For collectors, these annual plates—featured at Rystad's Limited Editions store—are considered family heirlooms. During the holiday season customers from throughout Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties come to the Willow Glen store to purchase the plates. Rystad's also receives out-of-state mail orders.

The collecting is also irresistible for store owner and longtime Willow Glen resident Dean Rystad. As a college student, a Danish Christmas plate inspired him to begin his own collection and start his business. Not only are the plates attractive, he says, but they are unique and rare.

According to Rystad, only a limited number of plates are made each year. On Christmas Eve, before the workers go home to enjoy Christmas dinner, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain chief executive officer gathers the workers in the factory's main hall. Armed with a mallet, the CEO destroys the master mold.

Each plate is made with high-quality porcelain and is hand-painted. The plates are reverse painted—first dipped in blue glaze and then brushed and sponged by artists to create the white and shadowed spaces.

But this year's batch of Royal Copenhagen plates came with a customer surprise. On Dec. 1, Rystad welcomed Royal Copenhagen artist Sven Vestergaard, along with the company's president Ivar Ipsen, for two signings.

Vestergaard, who began his Royal Copenhagen career as a painter in 1952, has single-handedly designed each Christmas plate since 1985. His visit tempted avid collectors to take down their prized plates to be personalized and signed by the artist.

Vestergaard's stop on Lincoln Avenue was only one of three in California. Vestergaard also appeared at Gump's in San Francisco, and later headed down to the Danish Capital of America, Solvang.

At Rystad's, staff and fans geared up to make the day memorable with a slew of Scandinavian treats. Collector Cheri Downing even baked traditional Danish Christmas cookies, klejner, for Vestergaard.

Downing and others lined up beside Vestergaard to have their Christmas plates signed and to steal a peek at next year's design.

"I try to tell a little story in each plate," says Vestergaard, a slim man with glasses who signs each plate deliberately with a gold pen. This year's plate depicts a train from his hometown in Dalmose, Denmark. Next year's plate illustrates two children pulling a sleigh in front of Hans Christian Anderson's birthplace of Odense, Denmark, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the storyteller's birth.

But the 2006 design lives only in Vestergaard's sketchbook. The design portrays Elsinore, the castle in Hamlet, with five flying swans that represent each Scandinavian country. Before Vestergaard departed, he passed the sketch onto Rystad, signed in gold.

While that plate is still on paper, this year's plate, which sells for $79.50, it part of a Christmas tradition dating back to rustic beginnings. According to Ipsen, Danish farmers began the tradition of giving hand-carved wooded Christmas plates to their apprentices as gifts.

The first Royal Copenhagen Christmas plate debuted in 1908, with the early plates depicting countrysides and candles. As the world industrialized the plates were illustrated with automobiles and electricity.

When collectors see all the plates together, it's like watching history unfold, Ipsen says. "Not by design, it's just the way it's happened."

Some collectors, like Rystad, aim to own the entire collection. Others collect important years, such as the birth of family members or marriages.

The plates came to America in a number of ways, Ipsen says. The plates were first brought over by Danish immigrants who came to America seeking opportunity. These collectors were able to fill in collection gaps when they visited relatives in Denmark.

Later, World War II American soldiers stationed in Germany often vacationed in Copenhagen. And though Ipsen says the soldiers were mesmerized by Denmark's blonde women, they still remembered to send a blue and white plate home to their American mothers. Since then, the tradition has spread around the country and the world.

In Rystad's, Danes make up only a portion of collectors. But Downing is one of the few who can trace her collection back to Denmark. Her grandmother, Anna Jensen, immigrated to Ann Arbor, Mich. from Denmark in 1917 with 12 Royal Copenhagen plaquettes. The plaquettes are similar to the full-size plates, but smaller, fitting in the palm of a hand.

When she died at age 92, Downing inherited her grandmother's entire collection. In 1964, Downing gave birth to her first daughter, Patricia Ann. That Christmas, Downing's mother bought her a 1964 Christmas plate, the first in her own collection.

For many years, Downing's mother bought her plates or gave her the money to purchase plates. Downing even sent money to relatives in Denmark to purchase the plates, where they are ubiquitous and cheaper, she says.

To Downing, the plates are more than collectibles, they're heirlooms. "It gives you a firm rooting in the family history," she says.

Although she moved to California in 1952, 60-year-old Downing remains steeped in her family's Danish history. She still has handwritten Danish recipes she copied from her grandmother when she was in the eighth grade. All ingredients, no directions.

She also keeps a bound report detailing her lineage all the way back to 850 A.D., beginning with King Gorm the Old, Denmark's first king.

In the plates she sees her own Danish customs, such as homemade heart ornaments stuffed with candy and candlelit Christmas trees. It's her way of staying connected to these cultural traditions while living in modern-day California.

The plates are so important to Downing that she contemplates keeping them safely tucked away rather than risk losing them in an earthquake.

Fellow Scandinavian Rystad remembers the first Christmas plate he saw because it marked the beginning of his life and career as a collector.

After a nine-week summer program at the University of Oslo, a trip to Copenhagen brought him into an antique store where he came across a 1905 Christmas plate from Bing & Grondahl. He was so intrigued with the plate that he bought it for his father, who was born in 1905. His father was also a native Norwegian.

Once competitors, Bing & Grondahl merged with Royal Copenhagen in 1987. Their plates bear the same signature blue and white glaze.

Understanding the importance of the plates, Rystad began his business as a mail-order company in 1967. He moved into his shop at 1013 Lincoln Ave. 20 years later.

Today, Rystad has a full collection of both Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grondahl Christmas plates. Some of his most recent thrills, however, include a September tour of Royal Copenhagen's new factory, an introduction to the Danish queen and Vestergaard's visit.

During Vestergaard's stay, Rystad dined with Vestergaard, his wife and Ipsen. They also had brunch at the Campbell Inn.

And while Vestergaard was in town he visited Rystad's home to view his impressive collection. When Vestergaard left, Rystad handed him a jar of homemade plum jam and Vestergaard extended an invitation to his home in Denmark.

"They were wonderful people," Rystad says. "I'm looking forward to visiting them."

Rystad's Limited Editions is located at 1013 Lincoln Ave. For more information, call 408.279.1960.