5 ways to engage your family and friends and make your Thanksgiving — a happy one!
I’ve heard from more than one person in the last week or two, that the holidays are a happy time. With friends and family descending from near and far, it can be a stressful one too.
Here are 5 tips to make your Thanksgiving holiday is a happy one!
The ‘share-one-thing-you-love’ game. I love this one but it requires a bit of planning. So start today! Get the guest list for Thanksgiving dinner and whomever will be seated around the table. Ask each guest to write one thing they love or respect about the other guests. Print them on slips of paper. Gather up all the ‘goodness’ and either put the individual slips at each guest’s napkin holder. Make an announcement at the table so everyone knows what the slips of paper are for. The goodness can be anonymous or ask the guests to sign the slips. If the paperwork is too much, ask each guest to read their ‘thankfuls’ out loud.
Play the conversation game.
Get a stack of index cards and on each one, list a conversation starter question that will make people snicker or and even draw out the biggest wallflower into conversation. Bring the stack of cards to the table, ask the person on your left to pick a card, ask them to read the question on the card aloud. Each person at the table has to answer the question. Be kind. If someone doesn’t feel like answering, they can ‘pass.’ After everybody at the table answers, pass the card deck to the person on your left. Repeat.
Here are some questions to put on the cards:
- If you won a thousand dollars, what would you do with it?
- What was the best day of your life?
- If you could change places with a celebrity, who would it be and why?
- What is the one thing you’ve done in your life that you are proudest of?
- If you could have 1 superpower, what would it be?
- If you could live somewhere else for a year, where would you go?
- When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Do you remember why? (For kids: What do you think you’d like to be and why?)
- What do you really, really hope someone will invent soon?
- Which would you rather be: A famous athlete, a great singer, or an important politician?
Storytelling. All the tools you need to record an audio interview with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa or a mentor are you on your smartphone. Engage your older relatives to share a story. Record it using the apps Voice Recorder and Audio Editor or Voice Record Pro on your iPhone. Upload it to Soundcloud, where you can create a shareable link. Generations in the future can listen.
Questions to ask:
● When did you first lay eyes on the man/or woman you would marry?
● What did you do for fun as a kid?
● What was your favorite car?
● What was your first job?
● What it was like when you had your first baby?
● What was your favorite radio or TV show?
Share memories. A great way to gather the family round is to share old photo albums (remember them?). Share memories (and stories) from holidays, vacations.
Deflect. I’m a big believer in preparing for scenarios before I get into them and having language in my holster that I can deploy in real time when I get stuck in a conversation I don’t want to be in.
When I was single, there was this question:
Who are you dating now? A good response: No, I’m not currently dating anyone. I just haven’t found a man that measures up to Grandad/Great Uncle Bimal yet.” Say it with a smile.
New Yorkers always like to lead with, ‘What do you do for a living?’ If you have a job you are proud of, by all means, share away. But if you are between jobs and don’t want to share, a good response is to acknowledge and then divert: “My job? Well, actually I… oh, you look like you could use a refill on your drink! Let me get that for you.”
We live in a heated political climate, so know the conversation might go there. “That Trump deserves _______!!” You can respond in one of two ways. Change the subject: Oh, you feel that way about the President do you? How interesting. That’s a lovely watch — where did you get it?” or be direct about wanting to change the subject “I appreciate your passion, but I feel like the temperature is getting higher in the room–perhaps we can talk about something else?”
If you use any of these tips, write me at joya@lady-drinks.com and let me know how it went! www.ladydrinks.com
