My kitchen Christmas dishes- absurdly unncessary yet absolutely adored!

This post is all about one of my sets of Christmas dishes. I have two sets and I probably love both of them more than a normal person loves a set of dishes. That I love three sets of dishes (both of my Christmas sets of dishes and my formal china) may set me apart as someone who 1) has too much stuff and/or has been gifted and/or acquired the dishes in meaningful ways. And 2) as someone who loves to own pretty things.  My Christmas dishes are pretty and I have lots of pictures to prove it :).  

When Donnie and I were engaged, my mother in law to be encouraged me to pick out a pattern of Christmas dishes that I liked. She indicated she would like to start buying me dishes in whatever pattern that I picked out as presents. I went to a local department store that she liked to shop at (and I did, too, but I was a poor law school student and didn't have much money to spend on trifling items) called Elder Beerman and picked out Holly Mountain Lodge. 

Here is a picture of a dinner plate in the pattern.

I liked how the pattern was Christmas-y but not with traditional Christmas colors. The blue really stood out to me and said "winter" as much as it said Christmas. Being the practical gal that I was, I thought I could probably use these dishes into January as well, despite the wreath depicted on the door. I also liked the idea of the motif- a cozy house surrounded by trees, snow falling, a fire in the fireplace and (not pictured in an any way but imagined) something delicious in the oven baking, a fun game selected to play with a loved one and/or a good book to read, etc. 

The dishes with its pattern, Holly Mountain Lodge, were made by a company called Cook's Bazaar. As far as I can tell, the company did not offer too many different patterns. But, goodness, did it offer a plethora of various kitchen (and beyond!) items in the motif. More on those items later...

I told Donnie's mom the pattern that I liked and she started buying me pieces of the dishes as Christmas presents for a few years. If I remember correctly, each piece was sold separately- you couldn't buy a set of the dishes. I don't remember what she all bought me and what I bought myself. (After Christmas, items would be marked down and I made some purchases then.)  I do know that eventually all of the Elder Beerman stores went out of business and I purchased quite a few pieces of the dishes for heavily discounted prices as the store was liquidated. Also Cook's Bazaar at some point stopped making the dishes- as far as my research indicates, it was around 2004 that Cook's Bazaar stopped making the dishes.

Every Christmas season, I would start using the dinner plates, dessert plates and bowls in place of our regular dishes. Then around Christmas Eve, I would get out some of the extra pieces of the set to have out as decor and serving pieces for when we hosted Christmas. I loved having many matches pieces as part of a pretty festive tableau.

This year, I have upped my Holly Mountain Lodge dish game- I have acquired more pieces and I am displaying them more prominently due to some furniture changes we made this year. I can't wait to show pictures but I must tell more of the story first! 

As a mentioned earlier, the pattern was discontinued in 2004 (I believe) which means that anything that I wanted to purchase in the pattern after 2004 would have to be done on the secondary market like ebay, Replacements.com, flea markets, etc. Up until very recently, I was satisfied with my collection of Holly Mountain Lodge items. A few years ago, my mother in law gave me her set of Christmas dishes and I set about to acquire more in that pattern (Nikko Christmastime). My Holly Mountain Lodge  set seemed complete. Every Christmas, I continued to use my Holly Mountain Lodge set of dishes in the kitchen and the newer set that my mother in law gave me, I used in the dining room. Both sets got used and I was as pleased as could be with them.

2024 was a year of unique happenings including but not limited to me having surgery that precluded driving for three months and we became empty nestors in 2024. What do those two things have to do with Christmas dishes? Well, plenty. Regarding becoming empty nesters, as the time spent physically with my kids decreased (since they were no longer part of the household), the time that I could devote headspace to inanimate objects increased- to whit, I had more time to deal with the frivolity that is acquiring things. Combine that with three months of almost literally being a couch potato (due to limited mobility and not being able to drive after my surgery) and having time to peruse the wares of online markets like ebay and Facebook Marketplace while on said couch and it is no surprise that I found deals on Holly Mountain Lodge items that I could not seem to resist!!

I first looked on ebay and noticed that prices for replacement pieces seemed fairly high. For instance, I didn't need dinner plates but if I wanted to purchase one, by the time I would pay for shipping, it would cost about $20 for one dinner plate. A large bowl that I owned and loved at one point but that broke a few years ago is for sale right now on eBay for almost $24 and close to $16 in shipping.

Fun accessory pieces are also not super cheap. This darling bell shaped serving plate is for sale right now on ebay for $16 and the shipping for it is close to $12. Those prices are hard to justify spending... (to me anyway!)

And then I discovered Facebook Marketplace. Oh my! Prices for items for sale on FM are so much better than other after market retailers like eBay and assuming you're buying local, you don't have to pay any shipping charges (shipping tends to cost a lot on ebay- the dishes are fragile and fairly heavy for what they are so it is not too surprising the shipping cost is high). 

Back in August, I found a lot of several Holly Mountain Lodge pieces for $20 on Facebook Marketplace. I was quite shocked with that price. One item alone, the soup tureen, can be purchased on ebay right now for $49.99 and over $22 in shipping. On Replacements.com, the same soup tureen costs a would-be buyer $109.95 (no shipping charges!). The seller for the Facebook Marketplace lot was in Columbus- about an hour and a half away but he messaged me that he was going to be in my general area the following day so I only had to drive about fifteen minutes to get to the spot where we met for the transaction. 

These are the items that I got for $20

Here is a current ebay listing for just the soup tureen

On replacements.com

All right, so I just completed another Marketplace purchase and am going to try to abstain from future purchases because I just acquired SO MANY more dishes. I recently completed a transaction for $50 that contained many pieces. This is what I got for $50-

Another view

With dinner plates going for close to $20 a piece on eBay, buying the plates alone would have set me back $200! (Though I didn't need any plates as I already had eight of them. I’m just using them as an example.) What really drew me to the items in the lot were the mugs. I had some mugs already in the collection, but a few were chipped. The mugs in the listing looked pristine in the picture (and they were!).  The listing said that all of the items were barely used which definitely seemed accurate when I saw the items. I had to drive about half an hour to get the items- not a bad drive at all and the seller and I played Facebook Marketplace tag for about a month prior to completing the sale but it was worth it! On eBay, mugs are going for $24.99 plus over ten dollars in shipping for two of them. On Replacements.com the mugs are $19.99 a piece plus shipping. So to get all of pieces that I got for $50 seems like a steal.

I love my new acquisitions and am going to TRY to resist purchasing more items in the Holly Mountain Lodge collection. I have A LOT already which will be obvious in the forthcoming pictures. 

Here is the kitchen table all decked out in its festive tablescape. Normally, I do not keep dishes on the table like this all the time- I would have set the table like this for Christmas day only. However, I like our new table so much- the farmhousy (not my favorite or predominate style but it works for this piece of furniture) table looks so good with the place settings so I am keeping the table like this all the time until at least Christmas

I have eighteen dinner plates now so it may seem odd to not include a dinner plate as part of the tablescape; however, I really like how the white of the plain dinner plate contrasts nicely with the place mat and the salad plate. 

When we bought our kitchen table, we also bought this behind the sofa table with seats. It's a prime surface for decor so I decided to put some of my Holly Mountain Lodge pieces on it. 

This is the same bowl that I had for years but it broke a few years ago in the dishwashing accident. I loved it and am happy to have a replacement for it- I got this with my $50 FM purchase. 

Cute candy dish! I already had one but now I have two :).

I also love the figural items like this lil' Holly Mountain cabin. It's to place a votive inside to see the house all lit up. 

I have a few Holly Mountain Lodge ornaments on the tree. Love them!

Holly Mountain Lodge photo album- combining my love of photos and all things Holly Mountain Lodge. Yes, please!

Back in the kitchen- this cookie jar is too fun to look at and that it is functional as well as ornamental is a bonus

Another napkin holder

Spreaders

Trivet 

Utensil holder

Soap dispenser

Many items are in storage- I can't have everything out on display. Right?

One little anecdote. We almost always host Donnie's family for Christmas dinner (and of course I use all my HML items!). Some of my family usually comes into town to stay with us at some point in the week after Christmas. One year, several years ago, my sister and her family were coming from Canada to visit us. This was on December 26th. I was thrilled to be seeing my sister and her family but the visit did entail a decent bit of work as hosting always does. They would be arriving around dinner time so I needed to make a meal for them.  I prepared something simple (we had some leftovers from the big Christmas meal I had made the day before but I needed to make a couple of things) and arranged many of the dinner items on our kitchen island along with my HML serving items. I thought the tableau was so pretty and extra festive looking having guests arriving when it was dark (we always host Christmas during the day). When my sister arrived, she and my nieces noted how cute and festive everything in the kitchen looked with the candles on in the dimmed kitchen lighting. We had a nice meal and great visit. 

You know what I couldn't help but think as I prepared the meal was how nice it would have been to have parents! This thought was mainly in the heart sense of missing them but also in the practical sense. Most parents like to have their adult kids over and host holiday gatherings. The parents often act as the family hub, the magnet to which adult kids and family gravitate. But when there are no parents of a group of siblings, there is no hub to draw family members to. I think the last time that I went "home" for a Christmas meal that my mom prepared, I was in law school so I was in my mid 20's. Ever since then, if my siblings and I have gotten together for a meal, it's been at one of our houses. Now, I am grateful to have a home that is not huge by any means but big enough to accommodate guests and I am grateful to have pretty dishes on which to place food for guests, but how wonderful would it be and would it have been over the years to have a mom or a dad to come  home to (my parents would be legitimately old now if they were alive but for some of my adulthood, they wouldn't have been too old). Alas, that is not how it worked out. In trying not to feel sorry for myself, I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have siblings, to have my own family and yes, to have pretty dishes on which to serve food to family and guests. {This paragraph is a PSA to don't ever take your parents- if you have them- for granted. And if they make a meal for you, so much the luckier for you :)}

This Christmas as always, I will feel the loss of those once dear family members and hope that the little motif of a cozy home on Christmas dishes entails a sense of belonging- a la this is where you should be right here, right now- and being cared for to all who eat with us in our home this Christmas season. 

Merry Christmas season from my (Holly Mountain) lodge to yours!

Linking up with Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday.