My children have told this story every year for as long as we had 2nd graders.
In our school district, second graders had the assignment to write about their family memories during the holidays. Many times we don’t get to read these essays until they are completed, graded, and returned home. But in 1990, we went to our son’s school for a holiday assembly and to our surprise, he had written that his greatest holiday memory was getting to use “glass” plates and cups for dinner. I was a little embarrassed by this disclosure, but went on to the concert and soon forgot about the essay.
When we finally got home, we asked him what he meant by the glass plates and cups. He told us that all he ever got to use was paper plates and cups and it was fun to use “glassware”. Being a foster family, it was easier to use paper plates and cups for the main meal. We never knew who would be at dinner at any given time.
In 1996, my husband and I attended a school function at our daughters’ elementary school. At the time we had two daughters in second grade and two in first grade. Before entering the first of two second grade classrooms, we stopped to look at the essays hanging outside the door. The heading was “Our Family Holiday Traditions”. As we started reading one of our daughter’s essay, we were shocked to learn that she thought it was wonderful during the holidays to eat off of “real” plates and drink from “real” cups.
By now we were a household of 11, having adopted 6 children over the years so using paper plates and cups were the norm for our evening meals. So off we went to the next daughter’s classroom. I was horrified to see that she had written almost the same thing. The next year, there for everyone to read, were two more essays penned by our daughters about how fun it was to use glass plates and cups.
Lo and behold, the tradition continued with essays in 2002 and 2003 by our sons. So as traditions go, we have firmly established the use of glassware during our holiday meals and we are proud of it.