My mom grew up with big big family dinners.She is one of 14 kids. So holidays were always all the kids and their families. You can imagine how big a crowd that would be. So as I was growing up we had big family holiday meals.
My mom until just about 5 yrs ago always set her long dining table that has pull up leaves on each side. She would set it with crystal goblets and dinner plates with napkin rings and all the dishes were traditional and served on platters and in glass dishes with water served in glass pitchers. We all sat and prayed and passed food to the left. Kids were seated at a kid's table.
When Mom didn't do it one year both of my boys(in their late 20's) were upset. They missed the tradition of sitting down to napkin rings and all the candles and center piece in the middle of the table. Nathan has Christmas now and they don't do the napkin rings but they do set a nice table with lots of traditional foods.
We actually quit having the dinners in my mom's house because the family outgrew the space!