Setting the table with piles of plates

[GooseyGandalf]

Every Christmas table I see in shops, magazines etc has a pile of plates at each setting. Surely people don’t actually do this in real life?

It makes me feel that my Christmas table is lacking something, because it looks a bit bare in comparison to a these inspirational tables.

It's for aesthetics. I. Reality everything is bunged on olates in the kitchen

The shops are trying to display as much merchandise as they can as attractively as possible.

I don't think anybody ever looks back at a lovely Christmas meal or gathering of friends and family and sighs, thinking how much better it would have been if the host had put out more plates at each setting. Why would you want to generate unnecessary washing up, a lazy person writes?

I'm sure the poster above is right and these pictures are all about showing all the crockery in the range in one image.

We don’t. If we host Christmas, I put everything out on the kitchen bench, with a pile of plates at the start and guests serve themselves.
it leaves the table clear for condiments and sauces

Do you mean like a smaller starter plate on top of a larger main course plate? Or lots of side plates?

I would guess if it’s small plate on top of large plate, people would be using the top plate for eg the smoked salmon starter, then all those plates are gathered up, and when you bring all the main course dishes to the table - turkey roast potatoes veg etc - the large plates are there ready to go, rather than needing to have them pre stacked somewhere.

We don’t do this as we have starter as more of a late morning snack as we’re doing other things, but I can see how it might work.

Also it looks nice in pictures. It’s more the big fancy central decorations I struggle to understand- there’s no room on our table for anything but food! Def one for the larger tabled people (or the serve up in kitchen people).

My mother had always insisted on heated plates for everything except salad. I don't bother on the whole but I make an exception for Christmas dinner, given how long it can take to get everything onto the plate.

I assume OP has seen a picture like this, from the M&S website.

I don’t think you’re supposed to eat with the plates and bowls stacked up like that - it would be really uncomfortable and the clean plates might get splashed - Christmas pudding with gravy anyone? It’s just decorative; bring the plates/bowls out for each separate course.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g yes, that’s exactly the sort of image I mean. Everyone seems to do it. @WildCherryBlossom I suppose it makes sense in the shops but it’s also all over Pinterest too. Or maybe my algorithm is just in overdrive now generating piles of plates to torment me.
@Forthelov a fellow messy eater who understands! 🤣

It looks so lovely but it’s just not how we do it in real life, is it.

I also have to scratch my head about excessive decor in the middle of the table piled so high that people can’t see over each other to talk - see Mrs Alice. Do people just shout over the top, like you’re shouting over the garden fence? And even if you serve the food from the kitchen counter so you don’t need to put vegetable dishes down the centre of the table, where do the salt and pepper, wine bottles, water jug etc go?

https://www.mrsalice.com/pages/mrs-alice-tablescapes

Baffling.

I think the answer is: most people don’t do this. I have a job where I see how many different people live, and go into their homes at Christmas time year after year. Whilst many people do like to make a nice house at Christmas, the more common thing I’ve observed is people just use whatever they normally put out. Be it pigs in blankets in a Pyrex dish, sprouts served out of the pan! I think we should celebrate and normalise this, not some unachievable (for many) fantasy where there’s piles of charger plates all colour coordinated, masses of greenery so you can’t put the food down, etc.
Twee but true, what matters is who is around the table, or eating off the lap in a lot of cases as UK houses are getting smaller.