1994 Christmas Eve in the Church, Bing & Grondahl Centennial plate

The motif of this 1994 Bing & Grondahl Christmas Centennial plate is the same as the motif of the 1968 Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate. In 1895 Bing & Grondahl started the first series of Christmas plates in the world. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate series, which took place in 1995, Bing & Grondahl issued The Centennial Collection which comprises five plates. This plate is the fourth plate in the Centennial Collection. The motif of the plate is Christmas in Church which was designed by Henry Thelander. The plate depicts the Danish Christmas tradition of going to churh in the afternoon of December 24th, before the families gather to eat their Christmas dinner. After dinner, families go around the Christmas tree, singing Christmas carols. The 1994 Bing & Grondahl Centennial plate depicts a Danish church decorated with fur, and near the alter a Christmas tree with all its lights. At the top of the plate you can see a ship. Numerous Danish churches has such a ship, nobody knows the exact reason for this, several different explanations are found, but presumably this tradition comes from the fact that so many families in Denmark had relatives in the who were in the fishing or sea transport business.