I don't have china, but do have colbalt blue glassware. I use white damask when doing a more formal table, but have bright yellow that I use for more casual settings. For Christmas, I use earthenware dishes, with snowmen or snowflakes on them (mostly shades of blue and white). Just this year I found a cloth that has silver snowflakes embroidered on a white background. I found glass snowflake ornaments that I will personalize for placesettings and will most likely use dark blue cloth napkins. Glasses will be clear, plain stemmed, but I am considering making some wire stem charms to personalize them. (It depends on my MIL -- if she comes we will be "dry". If she does not come, dinner will last much longer and and the wine will flow!). I found a paper mache snowman (a bit more off white than I really wanted, with blue and gold accents), about 25 inches tall holding a bowl on his head. He is sitting in the middle of my table right now with some bright red apples and a few (they were tasty) dark red grapes drapping out of the bowl. I also have snowmen egg cups, but instead of eggs they are holding round candles (like little snowballs) in the cups. Susan

This is going to be long, so feel free to pass by, if you don't have the time or patience, or if I've told this tale before. My daughter always wins when her friends compare bad family holidays. Here's what happened in our family several years ago. Back story: one of DH's brothers was out of town. SIL was taking care of his cat for him. He'd told her he DID NOT want her son (his nephew) in his apt. when he wasn't there. SIL, never one to follow the rules took her son (17 years old) with her on one of her trips. Son stole an expensive (?) porn tape from his uncle. Uncle came home, was livid, complained to SIL, she did nothing. In all honesty, BIL is really cheap and he was mostly annoyed about the cost of the missing trash. Oh, and somewhere along the line, SIL had found the porn in her son's room, and destroyed it. Okay, fast forward to Christmas that year (a few months after the above incident). FIL was in the hospital, Mil was pretty bad with Alzheimers. All the rest of the siblings, their spouses/significant others and children were there. We had a lovely dinner, opened gifts. People had sort of dispersed around the house in conversational groups. BIL and his gf and I were in the living room with MIL. All of a sudden the SIL flounces in, and demands: John (not his real name), Did you give Gary (again, name has been changed to protect the guilty) a present? John confirms that no, he didn't give Gary a gift, that since Gary had never paid him back for the porn, he could consider that his gift. We were sitting talking and figured that was the end of it. Well, SIL somehow manaaged to get her brother and son in a huge fight. It was really intense and scary. One of the teen-aged nieces got really worried and called the police. Not one, not 2, not 3, but FOUR police cars pulled onto the property, and ringed their cars around the back yard. Mind you, this isn't a spread out rural area, or even an average suburb. It's and EXTREMELY expensive, exclusive town, that's even been featured in some movies--you'd know the name if I dropped it. Now, inlaws' families have been there since the early 1900's, long before it became the poster town for "Yuppieville". So, we've got two hot-headed, immature guys shouting profanities in the kitchen, on the verge of getting physical, and a bevy of police officers surrounding the house. Eventually, they get the 2 guys out back to talk to them to calm them down. DD was disgusted with the whole thing, and was supposed to meet up with a friend later on anyway. "Go ahead," I told her, "I'd escape if I could, too." (I think, DH had run home to our house to turn on the light display, so I was sort of 'stuck' without wheels). Here's the thing, though, that year, the in-laws had decided to put the tree in front of the front door, so it couldn't be opened (I know--they're idiots, the whole bunch). So DD had no choice but to leave out one of the back doors. Which meant she had to walk right past the charged pow wow taking place in the back yard. So she headed out, the talking stopped, everyone's head turned to look at her. Not knowing what else to do, she called out, "Merry Christmas!" and quickly beat a retreat down the driveway. And on top of everything else, MIL--who was born, raised, married, raised her family--in that house, turned to me, with the confusion of the Alzheimer patient and plaintively asked me, "Would you take me home?" Well, there you have it. Merry Christmas to all, and may you never experience such a holiday yourselves!

Cute video. But I feel you are doomed if you try to please everyone. Better to just tell them what you are having when you invite them and if they then say "can't eat that" you say "well maybe another time you can come when we are not having a holiday dinner" and carry on as planned. People if you have special foods requirements you need to stay home or go to a restaurant where you know they can accommodate you.

Years ago I came across a letter on the Internet that someone sent to the rest of her family to help plan and organize the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. The letter starts with ... As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to help complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation. Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything. It then proceeds to give (very) detailed instructions to each of the members of the family who will be coming about what to bring and how much. https://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2009/11/26/awkward-family-story-the-thanksgiving-letter/ my favorite is where she instructs one family member to bring a casserole dish of turnips but then adds don't feel you have to feed an army, most of us hate turnips.