One thing you can control during the chaotic holiday season? Setting the table. We’ve sought out holiday dinnerware worthy of showcasing your cooking (a far cry from the melamine plates always plaguing the season)—serving platters for showstopping turkeys, glassware for heavy pours of Gewürztraminer, appetizer plates piled high with latkes. For those of us that feel a little uninspired by the Lenox china of our childhoods, here are some fresh takes on holiday dinnerware that you can use year-round. While we’re no strangers to decorating our holiday tables, but this time of year—namely, around Black Friday sales—a tabletop refresh always piques our interest.
For holiday dinnerware sets deserving of your Christmas cooking, read on.
Shop Our Top Picks:
These porcelain plates are the perfect foundation for a simple and beautiful place setting. They are dishwasher safe, so the after-dinner cleanup (hopefully graciously handled by your guests) is as easy as possible. A bit more Dansk and modern in their approach to festivity, I’m imagining them with this Jean Dubost Laguiole flatware set from Quince.
Lulu & Georgia is advertising this plate set for a summer scene, which I’m choosing to ignore. I think stripes have an unbeatable seasonality and an engrained ability to suit as holiday decor. These, with some striped placemats and even striped napkins, could make a playful and memorable table setting.
An actual gasp escaped my lips when this style came into purview. The floral pattern feels both expensive and exquisite, and the magenta in particular brings an interesting depth to a table setting. Thankfully this style comes in a full set to embellish your tabletop—soup bowls, dinner plates, dessert plates, and—for after-dinner decaf—mugs. I’d use this style to maximize a tablescape with a patterned tablecloth (like this one from Autumn Sonata), ornate silverware, and big floral arrangements, the kind that make eye contact impossible.
This 12-piece dinnerware set will run you $120, which is the best deal in this lineup and sacrifices no style for it. Sicilian influence always feels like an elegant choice, but you don’t always find stoneware dinnerware that’s dishwasher and microwave safe. I’m a big fan of this set’s versatility—it’s as suitable for Christmas as it is for a summertime soiree.
Not a cold climate Christmas person? This puebla stoneware set will suit your holiday brunches much better than any snowman-decorated PFA-coated plates.
A little something for the holiday dinnerware traditionalist who still wants to avoid poinsettias on their plates. This salad plate set with gold, blue, and pink filigree and gold rim is fit for a luxury holiday dinner, or any French tableware enthusiast.
I’ve lifted this plate set right from our Holiday Table edit for the simple reason that it’s my favorite thing on there. Like we mention there, we’re loving unconventional color palettes for the holiday season this year, which includes using blues and browns in places of the reds and greens we usually see overwhelming Christmas plates. My dream tabletop scenario for these is a dark wood table, silver candleholders, and a table runner of this variety.
This Mariposa bowl set is made in Turkey from alabaster, but brings a little Murano glass elegance to the table (a perfect time to mention this set of Murano drinkware). The bowls would work especially well with a full glass dinnerware set. I have my eye on another Mariposa piece, the Pearled Oval Platter, which was made to dress up an otherwise slightly burnt main course.
I have to depart from dinner plates for a second to share this handmade fish tray that landed instantly in my cart. It’s a $100 forever piece, and the tool I need for European fish dinner cosplay in the dark winter months. If it has no place on your table for Christmas dinner, it most certainly has one on someone else’s, making it a perfect gifting choice.
Everything from Poterie d’Évires is worth admiring—small-batch French ceramics are like that—but I found this set of small plates especially enticing. The whole set feels quintessentially Thanksgiving-esque with its folk art influence and playfulness towards the animals it depicts. Pair with linen napkins.
This entire serve-ware line nails Friendsgiving for me—it’s cute and celebratory, and has that irresistible charm that only elementary line drawings bring. Speaking from experience, it perfectly fits two Cornish hens on a bed of fingerling potatoes and looks very cute with this tablecloth from Louise Misha.
Maybe the big bow boom is over, but I’m still partial to ribbon decor. These plates feel especially festive, versatile, and appropriate for holiday party decor—piling crudités, overcrowding the table with taper candles, and pouring wines.
