Both depending on where we are eating.

It depends on who is hosting. We usually do nice dishes for the main event and paper for dessert.

depends

We usually travel to the family, which is 100miles away, it depends where we are and how soon we are leaving, if I help wash dishes. If we are at my mother in laws house, yes I wash them, because she cooked. At my mom and dads I help load the dish washer and put away food. At my brother in laws house, not usually because we leave sooner than clean up, because we have other places to visit, but I would if I had time. We try to use disposable, but not all the time.

It's only two humans and two dogs, so we bring out the good china and serveware and silverware. We wash the things that can't be put in the dishwasher (which, sadly, is most of it), and put things in the dishwasher that can be.

A lot of times we'll use actual plates for serving the food, but disposables for eating off of.

I usually use the good stuff for holidays so that means lots of washing afterwards. Good thing about holidays is that there are extra people on hand to help with the dishes lol

We use real plates and real silverware. If it's just our immediate family we'll use the "fine china" (though ours is actually some keepsake cobalt blue glass), if it's the extended family we'll use the everyday plates and silverware.

Food/dinnertime is ... kind of sacred in my family... serving people on paper plates or with disposable silverware would be considered by my dad to be "not loving the family." We all pitch in to wash the dishes that won't fit or are too delicate for the dishwasher, so there's really no reason to go disposable.

I'm nowhere near as particular if I'm eating at someone else's home, a paper plate (doubled up so it doesn't flop) doesn't really hurt the quality of food at all. I do actually carry a metal fork, spoon, and knife in my backpack, though, because food just doesn't taste the same off of plastic cutlery---for when I'm eating by myself. But if someone serves plastic cutlery, I'll suck it up and use it. No sense hurting anyone's feelings.

But yeah, in the home I grew up in---disposable dinnerware is kind of forbidden. I think we do have a small stack of paper plates in the bottom of some cabinet so mom can give food to guests who are about to leave without losing one of her plates forever, but that's the only purpose they serve.

Tupperware (and a few pots for things like the potatoes) for serving dishes but actual plates for plates. Backwards? Maybe. But the plates are easy to wash, the serving dishes for the various foods are not.