Disposable plates and cutlery for seder night ok?

sky

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 9:03 pm

I don’t own a single pesach dish.

Honestly I can’t imagine setting the table with China at the beginning. My table is a wreck by the time we get to shulchan urech and needs to be reset quickly then to make it to chatzos

We just start out the meal with wine cups on chargers. DH passes out parts of Seder on disposable plates.

What part am I missing to make setting a busy table practical.

Ema of 5

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 9:09 pm

amother [ Apricot ] wrote:

Question for those saying real dishes for sure...

Must they be China?

I have two shabbos sets that I use year round while my wedding era China sits in a closet. One is a pretty Corelle, one is a regal looking melamine. Both were relatively inexpensive and more importantly don't break or chip and are light and easy to wash. Would these pass muster or would I might as well use pretty disposables?

I will answer you and the OP together. My husband is part of the “must use real dishes” camp. No, he does not help with washing, but I like washing dishes, so unless it’s shabbos and I can’t use hot water, I don’t mind.
Real dishes do not need to be fancy. We have two sets of shabbos dishes- China and something else. The something else is a plain white/cream, with a silver rim. My husband would have no problem using something like that for pesach.
I think nice plastic can serve the same purpose, and if we gave more 25 people for a Seder, that is what we will be using.

amother

Bisque

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 9:55 pm

I went with the pretty Amazing Savings paper. Seder ends so late and I am selfish in regard to feeling that it is chag for me as well, and if I am going to be a bad, wasteful person, at least the paper has less if a carbon footprint that the heavy plastic.
I thought the table looked nice, wasn't nervous about expensive things breaking if the children knocked something over, cleanup was a breeze, and the food was still delicious.

amother

Gold

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:03 pm

sky wrote:

We don't set the table until the end of maggid. It just gets in the way until then. Everyone gets a kiddush cup and saucer, a water glass, and a napkin to start.

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:05 pm

Last year I convinced DH to take our nice Pesach china service for 8, and keep it for the rest of the year. We usually have more people than that at our sedarim, so we weren't using them anyway.

This year, because of the situation, we could have used them, but I wasn't sorry for one second. Fancy plastic looked great, everyone washed their own cutlery and cups, cleanup was a breeze, and I got to sleep earlier.

chicco

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:13 pm

amother [ Apricot ] wrote:

Mine are a set from Amazing Savings. Cheap, but non disposable, and they look nice. This happens to be a sensitivity that I have, others obviously have their own sensitivities, as they should.

zaq

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:14 pm

As family first said: China is nicer and your dh is welcome to wash it all by himself. Otherwise, he can keep his opinions to himself.

Most people I know who have guests for Seder don’t have enough China to go around, anyway. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using disposables—and I say this as a person who for many reasons usually avoids using disposables. But twice a year I insist upon it—for both sedarim. As it is, what with the silverware, wine cups and servingware, it takes about two hours to wash and dry it all, and that’s with everyone helping.

China is perfectly doable—if you have six people at the Seder and two of them are infants.

amother

Lime

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:38 pm

amother [ Apricot ] wrote:

I don't understand. You want to use your year round dishes on Pesach?

I don't like plastic, and I don't like corelle which is like thicker plastic.

amother

Smokey

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:42 pm

We don’t eat gebrokts so that means immediately washing and drying dishes after each serving. You bet I use plastic- straight into the garbage
One year we had the ones that looked like my cobalt set, with the crystal looking cups and silver cutlery. My mil was our guest and she was worried the kids would break the dishes we told her everything was plastic-
She was amazed at how beautifully the table was set and appreciated that cleanup was a breeze

shanie5

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 10:46 pm

I used to feel guilty about sometimes using disposables on shabbos until a Rebbitzen I admire said to me "This is my oneg shabbos-knowing I don't have to wash dishes". So I splurge and buy nice plastic for the entire pesach. I do have nice china, but havent taken it out in a few years.

mommy3b2c

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 11:00 pm

amother [ Babyblue ] wrote:

I understand this year was different but dont most people who make pesach at home use real dishes? everyone I know uses dishes/real

I don’t. Been making for 7 years. I use fancy plastic “china.” I’m not looking to wash a million dishes. I’m working hard enough as is.

amother

Seashell

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 11:07 pm

I've found that every DH is a mefunik until it's his turn to do the dishes. Truth. If housework were up to men, Pesach cleaning and the Pesach meal would look very different.

Compromise. If it's important enough for him to use disposable, he can wash the dishes that night or early the next morning.

There's nothing wrong with beautiful plastic - I've seen some gorgeous ones. Also, they sell that hard plate with the gold trim that looks just like my china, so I don't see the difference.

amother

Olive

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 11:26 pm

amother [ Seashell ] wrote:

the difference is one is used over and over again - and one is tossed out.

You may not care - most people don't care - but that is the difference.

Frumme

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 11:50 pm

DH wouldn't hear of it-- a table fit for a king certainly wouldn't have the king's queen slaving away washing dishes after!

Not that I minded, of course... Fancy paper plates from Sam's Club and clear plastic ware it was!

(On a practical note, like an above poster, we don't eat gebrokts except on the last day. Having to watch in case non-Frum or non-Jewish family members at the Seder making certain plates and bowls "gebrokts" is really, really not an enjoyable past time of mine. Easier to use paper and plastic and not have to worry!)

amother

Bronze

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 12:03 am

amother [ Babyblue ] wrote:

I understand this year was different but dont most people who make pesach at home use real dishes? everyone I know uses dishes/real

I make pesach at home and we use plastic. I don't have pesach dishes. We don't have were to store them.
We use plastic dishes for every yom tov, it just makes my yom tov easier.

allthingsblue

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 12:43 am

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

I don't understand. You want to use your year round dishes on Pesach?

I don't like plastic, and I don't like corelle which is like thicker plastic.

If having a lot of guests I don't. I don't have enough for more than 8 settings.

amother

Seafoam

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 3:22 am

In this thread I realize that I'm older than most of the imamothers here. And I'm from Europe with a strict European upbringing.

To me this is not even a topic of discussion. It is for me such an obvious thing to use the real thing. I invested in a gorgeous bone china set for 12 people last year.
OK, so we were only 2 at the seder but there is no way I'm using disposables. To my mother, the word disposables were almost nivul pe.

If you have little kids and don't want them to mess with your fancy plates, buy cheap laminate plates in a matching colour or cheap china that more or less matches your fancy china dishes.

Yes, I realize there is a place and time for disposables. However, Lel haseder and the last day of pesach don't belong in this category IMO.

I live in EY.

Edit: Cutlery is even more critical than dishes IMO. I strongly detest plastic cutlery, not to mention plastic cups that you can't fill without supporting it or it will fall. And those disposable serving dishes which are a curse, flimsy and you almost get the food sliding off onto the table. Banging head