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Thanksgiving table settings add to the charm of this food-centered holiday
Despite the chatter in some social media groups that the current generation doesn’t want to register for china when they get engaged or married, or inherit any of the fine dining sets from family members, some Gig Harbor families set their table with china every Thanksgiving holiday.
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Each year, Kathy Fox of Gig Harbor sets her table by first covering the table with her mother’s lace tablecloth. She remembers her mother using it, and stretching it with pins.
Fox inherited three sets of china. Her parents’ set is bone china with gold rims and a floral pattern around the edge, made in Japan. It includes 12 place settings. Her in-laws’ set is so similar that guests don’t notice they are different patterns. Her grandparents received their set when they married in the early 1900s. The Fox table is usually filled with up to 20 guests, she said.
Kathy Fox enjoys using the china that she received from her grandparents, and her parents every holiday. The patterns of china are so similar that most guests don’t notice that they are two different sets. The tablecloth is also a family heirloom that has been used on Thanksgiving tables in her family since the 1940s.
Photo courtesy of Kathy Fox
Blended china, blended family
Guests at the Jensen Thanksgiving table include family, friends, and inherited family. Michelle Jensen said when she married her husband John, she inherited his late wife Renee’s china, which was a wedding gift from Renee’s father when they married in 1994. It’s a set of Noritake Natalie, made in Japan, and features a lily of the valley floral design with a silver rim.
“I didn’t have china, except for a set of Spode Christmas,” Jensen said. “I grew up with a real formal Thanksgiving, so when we married, we combined everything from both sides — the traditions, the china, and the people,” she said.
She added an unlikely family member as well. Jensen said through her marriage she inherited Marion, the mother of John’s late wife. The three of them live together in Gig Harbor.
Marion Faiola and Michelle Jensen are a somewhat adopted pair. When Michelle married her husband John, she inherited more than just household goods, she inherited John’s late wife’s mother. Marion lives with Michelle and John in Gig Harbor. Photo courtesy of Michelle Jensen
Most people who meet Marion believe she is either Michelle’s mother or John’s. But all of Marion’s surviving family is in Ireland and England, and Jensen said it made sense to step up and invite her into their home.
“We’ve been together 4 1/2 years and everyone is still here to tell the tale,” she said. “She was on her own, and we didn’t want to abandon her.”
From arriving in America from Ireland in 1956, to the many adventures that she has had throughout her life, Jensen said that Marion’s stories keep things a little more fun.
“I’ve been collecting stories about her,” Jensen said. “We are always looking for levity, and opportunities to laugh in our house.”
A plate from the set that Michelle Jensen inherited when she married her husband John. The china was a gift to John and his late wife Renee when they married in 1994. The pattern is Noritake “Natalie” made in Japan.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Jensen
Marion will be 88 in January, and still wears heels and jeans and drives herself to church six days a week. Jensen said that the it is just in her nature to worry about people, and having Marion at their table just makes sense.
A celebration influenced by the world
Friends, family, gratitude, and food are the focus of the holiday. Jenny Wellman said she makes a pecan pie every Thanksgiving, and sometimes more than one.
“Pecan pie is my very favorite thing in the whole world,” said Wellman, Gig Harbor Now’s executive director. “The house my grandparents had several pecan trees, so we had fresh pecans in the fall, and I always loved pecan pie.”
One example of the centerpiece that complements the china on the Wellman family Thanksgiving table. Jenny Wellman said she changes it up each year.
Photo courtesy of Jenny Wellman
Wellman is typically the host, and she said that Thanksgiving is one of her favorite holidays.
“I’ve lived in lots of different places, and not very close to where my parents were, so I developed the tradition of hosting,” Wellman said. “I grew up in Texas, and my grandparents lived in Holland, Texas, and my grandmother was a prominent person there. She was always a very proper lady, and liked collecting china and silver, and I inherited her plates.”
The Johnson Brothers’ “His Majesty” china, made in England, heralds the spirit of the holiday. It features a large turkey in the center of the plate, with browns, greens, and soft reds throughout the pattern. Wellman said she changes up some of the table scape each year to complement the china.
The china has been enjoyed all over the world, including Hong Kong, Holland, and Australia, where she and her husband hosted friends they met in each location.
It’s the people around the table who make the holiday memorable, and special for Fox, Jensen and Wellman.
The Wellman Thanksgiving table.
Photo courtesy of Jenny Wellman
“Setting my Thanksgiving table is a connection to family members who are no longer with us, but whom I have incredible fondness for and wonderful memories of,” Wellman said. “It is not about dishes or wine glasses or silver, but a remembrance of those family members. Those things make for a beautiful table to share with family and friends every year.
“It is also a time of memories of many years of past Thanksgivings, when we had friends of all backgrounds and nationalities come and share our table and traditions. It fills me with a great sense of connectedness and warmth.”
Johnson Brothers “His Majesty” made in England has been in the Wellman family for decades. Jenny Wellman uses it for her Thanksgiving table settings each year. Photo courtesy of Jenny Welllman