Holiday Tartan
How Tartan Came to American Tables...
No pattern carries heritage quite like tartan. Woven into the history of Scotland, it began as a symbol of clan identity with each check and color way declaring belonging. For a time it was even outlawed, considered too dangerous an emblem of loyalty after the Jacobite rising. Yet in the Victorian era, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert revived tartan at Balmoral Castle, transforming it from a banned textile into a romantic emblem of tradition.
When Scottish immigrants brought tartan to North America, it quickly found a new stage. By the mid-twentieth century, American department stores were dressing their Christmas catalogs with plaid aprons, ribbons, and table linens. Families across the country embraced tartan as the fabric of festivity - at once cozy, classic, and celebratory. Today, tartan napkins folded at holiday tables are more than décor. They are threads of history woven into modern memory.
