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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Wedding china is a vestigial aspect of a lost culture ([u]that in my opinion, should stay lost[/u]). [/b]

Sell it if you can. Donate it if you can't. If you are anything like me, there just isn't room in the kitchen for something that rarely if ever gets used. [/quote]

Could you expand on this?  Interested to hear and understand.[/quote]

Registering for china when one gets married is a 20th century tradition deeply related to class. Specifically the UMC. You don't register for china unless you are expected to entertain at a certain level (and if you are above that level you don't need to crowd source your china, crystal, etc by way of your wedding registry). Virtually no one entertains in that formal way anymore -- it just doesn't fit into contemporary life for many reasons (the primary one being that  people simply enjoy more casual get-togethers now, the secondary one being that people don't have the kind of help that people of a certain class used to--who wants to wash that china by hand and polish all that silver? No one. It is extremely inconvenient -- so the help did it.). You don't want guests carrying plates that cost $300 each around your living room, piled with taquitos and pigs-in-a-blanket at your NYE get together. You don't need silver chafing dishes for the chili mac you serve at your Super Bowl party. Even dinner parties don't involve all the plated courses and whatnot where a full place setting with china, crystal and sliver would make sense. My grandmother (b. 1917) got all of that stuff out for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter in the 80s; that's the last I've seen of someone regularly entertaining in that way.

Bottom line, most people (no matter their class or ses) do not entertain like this anymore. So ... it's lost culture. It's old-fashioned to invite people over and use linens, crystal, china and silver. Many guests would find it uncomfortable, or charming because it's novel these days, or try-hard. It just isn't what most people do nowadays. Do some people still do it? Sure. That's the vestige.

As far as my opinion that it should stay lost? I am not a fan of conspicuous displays of wealth, and I'm not a fan of overly formal entertaining. But that's really just taste. Just a personal opinion. [/quote]
Great post, PP.  You’re a great writer.

I remember having to polish silver all the time when I was a kid, and my family and their family were far from UMC—all military.  They did entertain a lot, and clearly were trying to convey the impression to guests that we were sophisticated people who ought to be respected.

I said a firm “no” to wedding china, but we have vast quantities of sterling that we’ve never used, probably because I felt like Cinderella as a child with all the polishing.
Maybe I’ll break them out for Christmas—would be an interesting conversation-starter with the 80 year old in-laws, who have never seen the need for formal dinnerware.  [/quote]

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