A survival guide to hosting a joyous holiday dinner

10.09.2015 / 14:51:54

Tami Lancut Leibovitz

Rosh HaShana is just around the corner, only a few days away, the holiday that celebrates the beginning of the Jewish New Year! It’s a holiday known for family time and extravagant dinners, meant to celebrate a new fresh start to the year with new blessings!

Extended family and friends events are extremely popular on Rosh HaShana and if you are the one hosting the party, you know the pressure in ON!

Here’s a collection of helpful etiquette tips to survive a holiday dinner and even…ENJOY it:

We all love to spoil our guests, but don’t overwork yourself so you’ll get to the dinner table exhausted! An important part of hosting is to be refreshed and friendly when your guests arrive and throughout the event, it’s better to have less dishes on the table but show up with a great spirit and high energies!
If cooking for the whole family is an overwhelming task for you and it puts too much stress on you, ask your family for help! If a few more people will make dishes it will help you relieve stress and enjoy the process. With that being said, someone still needs to control the menu and that’s you! You need to make sure people are not brining similar dishes and all different diet plans are being accommodated – check if there any guests with special requirements such as vegans, vegetarians, gluten free etc., everyone needs to feel welcome and enjoy the meal!
Adding a touch of color with seasonal, holiday fruit such as pomegranate and apples is a low-cost, smart way to upgrade your dinner table.
Name tags are a great and elegant way to create a flow of communication in the table, remember that is recommended to put couples a bit away from each other in the dinner table, to break personal conversations and make the table into a festive celebration.
Leave the news anchors out of your dinner, they’re not invited, so turn off your TV! It will just create distraction and block the flow of energy between the guests. Instead, turn up the music, the best way to go is to choose instrumental music such as Jazz. The most important sound in the dinner is the sounds of laughter and live chat from your dinner guests!
Please turn off your mobile devices! If you are waiting for an important call, put your phone on vibrate or a low sound. If you answer while everyone eats, apologize and leave the table in order to talk.
Don’t get into people’s plates! In some families, family members often bother each other about not finishing the plate or not eating enough, let everyone decide on their own how much and what they eat.
A friendly reminder: You are not the servants, you are the host! Ask a few of the guests ahead of the meal to help you serve to the table and take things off the table and don’t bury yourself in the kitchen – your guests want to enjoy your presence and they will feel uncomfortable if you don’t sit down and enjoy the meal with them and just work the whole evening!

For both hosts and guests – I wish you a wonderful new year, filled with joy and love!

As part of my etiquette vision and my TLL workshops I love discussing table manners and holiday etiquette! Please feel free to visit my site and ask me anything regarding table etiquette on the “Ask Tami” section on my site – http://bit.ly/AskTami or contact me at Tami@tll.co.il for more information!

Shana Tova!