Thursday, November 26, 2009

Place cards

I finished up the table last night with these place cards I printed. I like place cards, don't you? They look so elegant and civilized and they help everyone to their proper place without a lot of discussion. We always seat our guests as suggested by old fashioned etiquette books: the Lord of the Manor at one end, me at the other (closest to the kitchen), the female guest of honor at his right, the male guest of honor at my right, then alternate male, female until the kids end up in the middle. This can lead to starving at the ends of the table because the children rarely pass food, but somehow we make it work.

So do you use place cards? If not, how do you assign seats? We'd love to know here Amongst The Oaks.

Here's my Thanksgiving wish for you: I hope your turkey is juicy, your dressing moist, your potatoes fluffy, and your guests well matched.

4 comments:

Blondie's Journal said...

I love your Thanksgiving wish...I hope so too!!

We have limited space and have never used place card though I lov the tradition. Yours are beautiful! And thank you for the etiquette advice...I didn't have a clue!

Happy Thanksgiving to you & your family, Laura!

xoxo
Jane

Millie said...

Very nice placecards...Happy Thanksgiving!

Lucy said...

Everybody kind of has their own 'spot' at our table. Of course the men think they have to have the ends and us gals just fold in wherever!

Pippajo said...

We usually use place cards. My sister makes them. This year she gathered leaves from the yard, wrote the names on them in gold ink, then hot glued them to folded white cards. They were lovely, simple and perfect!

The Viking always sits on the end close to the kitchen, I sit at the lefty's seat to his right (even closer to the kitchen), Dad at the other end with my grandmother (his mother) next to him and Mom in the middle so she can help serve dishes that are too big or hot to be passed around and keep things moving (she loves to do that). We try to give other adults convenient seats and the kids usually go in places that are hardest to get into or on the least comfortable chairs. We don't usually have the space or even numbers of males and females to follow the rules of etiquette, though I would to be able to!