Supplies for Thanksgiving Place Setting

Series Summary

You've got a house full of family and friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. They may not have seen each other for almost a year, and may have been quite happy with that situation. Now that everyone is back together again, they might be a bit uneasy until the wine kicks in, desperate for something to talk about...Better hope that your table is set just right in this situation or your mother-in-law may just give you her two cents worth about the place settings and you as well. Better to not give her any reason to complain. Watch these videos on how to set a table for Thanksgiving and you will be able to meet even your mother-in-law's exacting standards.

In this series of holiday dinner videos from our family meal etiquette expert, you will learn the proper way to set a table for Thanksgiving. Jennifer Cail tells you what silverware, glasses plates and bowls you need for a perfect Thanksgiving place setting. She also gives you tips for folding napkins and assigning guests to help you serve. Not sure whether you want a formal or a casual dinner? Let Jennifer help you decide by watching these informative videos. She even includes tips on how to wash and store your china after the big meal.

Video Transcript

"Hello I'm Jennifer Cail and on behalf of Expert Village I'm going to show you how to set your table for Thanksgiving Day dinner. The first step before you start setting your Thanksgiving table is to figure out exactly what you are going to need. What type of dinner you are going to have, how many people are you going to have, and that type of thing in order to gather all of your necessary equipment all the plate, bowls, silverware and serving untiles you are going to need. So you want to ask yourself first of all how many people are going to be coming to your Thanksgiving dinner? Is it going to be a small intimate dinner where you only need about 4 or 5 place settings? Or are you going to have the entire family over where you are going to need about 20 place settings for people? This would help assess your needs and also help you figure out or not whether you have what is necessary for Thanksgiving dinner. Chances are you do not have place settings for 20 people in which case you may want to use disposable or you can even rent from catering business additional place settings that you are going to need. Another question to ask is the amount of people that are going to be? Are you going to have mainly adults or are you going to have mainly children? If you are going to have mainly children you may not want to use your good china. "