him it seems silly to worry about breaking cups and saucers that I literally have never used in the 15 years since I got them.
Little Debbie makes these "Fancy Cakes" which we out on the little desert tray that came with the set....
I like them because they represent special celebrations. Now that could mean anything - from Christmas to celebrating the first lost tooth.
But, for me anyway, when I break out "the good stuff," my family knows I put in extra effort for them, and for the occasion. Also, we really like "family traditions" and my grandmother's china is one of those traditions.
My husband inherited the china that his dad (who died when my husband was six) brought home to his mother after his tour in Germany right after WW2. Unlike my other set, this set IS valuable - for instance, the tureen is on the Replacements website at $700. (I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that!) However, we both decided that we're not going to let it sit there and collect dust. It is very formal, but we use it every Christmas and a few times during the year if I want to set a very opulent sort of table.
The thing is, with these antique family heirlooms, setting the table, and washing the dishes, is an act of love, of continuance, of connecting with past generations, thinking of all the occasions that have been celebrated over the decades within our family. Every time I use either my grandmother's or my husband's parents' dishes, I think of when they bought these - how young they were, how full of hope, how they cherished each piece. It's very touching.
Beautiful post! That's exactly how I feel when I use my "stuff" too.
It was very trying the last two times we were house shopping. We weren't looking for a huge house but we were very adamant that we needed room for our dining set. Our first Realtor tried to convince us that we didn't really need a dining room - that it end up just being unused space, etc... We ending up firing her.
Beautiful post! That's exactly how I feel when I use my "stuff" too.
It was very trying the last two times we were house shopping. We weren't looking for a huge house but we were very adamant that we needed room for our dining set. Our first Realtor tried to convince us that we didn't really need a dining room - that it end up just being unused space, etc... We ending up firing her.
Amen and amen.
Thankfully our realtor understood our insistence on a formal dining room, or we would have fired her too.
People seem very divided on that subject, but I notice - around here, anyway - that many new construction homes have formal dining rooms, so apparently there is still a big demand for them. And I'm personally glad for that.
Between the formal dining room, the kitchen and the card table we can seat 18 people comfortably and 20 people a bit less comfortably . Oh, and I forgot the vintage TV trays we found - those are cool too, so that's 22 people. The more the merrier!
I am lucky to have room to store the table settings and doodads - I have a big closet beneath my stairs and we put shelves in there for all the table linens, napkin rings, serving dishes, candles, centerpieces, etc.
I use the full service for "dinners" - mostly holidays and birthdays. It gets used pretty regular - maybe once a month?
When my daughter turned four or so - she really got into "tea parties". I was going to buy her some dishes we could use and then I realized that the tea/coffee dishes of my china set never get used, LOL. My family are big coffee drinkers so we'll go thru a pot (or more) after holiday dinners so the china tea cups are too small.
So we started having our "tea parties" with the good china cups and tea pot. My husband was a little surprised at first but I told him it seems silly to worry about breaking cups and saucers that I literally have never used in the 15 years since I got them.
Little Debbie makes these "Fancy Cakes" which we out on the little desert tray that came with the set....
Awww, that's such a sweet thing to do with your daughter -and I bet she will continue that tradition.
My own daughter actually got me hooked on tea, and "tea parties." Like you, we have always been coffee drinkers. My oldest daughter, and eventually my youngest daughter, both got into the "tea" thing and eventually they bought complete tea sets and started sitting around with their kids in the evenings with a cup of tea. They even started having neighborhood tea parties, and I joined them. It was so much fun, that I ended up buying two different tea sets - one is Asian style and the other is English style. Now I have a drawer and cabinet full of different tea items - loose tea, tea bags, herbal tea, Asian tea, English tea, you name it. I used to have a glass of wine some evenings, but now I have a tea ritual most evenings and my husband, who is a big burly guy, even has gotten used to it and looks forward to it.
We found a vintage carafe that is heated, from about the late 50s or early 60s, at a resale shop recently and that has become a favorite item. I make a pot of tea most evenings and we have sugar cubes with little tongs and a sweet little sugar and creamer set and that carafe...with some good loose English tea and that carafe...and it's great. We usually have some shortbread cookies too.
When the grandkids or my daughters come over, we always make tea and break out the special cups and they just love it.
When I visited England, which was a trip I had yearned for my whole life, we stumbled upon a local trunk sale (like a garage sale) and I found the sweetest cups and saucers that are at least 75 years old, maybe older. There were just three place settings - cup, saucer, dessert plate each - in a quintessentially English blue and white pattern. I bought them all for about five pounds total, and gave one set to each of my daughters and kept one myself, so that no matter where we lived and how far apart we were, we would think of each other when we used that little set.
I like them because they represent special celebrations. Now that could mean anything - from Christmas to celebrating the first lost tooth.
But, for me anyway, when I break out "the good stuff," my family knows I put in extra effort for them, and for the occasion. Also, we really like "family traditions" and my grandmother's china is one of those traditions.
My husband inherited the china that his dad (who died when my husband was six) brought home to his mother after his tour in Germany right after WW2. Unlike my other set, this set IS valuable - for instance, the tureen is on the Replacements website at $700. (I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that!) However, we both decided that we're not going to let it sit there and collect dust. It is very formal, but we use it every Christmas and a few times during the year if I want to set a very opulent sort of table.
The thing is, with these antique family heirlooms, setting the table, and washing the dishes, is an act of love, of continuance, of connecting with past generations, thinking of all the occasions that have been celebrated over the decades within our family. Every time I use either my grandmother's or my husband's parents' dishes, I think of when they bought these - how young they were, how full of hope, how they cherished each piece. It's very touching.
You've expressed my thoughts as well. I like using special china on special occasions because it just makes it more special, as opposed to another dinner. I used to use the china on Christmas but several years ago bought Christmas plates and use them now.
I enjoy breaking them out and then putting them back away after the occasion issue over, it just adds to the specialness of that particular day.
I have some china, but only 10 place settings. When I host holiday dinners, it's always about 20-25 people. I only have 5 decent Corelle plates (there are a few more, but they are chipped or smaller than a standard plate), so....I break out the disposable plates. I have plenty of forks and knives, so we use those and put in dishwasher. I don't own any table clothes (and besides, don't you have to iron those? I no longer own an ironing board), so I get the colorful plastic ones.
Perhaps, one of the reasons that my family primarily uses our good china for dinners with our immediate family is that we only have five full place settings, plus a few extra pieces. The sixth person (me) needs to use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.
I have all the old family china. It is not something I would have chosen, but its ok. I am a believer in using "the good stuff" as often as possible, but it the old china is really not practical for everyday living, since it is not microwavable and the gold trim would wear off in the dishwasher. When I used to host a lot of big dinners, I used it a lot, because there is at least 18 place settings. Lately, it only gets used once in awhile.
I'll give it to whichever of the kids or grandkids wants it and has room for it.
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we can seat 18 people comfortably and 20 people a bit less comfortably 
. Oh, and I forgot the vintage TV trays we found - those are cool too, so that's 22 people. The more the merrier! 
