Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner

Are you hosting your family’s Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday?

Are you panicking because you don’t know how to deal with people roaming around the kitchen all weekend? Typically, hosting holiday dinners and family get togethers can be quite stressful for the host. However, if you prepare your home in advance, you will likely get tapped to host Thanksgiving dinner again.

In other words, if you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at home this Thursday, make sure to follow these tips to protect your home and kitchen from family and friends (LOL):

No Turkey grease down the kitchen sink: When I hosted Thanksgiving a few years back, I didn’t have that many guests, but I did have lots of side dishes and a 15 lbs. turkey in my kitchen. When clean up time came, I quickly dumped the extra grease from the turkey pan down the sink. That’s not a problem, right? What else was I supposed to do with grease and leftovers right? Nope, wrong move, here’s why you shouldn’t dump grease down the sink: when you dump grease down the sink it can cause the drains to be clogged. Huh, not making sense yet? When grease is in its liquid phase it isn’t an issue, but when it hardens up, grease will clog your sink. Unless you have a handyman living under your roof, good luck finding one on Thanksgiving weekend.

No leftover foods down the kitchen sink either: just like grease, excess foods combined with turkey grease is the perfect formula to clog your sink. Dump your leftovers in the garbage!

What about Electrical Safety?

Careful with overloading your outlets. If you are having 10+ people for Thanksgiving including children and your extended family, make sure you invest in surge protectors for your guests who CANNOT let their phones/Ipads/laptops die at any time. Power surges can overload your home outlets causing any appliance to spark. A surge protector will prevent any potential fire hazard and keep your family and friends save. Remember Surge Protectors are different than power strips.

Make your home a friendly atmosphere for guests both young (toddlers) and old. Whether it is covering your outlets, moving breakable objects out of reach of children, or removing tripping objects that would cause an accident. It’s best to make sure all these details are taken care of before the guests arrive.  Another good idea is to prep one room for children to play or leave a room ready for your grandparents to sit down and relax away from the noise.

Overnight Guests?

Buy extra bathroom supplies: If guests are staying over the weekend, make sure you buy extra bathroom essentials just in case one of your guests forgets something. Bathroom goodies include toothbrushes, clean towels, scented candles, soap or body wash, and maybe a bathmat.

Protect your fridge from your dinner guests! People will open the fridge more on Thanksgiving dinner than they would in a normal week. Having said that, you want to keep an eye on having most of your guests outside of the kitchen area or at least having rules for the fridge. Best scenario option is to place refreshments and appetizers at the dinner table or buffet table so, everyone can self-serve as they please.

I really hope these tips for hosting Thanksgiving Dinner are useful to you! They certainly have been for me! Although I am visiting a family member this Thanksgiving, I am hosting Christmas at my place this year so I will try my best to follow my own advice. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays everyone! Be safe!