Your Guide to Hosting an Intimate & Chic Thanksgiving
Tip No. 3 Make Adjustments to Your Serving Style
Think about the risk factors involved in serving your Thanksgiving meal family style or plated versus buffet. CDC guidelines suggest limiting the number of people who come into contact with the food by designating a server to fill plates so that only one person touches the utensils and dishes.
- You might do this by setting up a buffet but instead of serve yourself, you actually place the food on their plates. Ask guests to walk through the buffet line spread out and wearing a mask.
- If the meal lends itself to being plated, that might be a sensible option too.
- Of course, make sure that the server washes his or her hands and wears PPE as recommended.
Tip No. 4 Set a Charming Thanksgiving Table with a Unique Centerpiece
An intimate and chic Thanksgiving needs charming table decor to help create that warm and festive atmosphere. On your table, use warm colors, pretty florals, and heirlooms to make the table special. You might be tempted to skip the table decor this year but don’t!
- Host your Thanksgiving meal outdoors if possible. Set up a festive table with blankets at the chairs and start a fire to keep guests toasty warm.
- Think about the centerpiece as a separator between guests make it a little wider and taller this year. Use a unique piece like my graceful swan to fill with flowers or seasonal gourds- learn more here.
- Get out the crystal and silver. With a smaller crowd it is less of a hassle to clean this tableware and now is definitely the time to use it!
- Add a memorable touch to the Thanksgiving table with unique place cards or a party favor like an ornament.
Tip No. 5 Plan for Meaningful Interaction
The isolation and stress of this year has been difficult for everyone! We need to gather with loved ones, find common ground and feel that special connection to our family and friends. As the hostess, you can help foster this by planning meaningful entertainments during your Thanksgiving party.
- Create a gratitude craft or activity tradition. I love Hester & Cook’s gratitude cards for the table, which you could place at each place setting and ask guests to fill out and share during the meal.
- Another lovely gratitude tradition, especially with kids, is to craft a gratitude tree like this one. Each leaf you hang on the tree represents something or someone you and your family are grateful for. You could make your own leaves or these paper leaves on Amazon would look so pretty.
- Be sure to include relatives who cannot attend by video calling them for a chat during the festivities. If they are able to cook, you could share recipes with them, box up the ingredients, and send this package to make.
- Since being outside in a crowd reduces everyone’s risk for COVID, plan some outdoor lawn games or a walking scavenger hunt through the neighborhood.
- As the official start to the holiday season, many of us love to break out the holiday movies over Thanksgiving.
- Ask a musical family member to play a song on their instrument (but note singing is discouraged by CDC guidelines).
I truly hope my Guide to an Intimate and Chic Thanksgiving has inspired you to host a graceful, festive dinner in spite of and really in answer to the Pandemic and political climate. We need this opportunity to connect with loved ones and cherish each other!
Use the guide for inspiration and to think through some unusual hosting circumstances particular to this year.
You can learn more about how I created the swan centerpiece in this post.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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