Every Christmas season offers something new for both collectors and housewives. This something new comes in the form of Xmas plates. A lot of these plates have been designed specifically for the collector to add to their holiday plate collection, while others have been designed for the holiday dinnerware and specifically created for the holiday dinner.

One definite way that you can tell the difference between the dinnerware plates and the plates that collectors would be interested in is that many of the collector plates come as single plates. The dinnerware usually comes in sets. This is not to say that collectors aren’t also interested in the plates that come in sets, but a lot of collectors collect the single plates.

There are several manufacturers that create special single holiday plates. Waterford and Lenox are a couple names that you will run across if you are looking for that collector plate for 2010. They come in all different types of designs to plates with a Snowman on it to winter holiday scenes or Christmas trees and Christmas scenes and even Santa Claus on it.

You can find dinnerware sets with snowmen, poinsettias, and various Christmas scenes that have been made with different materials. The various plates, both individual plates and sets come in china, in a ceramic material, as well as stoneware and earthenware. As the holiday season is just around the corner, you will be pleased to know that whether you are a collector or user of Xmas Plates, this year is no different than previous years in that there is a large variety to choose from to either add to your collection or place on your holiday dining table.

The Spode china collection is a collection of fine bone china made in Stroke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. This location is “The Potteries” district with factories that produce an assortment of porcelain brands such as the Spode Christmas Tree China. This economically important British district is the location Josiah Spode chose to establish his pottery business in 1770.

Spode began producing his long-lasting line of blue-on-pearl china in 1785 and, by the early 1790s, it became his signature pottery line. The rich cobalt blue color results from the Spode factory decision to refine its own cobalt to achieve this effect.

Quality Bone China

Spode’s son continued the business and his father’s research into a formula that includes animal bone yielding stronger, whiter, translucent and inexpensive porcelain. This formula soon became the standard for other potteries. It kept England competitive in the international market.

During the next hundred and fifty years, the Spode porcelain factory changed hands twice. It also changed names at least four times over the same period. Severe financial difficulties forced the sale of Spode (Royal Worcester Spode Ltd) in early 2009. The Spode bone china line continues under Portmeirion, the new owner.

Collector Pieces

Spode China remains popular and is now a collector’s item. Spode Christmas Tree China pieces do show up at auctions, both online and off. The Spode 12-inch covered vegetable dish is one example, although other rarer pieces tend to appear at estate sales and auctions.

Each year, celebration pieces expand the Spode Christmas Tree China collection and 2009 and 2010 were no different. Collection pieces include tree ornaments, Christmas knick-knacks, china coffee mugs, dishes and Christmas dinner bells.

Are you ready to go shopping for your Christmas dish sets? There are some things to consider before you make that purchase. You will need to decide on not just what the sets look like, but also on what type of sets to get. These sets come in porcelain china and bone china. They come in an earthenware or stoneware.

There are different brands that you can select from. Some of the brands are Lenox, Pfaltzgraff, Nikko, Spode and Mikasa. You will find that the Pfaltzgraff and Lenox and Mikasa brands offer some of the finest porcelain and bone china sets around. Spode offers some beautiful earthenware dining sets that provides the customer with intricate yet durable patterned dinnerware.

Nikko manufactures beautiful ironstone that comes in a creamy, white material known as ironstone. One of the features of their dinnerware is the fact that it is very durable and can be used in all of the various kitchen appliances from the oven to the microwave.

The final decision that you will have to make is how many pieces of the sets that you should purchase. You can get sets for one person, four people, eight people, twenty-four people and even as high as 40 people.

To determine how big of a set of dishes that you should get, take a look at your own family. How big of family do you have? How many pieces would you need to serve your own family? Once you have decided on that size, then you should consider how often you do any entertaining as well as what type of entertaining that you do.

When you entertain, do you have small dinner parties or large gatherings? Once you have answered these questions for yourself, then you should have an idea of what size service or Christmas dish sets you should get for yourself. With this information, you should be able to choose a beautiful set of dinnerware for your Christmas table this year.