Turkey Day Tips: Hosting Your First Thanksgiving…and Surviving It

The holiday’s are upon us. Are you planning on hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year? Worried you’re going to screw up? Me too, but here are some ideas to distract from the fact you may have caught the kitchen on fire, or if we’re lucky they will help prevent it altogether!

1. Plan ahead: Write out what you’re planning on serving and then go shopping. If you wait until the day before you may face getting mowed down by grocery carts, true story.

2. Delegate: Do not try to do it all yourself, ask one of your guests if they would mind being responsible for one of the desserts.

3. Repeat this: “I am not Martha Stewart” This will be your mantra. So keep it simple but don’t go overboard on trying to decorate, pick one color and if you can theme your decorations around that, great, if not focus on the food and the family.

4. Keep it simple: If you’re stuck, can’t decide on a color, white is always a nice fall back. Make a clean and simple centerpiece with clusters of votive candles, pillar candles and place them on a mirror. Just think simple elegance. Check out this centerpiece setting:

I created this centerpiece with odds and ends from around my home. I used all the candles I could find and pulled a mirror off of the wall. The centerpiece looks elegant and took me all of 10 minutes.