Old Dishes

My grandma joined a bridge club sometime back in the 1990's. This was our small town's equivalent of the retired intellectual bourgeoisie getting together to share gossip and snacks. Due to the generation gap between me and Grandma, snacks were homemade and served on nice real plates and "services." As a result, I have a box of reproduction glass plates sitting in a box in my basement with matching punch cups. Several years ago, I ran an experiment in which I had some sort of direct sell party at my house. It was candles or Pampered Chef. I don't really recall. However, I drug out the plates, complete with tea cups for the punch I was serving. My esteemed guests totally flipped out. Seriously, I knew that these plates would have to be washed in the dishwasher, and that they were not as convenient as plastic or paper. I even went so far as to assure my guests that these are reproductions and not original, or of very high quality. They're just pretty and I wanted to share them. I stopped short of using the real silver, but still. As a hostess, I felt embarrassed that my guests were uncomfortable. The next thing I hosted had paper plates. So that brings us around to my serving things from Grandma. I think they're pretty, and cool that you can put your cup right on your mini platter. But what do I do with them? In our casual society, using paper plates is the norm. When people find out that they're from Grandma's estate, they get all paranoid about breaking them. I can honestly say that I'd rather lose one of them to breakage by a guest because they're out being used, instead of packed away in a box in my basement. So what do I do with them? People on the internet do not seem able to see their china sets that are of better quality and a name brand. I've been around to antique stores, and have seen several sets of rare, quality china--enough to feed 12 people off of--sit around and not get sold because our society just does not use these things any more. So, what do I do with my old dishes? Do I throw another party and get them out anyway? I am taking suggestion as to the proper way to handle these things.