Bing and Grondahl Christmas Plate Collection

The Danish firm of Bing and Grondahl manufactured their first Christmas plate in 1895. The Christmas plates are intricately designed to reflect an old Danish tradition. Hundreds of years ago, Danish masters would give their servants well-designed Christmas plates and servants would have a competition to try to determine whose master had awarded them with the best plate. Today, Bing and Grondahl have kept the Christmas Plate tradition alive by producing a collectible ceramic plate each year at Christmas. The complete Milwaukee Public Museum collection includes every B&G Christmas plate, the first from 1895, "Behind the Frozen Window," which features the skyline of Copenhagen, to the most recent "Christmas in the Woods," from 2009.