Setting Your Table for the Holidays : Mikasa is offering its twice-yearly china, stoneware, crystal and flatware sale. Also, Ikea’s Christmas tree event is back.

The timing for a china and crystal sale couldn’t be better than this weekend. Setting the Thanksgiving table can make you acute ly aware of what’s needed for the holidays. Mikasa’s warehouse sale is a twice-a-year event designed to clear out discontinued and overstocked patterns.

The name of the game here is china, stoneware, crystal, flatware and gift ware. There are many high-end offerings, such as a china service for four (dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer) in the Autumn Elegance pattern, a richly decorated black-banded floral that retails for $330 and is marked down to $139.95. This is part of the Maxima line, which comes with a two-year guarantee (for residential use) against chipping. (Incidentally, when buying a discontinued pattern, consider purchasing a second set for future replacements.)

For everyday use, there’s a good assortment of patterns in stoneware (some geared toward holiday tables) of 20-piece sets for four, including dinner plate, salad plate, cup and saucer, ranging from $29.99 to $49.99. They are usually priced from $65 to $105.

There are many good deals in crystal, but none can match the hand-blown, hand-cut, double old-fashioned glasses that retail for $20 each, marked to move at $4--80% off retail. In flatware, consider $90 stainless steel place settings, many with gold accents, for $39.95.

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Once again, the Scandinavian furniture giant, Ikea, is offering its innovative, frugal and environmentally sound plan to acquire--and dispose of--a Christmas tree.

With Rent-a-Tree, you pay $10 (plus tax) for renting the tree and $10 for a deposit. Return the tree on specified dates (Dec. 31 through Jan. 2) and get the $10 deposit back or a coupon worth $20 toward a $100 purchase at any Ikea store. In keeping with the Christmas spirit, you can also choose to donate that $10 in someone’s name to TreePeople, which will use it to replace the tree. (The returned Christmas trees are turned into mulch, which the customer may take for his own garden, or the store sends it to a recycling center.)

The trees arrive Saturday at Ikea in Burbank, and other area Ikeas, and will be on sale through Dec. 19--if they last that long.

Where and When What: Mikasa warehouse sale. Location: 20633 S. Fordyce Ave., Long Beach. Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Cards: American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa. Call: (310) 886-3700. What: Rented Christmas trees at Ikea. Location: 600 N. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank. When: Trees available beginning Saturday. Holiday hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Price: Trees are $10 plus tax, plus $10 deposit. Cards: MasterCard, Visa. Call: (818) 842-4532.