One piece of advice I learned in Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project, is to ‘spend out’. What this means is that you shouldn’t think of using the good china only for special occasions nor save those good linens dusting up in a drawer. I can’t stress the old adage enough, “Life is too short,” and every day should be a special occasion.
When it comes to Thanksgiving day meal planning, it’s easy to plan the traditional food: Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, maybe even some cranberry sauce. But often, the table decor is overlooked as part of meal planning. You may not have enough room to seat everyone at your normal dining room table, but never fear, you can rent tables and chairs! You can even rent glassware and dinnerware if needed. And, it’s pretty reasonable.
You can rent table runners and napkins too so that they match. I pulled out our family china and set the table so that when guests arrived. It’s nice to have it already done for a few reasons: 1) it allows you to have more time to visit while family is there and 2) they get to enjoy the sight upon their arrival and it lets them know they are special.
I have a hodge podge of silver napkin rings and I Iike to use them all. Each place setting can be unique.
I don’t have family silverware, but my cousin does, so I asked her to come early and bring hers.
Don’t you think it looks great? Very simple but elegant.
We even added the special touch of printed menu cards showcasing our meal plan. It sure makes a typical turkey dinner seem fancier! Our meal plan was paired with a wine too.
Adding a menu card for our appetizer plan went with our theme to fancy-ify our Thanksgiving day. Once again, we paired appetizers with a pre-dinner cocktail.
Even simple appetizers can be made to look a bit fancier by paying a little attention to presentation.
While our dinner is cooking, we like to invite family to play a few games, cards, pool, or even just watch football.
Don’t forget to snap a few impromptu photos of family as they are lounging around. These moments are ones that we cherish.
Thanksgiving Day wouldn’t be complete without dessert! Our menu card showcased our pies along with our coffee and port.
I hope your Thanksgiving Day is a fun-filled family day!
You do make a really really good point about presentation. Our food isn’t fancy. By choice and design 🙂 that doesn’t mean that we can’t take a few moments and present it in a fancy fashion.
Sooo pretty! Simple and elegant.
Grateful for ideas since I’ll be doing Thanksgiving myself this year for the first time.