Thanksgiving Seating Dilemma

[kitten18]

This thread is very interesting. My family would eat in shifts.

[The Governess]

Call a party rental place. If you can pick them up yourselves, I bet you could rent a table and 5 chairs for $15 total. Ours rents chairs for just over $1 each.

[EmseB]

I am super casual about hosting, even Thanksgiving.

 

In general what would happen in my house is that we would say the blessing, and then I would give instructions on how to go through the buffet line I had set up, where to get drinks, etc, then I would mention that we are tight on seating, short a few chairs, so please sit and eat where you feel comfortable, but let the kids have x table so they don't make too much of a mess.

 

It's not that I don't care about people getting a seat, it's just that I find many people stand back and let the buffet line filter out, they end up eating after the fast eaters or the kids and they kind of make their own shifts.  It all works out.  People aren't offended.

 

People are generally very understanding, especially if someone else is doing all the cooking and hosting duties, they can hardly be mad about tight spaces.

[BarbecueMom]

At the in-laws, the football game stays on, so there's a handful that sit around and watch instead of standing in line for food.

 

Then there's a few that have been to more than one Thanksgiving dinner that day and aren't hungry.

 

And then there's people like me, who are a bit grossed out with covered dish style meals that sit out for a couple hours during the worst of barfy illness season and just nurse a cup of water and a cookie.

 

IME, it all works out, even without one seat per person.

 

On the other hand, my family does the "everyone sits at once around a table" meal served family-style. Even though it's a smaller group, it's far more chaotic than it needs to be.

[alisoncooks]

We always have big, extended family holidays.  We typically have 6-8 at a dining table, 3-4 at bar stools at the counter, 15+ more scattered in various other rooms (we've always allowed eating in tv rooms and such).  3-4 are standing and talking while eating.  It works out and everyone is basically eating at the same time...but ours is more of a buffet-style meal.

[Farrar]

I agree with others that I can't imagine hosting without enough chairs. I'd go buy some.

 

But that said... I spent many Thanksgivings and Easters at my grandmother's tiny home in groups of 20-30 people and they had a table with 8 chairs. Kids were never allowed to sit, not even on the living room furniture. Many people ate standing up. My poor grandmother never got to sit at all. And everyone treated it like it was normal. I mean... I don't want this to come out wrong because I feel only the greatest affection for my grandparents' home and lives... but I feel like it was "we're poor, we make do" but without any sense of shame. The shame would have been not having enough food (which, I mean, every southern feast has at least two or three meats so I don't know how *that* could ever happen). And no one thought it was weird, so I never did.

[maize]

When we eat Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house I bring my own folding chairs to contribute to the seating.

[Artichoke]

Do you have an outdoor table?   You could move that into the house. 

[katilac]

If I am right that there are 5 lacking seats, and if your boys in your siggie will be home, then you, your dh, and your 3 boys make 5.  You are the second shift of eaters, and you mingle and make people feel at home in the meantime.  When someone gets up, you slide in their seat to finish and visit with Aunt Jo.  I jump seats a lot at our get togethers anyway, just to talk to everyone.  As the hostess, you could get away with it if you do all the speaking stuff before everyone gets their food and sits down, and if you serve the food buffet style.  Then no one will notice you don't have a seat.

 

This. 

 

Your seating is already scattered, so it's not like almost everyone will be at one big table at the same time. 

 

We do somewhat eat in shifts at large gatherings, but it tends to just work out that way. As others noted, some will hold back, some will eat fast, and so forth. What you can't do is designate people to eat in shifts, other than yourselves.