Danish Luxury

Design Tableware Royal Copenhagen

Christmas plates

Blue and white porcelain plates with a new Christmas motif each year, issued by Royal Copenhagen since 1908.

First made
1908

Visit royalcopenhagen.com

Christmas plate 2026, The Marble Bridge
Christmas plate 2026, The Marble Bridge
Work on a Christmas plate in the workshop, past plates on the wall
Work on a Christmas plate in the workshop, past plates on the wall

Pictures © Royal Copenhagen, from royalcopenhagen.com.

Why it is renowned

The Museum of Danish America holds a complete collection of the Danish Christmas plates and calls them one of the best-known marks of Danish identity in the United States, collected by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.1 Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl are the only studios that have kept the tradition going.1 Families often buy the plate of a year that mattered to them, a wedding, a birth or a graduation, and hang the plates on the wall.1

The story

Royal Copenhagen dates the idea to 1888, when the Nordic Industrial, Agricultural and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen drew 1.3 million visitors.2 Bing & Grøndahl made the first porcelain Christmas plate in 1895, and Royal Copenhagen followed in 1908 with Madonna and Child, designed by Christian Thomsen.31 Each plate is made in its year of issue only; the mould is then destroyed and the design not made again.3 The 2026 plate shows the Marble Bridge in Copenhagen, watched by a cat and a dog.4

Sources
  1. The Story of Danish Christmas Plates, Museum of Danish America. danishmuseum.org, read 1 October 2026.
  2. Christmas Plates, Royal Copenhagen. royalcopenhagen.com, read 1 October 2026.
  3. Royal Copenhagen, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 1 October 2026.
  4. Christmas Plate 2026, The Marble Bridge, Royal Copenhagen. royalcopenhagen.com, read 1 October 2026.

Last checked 1 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.