Hosting Thanksgiving is a lot different than attending a Thanksgiving gathering as a guest. After hosting several Thanksgivings over the years, I have gathered together my best tips for hosting for this festive holiday. I hope you enjoy today's video!
Here is a brief summary of the main points I make in the video:
Don't forget to provide food before and after the Thanksgiving meal. Sometimes guests arrive hours before the meal and it's nice to have appetizers out to whet their appetite. This seems obvious, but sadly many people have had the experience of showing up with no food for hours. When hungry and thirsty travelers are coming to your home, you must feed them and give them refreshment.
Accept help from your guests. Most people like to bring their signature dish. Make them feel special by complimenting them on this "famous" dish.
Set the table the night before. Make your tablescape spectacular with what you already have. When you set the table the night before, you are able to really focus on the details and make it look special. For inspiration from previous years, check out My Thanksgiving Table 2015 and my New Year's Table 2016.
Pre-cook as much as you can the day before, so the day of, you just need to reheat the dishes. The turkey is best cooked on Thanksgiving day.
Place all of the little things like salt & pepper, water pitchers, etc. on the table before serving. Many times these necessities are forgotten and you end up popping up every few minutes to get them.
Serve buffet-style for ease, especially since you don't want to crowd your beautiful table setting. Unless you have a very large table, it's impractical to have all of the serving dishes displayed on the table. Serve buffet-style and make the buffet look beautiful and enticing.
Lay out your outfit the night before. This should be easy with your ten-item wardrobe :)
Refresh the guest bathroom several times throughout the day. Try to go in at least once or twice an hour to make sure it's tidy and has all of the necessary supplies.
News
My book, CONNOISSEUR KIDS, will be released in the fall of 2019 from Chronicle Books. Read all about it here. And thank you so much to everyone for your wonderfully supportive comments and input. I am really enjoying writing this book!
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Comment of the Week
On the Traveling with Kids post, Gwen B writes: I love these tips and agree with them all.
My girls are a similar age to yours at 8 and 4, and love travelling and flying especially. It is about the magic of it. When it gets turbulent my children love the "roller-coaster" experience, and aeroplane food can be a "midnight feast" or TV dinner. Seeing the excitement from their eyes helps so much. One thing that also works really well for us is to buy a magazine at the airport on the way out so they choose their treat and have something new for the journey, and save a new activity book for the long flight home. Always something fresh that way.
I have been really enjoying your videos from abroad, although I'm a little disappointed that you didn't get the chance to travel from England up to Scotland. I am sure that you would have so much to share. Maybe another time?....
Gwen, I love how you creatively re-brand the general airplane activities to make them more exciting for your children! I would love to visit Scotland one day. What a beautiful country from what I've seen! Thanks for your comment.
Today I would love to know... have you ever hosted Thanksgiving? Do you have any triumphs to share? Any horror stories? Do you have any interesting stories from the guest's perspective? Let me know and your comment could be chosen as comment of the week on The Daily Connoisseur.
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