Pattern Profile: Holly Days (1985) 

First available in late 1985, Holly Days is Corelle's first Christmas themed pattern.  It is a three-coloured design in green, red and black, and the bowls and saucers are decorated with a single green band.  The sets available in the first year were 16-piece, including a dinner plate, bread & butter plate, 18 ounce bowl and Pyrex flared mug (no saucer).  Additional pieces were available in open stock.

The pattern was available again in late 1986, and there were changes to the boxed set.  It appears to have been sold as a very basic 12-piece set, with place settings consisting of just a dinner plate and cup & saucer.  The cup this time was the small extra-white Pyrex variety, borrowed from the Livingware 2 product line.  Holly Days was test-marketed prior to its official launch, and it seems that these sets came with a round-bottom Pyrex cup.

Holly Days Livingware 2 Pyrex cup and flared Pyrex mug.
(Photo right: Pyrex round-bottom cup.)

Corelle Dinnerware:
Dinner Plate (10¼")
Bread & Butter Plate (6¾")
Saucer (6¼") *

Pyrex Cup (round-bottom, 8 oz)
Pyrex Mug (flared, 9 oz)
Pyrex Livingware 2 Cup (7-8 oz)  
Pyrex Cream & Sugar (new style - large)

Dessert Bowl (10 oz 5 3/8") *
Soup/Cereal Bowl (18 oz 6¼") *

1 Qt Serving Bowl (8½") *
2 Qt Serving Bowl (10¼") *
Oval Platter (12½")

* - single green band

Holly Days Platter and 4 piece place setting.  Image from 1985 brochure.
The platter was known as a Holiday Party Plate.

Notable Absences:

Luncheon Plate (8½")
Flat Rim Soup Plate (8½")

Others:
Glassware was made for Holly Days with an authentic looking design.  One known style, by an unidentified maker, has a straight-sided shape, slightly narrower at the bottom with a thick heavy base.  Since the green and red holly decoration has been a Christmas tradition for centuries, the list of companies and products with this same general motif is potentially endless.  It is interesting that the usual manufacturers in this category did not produce any Holly Days look-alikes at all.

Holly Days 5 piece place setting, two sizes of serving bowls and platter. 
(B&W promotional photo.)

Note:  At first glance Holly Days is nearly indistinguishable from the newer Christmas pattern, Winter Holly from 1991.  The easiest distinction to recognize is that Winter Holly is a two-colour pattern in green and red.  Holly Days is three-coloured with red, green and black; the veins of the leaves are black.  Strictly speaking, none of the pieces from either pattern are interchangeable with the other.  The Winter Holly bowls also differ from Holly Days, with two coloured bands in green and red.

Related Articles:

Pyrex Flared Mug (1979)
Livingware 2 Cup (1983)
Plate Styles: Coupe
Livingware 2 (1983)
Comparing Holly Days & Winter Holly

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