5 Ways to Impress your Relatives this Thanksgiving
Hosting in general is stressful and nerve-wracking. Now add the weight of cooking of a huge Thanksgiving feast and feel your pulse go a little higher. Then add that one word that sends shivers down everyone’s spine: Family.
Yep. It’s that time of year when you have to cook the biggest meal of your life while juggling cynical parents, in-laws and distant relations. If you are the unlucky host this season, my apologies. The last thing you want to be doing is finding ways to impress your relatives this Thanksgiving.
But there are a few tricks out there that will impress even the most nitpicky aunts (even if they won’t say it out loud.)
And don’t forget, if you’re not the one hosting…send a handwritten thank you card! That’ll definitely impress your relatives.
Pick a Theme and Color Scheme
Themes and color schemes help to create a unity throughout your home or apartment. Themes and colors focus your presentation and decorations. They pull everything together without too much effort. They can even help guide you through that toast you know you’re obligated to make.
For every other party you throw, picking a theme is just an accepted part of the planning processes. But somehow for Thanksgiving, themes are easily forgotten. After all, the theme is a given, right? It’s Thanksgiving. But it doesn’t have to be! Go with something a little more creative.
Try a simple “autumn” theme
It’s an expected theme, but decorations are simple, easy to find, and classically beautiful for fall.
- Focus on the beautiful foliage colors like red, orange, brown.
- Decorate with scattered pumpkins, sheaves of wheat, and hanging leaf banners.
- You can even use preserved fall leaves as place cards on the table.
Try a “give thanks” theme
Which can work especially well to guide cantankerous relatives in a more pleasant direction.
- Decorate using gentle reminders of appreciation and thankfulness: wall art and banners are a good option.
- If you have kids, do a fun craft the week before and create a “what I’m thankful for” centerpiece.
- To draw your visiting relatives in, put out a thankful-pumpkin so they can write their own thanks.
- Go for cream and brown colors here, but throw in an accent for a splash of seasonal color.
Try a “Family” theme
Another preemptive theme to avoid tensions. After all, it’s hard for your aunt to be irritated when the table is decorated with pictures of her with other family members.
- Sort through old photos and find at least 3 or 4 of each family member. Hang them in frames, use them as place cards, even throw a few on the table as casual decorations and conversation starters.
- You can go retro black and white here to keep the colors simple, but throw in an accent color too for some festivity.
- If you’re sticking with color photos, add in some fall colors to create unity.
Hand-make or print invites
You probably made the offer to host over your family’s group text. Or maybe you were selected at last year’s Thanksgiving. Whatever the case may be, don’t use that as an excuse to back out on one of the easiest ways to make an impression: send out invitations!
Everyone loves to receive mail, especially if it isn’t junk. And if you take a little extra care with your invites, they may even be fridge material! Invitations are also an excellent way to introduce your family to the theme before they even arrive. Subtle messages can make the biggest impression.
High Budget
Go to a shop and select an invitation template. Make sure you do this at least a month in advance so you have time to select, order, and mail before the date.
Medium budget
Buy a customizable template online and add your personalized touches. Either use the website’s printing service or send them somewhere to be printed.
Low budget
You may be tempted to send an e-vite or make a Facebook event. While those are both great options for a casual Friendsgiving, they aren’t as helpful when you’re trying to impress.
- Crafty? Set aside time to make invitations by hand. No matter how grouchy, your family will love receiving a pretty invite that you obviously took the time and effort to create.
- Not crafty? Find a free or low price template online and fill it in. Either print at home or take it to a print shop. Add a personal, handwritten note on the back for each guest. (Or just write “can’t wait to see you!” and sign it. There’s only so much time during the holidays.)
Menu Cards
We’ve all been to those weddings or big events where the menu is displayed before the meal. It always starts your mouth watering in anticipation. Pull a page out of fancy party-planner’s books and make a menu yourself.
- Making all the dishes? List the dish name and a few of its main (or fanciest) ingredients. Example: “Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Pecans, Caramelized Brown Sugar and Farm-fresh Maple Syrup”
- Guests are bringing dishes too? Name each dish and list who is bringing it. Example: Grandma’s Green Bean Casserole, Aunt Martha’s Fluffy Dinner Rolls
When it comes to presentation you have several options.
- Make one big one to display where your guests enter as they put away their coats.
- Hand decorate a few small ones to display on the drink table and with any appetizers.
- Or make individual ones for each place setting. Throw a few embellishments and designs on the side and you’re finished!
This is an additional time to tie in your theme and color scheme. (Amazing how little tiny touches can really pull a party feeling together!)
Bonus points if you can match the menu card design to your original invitation! If you went to a shop to get your theme, ask them to print matching menus too if it’s in your budget. If not, do your best to find a similar design online or make some yourself.
Remember to save one for yourself after the event. You might want to recall a specific recipe, especially if you’re asked to bring something next year. And menus make very cute keepsakes for scrapbooks.
Place Cards
Another fancy touch that will make your party just one level classier is the place card. If your family Thanksgivings are served around a large table, they are an elegant decoration that ties the spread together. Not to mention everything feels much more formal and high-class when seats are determined in advance by the host. (Call my Thanksgiving “low-key” one more time, Aunt Rita!)
Place cards don’t need to be conventional either, though little decorated name squares are very cute. Try painted mini-pumpkins or gourds, fall leaves dipped in gold paint, or even cute DIY turkeys. An option like napkin rings that double as place holders can lend a more adult air as well. They are also fairly easy to match with rustic themes.
Just be prepared that someone will, inevitably, be unhappy with where they are sitting. If people want to switch seats, let them. That’s not a battle worth fighting.
If you’re serving dinner as a buffet with more casual seating, create cute food labels for each dish instead! Labels dishes dresses up the display and has a similar effect to place cards – demonstrating just a little extra effort and elegance. (After all only really elegant people take time to make little decorative seat markers or food labels. That’s probably what upper class Victorian women did all day, right?)
Cocktails and Wine
A final finishing touch to really blow the socks off your guests is a welcome cocktail and dessert wine.
I can hear you start to panic at the word “cocktail,” envisioning yourself standing behind a bar mixing drink after drink while your mother tells you exactly what’s wrong with each one. But don’t worry- you can opt for a much less stressful version: the big batch cocktail.
- Simply purchase your alcohol of choice and mix together with some fun Thanksgiving ingredients. (This is yet another opportunity to match with your color scheme.) Serve it in some pretty pitchers or a punch bowl with a ladle. Make sure you have cups on the table. And, from the tip above, put a little label out so guests know what they’re imbibing.
The great thing about welcome cocktails is you actually end up spending less money on alcohol since you’re mixing it with other ingredients. So it’s one of the few moments where the low-budget version and classy version are exactly the same!
- A dessert drink is even less work for you. You’ll just need to investigate your local liquor shop and see what port and sherry options they have in stock. Both are wonderfully wintery drinks, deliciously sweet, and perfect for a fall feast.
Pick up a bottle that pairs with your dessert and pop it in the fridge right before you serve dinner. And no, port won’t break the bank. I used to think it was expensive until I found multiple good bottles for $16 to $25, in NYC no less! Sherry, and some aged ports, can get very expensive so just keep that in mind as you hunt for options. If you can find it in your budget, buy a bottle of either and pour a tiny glass for everyone with dessert. (You don’t need much, trust me. Especially if you want your relatives to actually leave and not just pass out on your sofa.)
To all the hosts out there who are facing a holiday with family attached, don’t stress too much. You’re making a huge effort just by hosting a massive feast at your home. At the end of the day when everyone is gone and the hard work is done, relax, have a glass of wine. You did it! Until next year…
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