QUESTION: Is it OK to use dinner-sized paper napkins when I am entertaining in my home? How about cocktail napkins?

CALLIE’S ANSWER: Of course, cocktail napkins, if you’re serving hors d'oeuvres, and drinks. If it is a more casual setting, I think paper dinner napkins are fine too.

LILLIE-BETH’S ANSWER: I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for gatherings around the dinner table and getting together with people in my home and in others’ homes as soon as we feel safer from the pandemic. In fact, I’ll be so ready for connecting with friends that I’m not going to pay attention to whether napkins are paper or cloth.

I don’t want to throw all formality out the window forever, but there are some wonderful designs in paper for both cocktail and dinner napkins. Fine linens or even casual cloth napkins are fun if you have them and offer a bit more elegant or luxurious feel, but any pretty and festive table is worth the effort, whether you’re using paper or cloth napkins. For cocktail napkins, I think I’d prefer paper over cloth for any type of gatherings just because they’re easier to handle and don’t require washing or finding them throughout your house at the end of your party.

HELEN’S ANSWER: There are so many styles of paper napkins to choose from and some of them are so elaborate that they feel like cloth. For dinner, use the larger sizes, and for cocktail parties, the smaller paper napkins are excellent. Of course, we still love our beautiful linen, cotton, and other fabric napkins, and if they are formal damask dinner napkins, they usually match the tablecloth.

The color scheme for an informal or formal table usually comes with the flowers, the tablecloth and napkins. So enjoy entertaining at home by choosing your favorite colors!

Fabric and paper napkins can be monogrammed to add to the festivities!

GUEST’S ANSWER: Yvette Walker, assistant dean and ethics instructor at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma: Have you been to the home and craft stores lately? From floral to geometric to nature, there are some GORGEOUS paper napkin designs available.

Traditional etiquette may require fabric napkins for dinner, but the beauty of the designs out there outweighs that, in my opinion. Cocktail napkins may be paper and have been for years.

Since 2009 Callie, Lillie-Beth and Helen have written this generational etiquette column. They also include guest responses from a wide range of ages each week. So many years later, Callie is 20-plus; Lillie-Beth, 40-plus and Helen, 60-plus.