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Both! My mom's 56-year-old wedding china paired with items from my Pfaltzgraff Pistoulet collection (including two whimsical candle holders that look like happy matrons) and several other glass dishes that just seem to add color and charm to the table. The centerpiece will be a construction-paper-and-candy-corn turkey my daughter made in grade school.

I love using my mother's old china and silver, along with a motley collection of wine glasses. We're so informal all year long that I enjoy having a tablecloth and nice settings for the meal.

My roommate is in charge of table setting and decorations (I have absolutely no ability whatsoever to do this). I imagine there will be her mother's china and wine glasses on the table. I miss using my china but it's in storage with the rest of my life. {G}

My mom's 50 year old china and my mother-in-law's silver and crystal are very formal inherited pieces that I cherish. I pair them with somewhat less formal tablecloths, napkins, and candle centerpieces (think Williams Sonoma crossed with Pottery Barn). This year we are a small crowd, so I won't have to bring out all kinds of extra chairs, tables, plate, etc. We serve everything family style a la Norman Rockwell! While I'm putting the finishing touches on dinner, we'll have champagne and crudites! That's a festive way to get dinner rolling.

informal for me, but cmon ya'll dont save the good china for just 2 or 3 days a year. I use mine at least twice a week. After all if you're SO and yourself arent worth the good stuff who is?

huney bumper, you're right. i ought to use my china more often. on weekends, i sometimes use the coffee cups and saucers from my china set to drink coffee out of; it makes me feel more spay-shul or something. i'd like to think it makes the coffee taste better.

I agree on using the china. The main reason we don't use it is (1) I hate washing it by hand, and (2) I don't love it. It's old enough that the gold rims can't go in the D/W -- maybe 50 years old? And it was just a discard/hand-me-down my mom got from a friend. If not for that, we'd never have had any china -- too poor in those days. But, it's special to me, because we used it at holidays when I was growing up, and I always liked the excitement of getting it down and washing it (we didn't have a china hutch, so it was kept on the top shelves in the kitchen cabinets).

So, I'm with the camp that does a formal-ish table (with said china) for small groups (less than 12). Larger groups get an assortment of regular dishes. Really huge gatherings end up with disposable paper and plastic products. (Did I mention how I hate hand washing?)

This year it's the formal-ish setting.

This year my sister is doing the big dinner, but in the past it was always mine....I always break out my grandmother's 80 year old Noritake china, and the Czech crystal glasses that my husband's family brought over from their home country.
I have several nice tablecloths, so I usually use one of those, but forgo the centerpiece, because there is always so much food on the table. I do like to put a few votives out though.
We eat family style around the table....some years we have gone around the table & everyone has talked about what they were thankful for....especially the year after my mother suffered a bleeding brain anyeursym (sp?), and came out of it with barely a scratch! Every year we give thanks for that around the table, and otherwise. :-)