I don't use them or really like them. They're just one more thing to have on the table that isn't really necessary. I say simple is better. Just a simple napkin folded neatly is more than enough.

Napkin rings are cute, but I barely have enough room in my apartment for guests! I can hardly find enough storage space for important things like my food processor, so napkin rings are nowhere in my future. I would reconsider if storage wasn't an issue though.
Now, where did I hide that egg slicer?

If napkin rings prevent putting forks on napkins - the real faux pas - they are useful.

Go for it, if you like them. Since few people know nowadays that that's the purpose of napkin rings, they're unlikely to evoke disgust.

I have a collection of 19th century silver napkin rings. I think they're pretty and charming, and I often use them. When we have houseguests, they serve their original purpose.

No napkin rings -- because they get in the way of my being able to show off my napkin folding origami skills, of course.

How interesting! Put me in the camp of having had no idea what the history of the napkin ring is. As such, this post before the jump confused me - I always thought of napkin rings as fancy, strictly non-utilitarian table dressing, so why use them if not for guests? How times change! You'll never see a napkin ring on my table, but I'll go on taking napkin rings on other people's tables as a compliment of the care that someone took in my honor (and not assume that my host is giving me a dirty napkin to use - that would be silly).

I do use napkin rings, but only twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't have room for center pieces or seasonal plates, so they become a simple and space-saving way to decorate the dining table (which is actually my coffee table).

I also had no idea there was such a history behind the napkin ring! I thought they were just for decoration. Learn something every day!

I made paper rings at Thanksgiving because I wanted something cute. Wonder if any of my guests thought twice about it?

http://1500sqft.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/tuesdays-tiny-postthanksgiving-edition/

I personally don't use them, but I'm not offended by them either. Though I know the history of the napkin ring, I understand the attraction of the decorative napkin holder. Today's napkin rings tend to be matchy-matchy, which sort of defeats the original purpose of telling one person's (used) napkin from another's - so I tend to think of them as strictly decorative in a more formal setting.
I don't use them for a variety of reasons - I generally don't like the idea because I do understand the original purpose (so matchy rings seem weird to me), I often have large numbers for dinner, and keeping that many napkin rings would add yet another thing to store in a downtown apartment, and I can think of so many other, more attractive, ways of presenting a napkin.

"Napkin rings are a holdover from the days before washing machines, when table linens were not washed after every meal"

People washed their linens for a long time way before washing machines.

If you're going to have cloth napkins, please make sure they are cotton, otherwise it's like using a curtain as a napkin.

So am I correct that napkin rings designed/used for their original purpose would each need to be unique, or have some kind of name plate so that the original user could find his same napkin at the next meal? Because the vast majority of today's napkin rings are all the same (as the others in the set, I mean). Which makes them useless for their original purpose.

I see the logic in the original purpose, but strictly as table jewelry they are so much clutter, and set aside on the table after the briefest moment at the start of the meal --- silly! But for a family trying to avoid paper products --- great!

"Napkin rings are a holdover from the days before washing machines, when table linens were not washed after every meal."

I don't think it's stating that people never washed their napkins before washing machines, just that they didn't wash their napkins all the time, i.e., "after every meal." That said, i'm sure there was a few people who did...

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I don't use napkin rings (or napkins!) and probably wouldn't out of laziness. I can't even make my bed every morning. That said, as a piece of table jewelry I kinda like them, especially if they're not matchy-matchy. I can imagine a (modern) family using napkin rings just to give kids a greater sense of ownership of where they should sit (not that that's particularly necessary) and can see it as part of an eating ritual.

I had no idea behind the history of the napkin ring, either. Very interesting. I didn't even own cloth napkins until a couple of years ago and, since then, I've felt as though I should be using napkin rings but don't have any. I didn't realize there was even an "anti-napkin ring" camp. Somehow that makes me feel better for not using them, ha ha. Thanks!

I was oblivious to the "anti-napkin ring" camp. Of course, it shouldn't surprise me on a website where people fervently debate the proper direction of toilet paper rolls.

I grew up in a napkin-ring family - we used cotton napkins at every dinner, and had personalized napkin rings so we knew which one was ours for the next meal. We have a washing machine, but it is still wasteful to wash your napkins after every use.

We use napkin rings when we have guests, too, but they are more likely to all match and we would never put out a used napkin. Until today, I'd never heard of the opinion that napkin rings at a formal party implied that the napkins are dirty.

@socialcow - I take your point. But I also really like my linen and cotton-linen napkins, as well as my all-cotton ones. Recently I've started using cloth napkins at home (celebrating empty nest-hood!). We use them at least a couple of days, and sometimes more (depends on the meals) before they hit the washer and are replaced with different patterns. Quite nice, really. For just 2 of us, leaving them alongside our table places works just fine. I do haul out the napkin rings maybe once a year when I suddenly want the look with the way I've decorated the table for guests.

I never knew the original function of a napkin ring. Now I have something to say if someone asks me, "what did you learn today?" Thanks!

SocialCow, you did mean "well-woven natural fibers," right?

To the napkin ring topic, I haven't had guest appropriate rings for many years, and I think my son absconded with the rings I had, used to tell whose was whose back when I was using two dozen of the same napkin. The napkins were handed down to a friend's child when he struck on his own, as he had many good memories of eating at our home, camping and picnics with us.
So I now have three pairs of differently-colored napkins. Don't use the same color at the same time and soothe two of us keep it straight.

However, I could see matched rings in certain situations.
I'm too far on the minimal stuff side to have multiple sets, but I do use raffia tied around napkins for holiday dinners.

I come from a family where monogrammed napkin rings were used daily to conserve wear on napkins (and on my mother) with daily washing. A sweet thing my mother did when I became engaged was to have a new napkin ring engraved with my fiancé 's initials.. A true sign he was one of the family.

I have a collection of old souvenir napkin rings from Worlds Fairs in Chicago and St. Louis. I always bring them out as part of the table setting when I have guests. They're a fun conversation starter!

This is not a "historical holdover" in other countries. The napkin ring is standard daily fare in many French households. Lots of families also have cloth envelopes that you put your napkin in for future use (basically a little cloth holder that the napkin fits into perfectly, and each one has a different embroidery on it, so you can tell them apart). There are lots of ways that this is done.

My favorite thing is the wooden napkin ring with my name carved in it that I got as a kid, so I would always know which napkin was mine.

I don't see how they could anything BUT used for formal occasions. Utilitarian? Honestly, what purpose have they? They hold a napkin in a roll. Why is that desirable or necessary? You have to roll them and then people just unroll them to put them in their lap or wipe their hands and face on. It's largely pointless from a utility perspective. It's a flat piece of cloth or paper and can just be placed on the plate or table. Is the point that they take up a lot of space when flat? First world problems. Seems pretentious.

So, formal? It's decorative and fleeting. My vote is if they are used at all they should only be for formal settings. But I really feel they are a complete waste of time and money.

Nope. I fold my napkins onto the plate, then they go into immediate use. For the few meals we sit at the dining table for or have guests for there isn't enough space to have nonessential decorations without a place for them. I have enough cloth napkins to not need to use them twice. (Mostly we just use paper towels as napkins, anyhow.)

Napkins should be absorbent. I'm not concerned about fiber content except when it makes them non-functional like some pretty but ridiculous metallic sheer ones I saw once. (Maybe you are supposed to decoratively layer those with "real" napkins, but again, too much non-functional stuff then.)

When we entertain, the food and the people are the focus. A pretty table is decorated by the dishes, both place settings and serving. I don't need more.

I tend to keep things that are not useful out of my home. Napkin rings totally fall into that category--it's something that would take up space that I would only use for very specific occasions and the use of that item would not make any impact whatsoever on the occasion. You literally see the napkin ring on the place setting for 3 seconds before the napkin is unrolled and on your lap while the napkin rings clatter sadly around the table.

I make my own napkins that coordinate with my dishes and serveware and update as needed--we use the old ones for daily use and I keep the newer ones for nice occasions and rotate through as needed. I work for a high end caterer--folding napkins into a nice fold is really not that hard. A simple long tri-fold draped over the edge of the table and held under the plate looks stunning and you don't have to have some stupid junk cluttering up your home. You literally fold the napkin three times like you would fold a letter. If they are rectangular, fold it so that it's long, not short. Then put one end about where the middle of the plate should be, put the plate on top to hold it down and the edge of the napkin should be millimeters short of brushing the top of the chair seat. Adjust it to be as long or short as you want. Now you have a stunning formal setting.

I tend to keep things that are not useful out of my home. Napkin rings totally fall into that category--it's something that would take up space that I would only use for very specific occasions and the use of that item would not make any impact whatsoever on the occasion. You literally see the napkin ring on the place setting for 3 seconds before the napkin is unrolled and on your lap while the napkin rings clatter sadly around the table.

I make my own napkins that coordinate with my dishes and serveware and update as needed--we use the old ones for daily use and I keep the newer ones for nice occasions and rotate through as needed. I work for a high end caterer--folding napkins into a nice fold is really not that hard. A simple long tri-fold draped over the edge of the table and held under the plate looks stunning and you don't have to have some stupid junk cluttering up your home. You literally fold the napkin three times like you would fold a letter. If they are rectangular, fold it so that it's long, not short. Then put one end about where the middle of the plate should be, put the plate on top to hold it down and the edge of the napkin should be millimeters short of brushing the top of the chair seat. Adjust it to be as long or short as you want. Now you have a stunning formal setting.

I liked merewether's comment, but there was a fair bit of sniping in here. Do we have to squabble at the dining table?

"Honestly, what purpose have they?"

We use them every day so we can tell our used napkins apart and don't have to wash them after every meal. That's pretty utilitarian if you ask me. What I think is a complete waste of money (and resources) is not napkin rings, but using paper napkins - chop down trees, use once and throw away, to rot in landfill. My napkins and napkin rings (and no, they don't match, so we can tell our napkins apart) are entirely practical, save money, save the planet and are far from pointless.

Wow. I've gone almost half a century without knowing the actual purpose of napkin rings. Now they make sense to me. I have just always washed the napkins after each use, which has always meant either keeping an abundant supply, our only using them for special occasions. With the medical issues I have, its been just a matter of washing hands and faces after dinner, as well as before.

Somehow, it just never occurred to me to reuse them for multiple meals. Lol, but then, maybe my kids never had a clean spot on a napkin, after a meal.

Wow. I've gone almost half a century without knowing the actual purpose of napkin rings. Now they make sense to me. I have just always washed the napkins after each use, which has always meant either keeping an abundant supply, our only using them for special occasions. With the medical issues I have, its been just a matter of washing hands and faces after dinner, as well as before.

Somehow, it just never occurred to me to reuse them for multiple meals. Lol, but then, maybe my kids never had a clean spot on a napkin, after a meal.