Holiday seating for large groups?

RanchWife08

We are having a big group this year for Christmas. 20 in all. How do you guys seat this many people for Christmas dinner?  5 of them are kids ages 14 to 5 and 1 is a 2 year old who needs to be near her mom. Our regular dining room table seats 12 adults comfortably.  Do I put the kids at a table in the kitchen?  Help? I am not used to large holidays like this!!! 

EastCoastBride

We're having a "crazy person" table and a "sane person" table.  The sane person table will be us, my parents and DS.  Everyone else will be at the big table....

Seriously, though... 5 kids isn't enough so that everyone else can sit together.  So I wouldn't do a "kids table" where 3 adults are then stuck there.  Not that they would be "stuck" per se, but if they didn't actively WANT to sit there....

Is there anyway to add on a table to the end of your DR table so that everyone can sit together? 

RanchWife08

We could potentially just use the dining room as a buffet/food area and set up some folding tables end to end in the great room (joins into the dining room). Would this be horribly weird to eat in the same room with the Christmas tree?  It is a big room so we wouldn't be cramped or anything. 

EastCoastBride

RanchWife08:

We could potentially just use the dining room as a buffet/food area and set up some folding tables end to end in the great room (joins into the dining room). Would this be horribly weird to eat in the same room with the Christmas tree?  It is a big room so we wouldn't be cramped or anything. 

I personally would rather have everyone together even if it's not at the official DR table!  Our DR/ LR is set up so that w/ minimal finageling, we can just add a table to the end and we'll all fit. 

apparently

I think a lot depends on the type of food you're planning to serve. My strong preference for eating anything more than an ice cream cone is to sit at an actual table -- you could have an inflatable Easter Bunny in the room, and I'd still prefer it to balancing a buffet dinner on a tiny table or in my lap.

 

I grew up going to large Thanksgiving gatherings and sitting at a kids' table. I loved it so much!  I've seen such cute setups for kids' tables (like here:

http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/holidays-occasions/simple-thanksgiving-00417000069497/page8.html)

and would probably go that route.

derky17

I don't think it would be weird to eat in the same room as the tree and use your actual dining room table as a buffet.

How many does your kitchen table sit?  I too always enjoyed eating at the kids table growing up--especially since at that point I was significantly younger than my cousins.  Instead of having 12 at your dining room table, maybe leave a leaf out, and split the adults over the dining room and kitchen tables and then have a third table for the children.

nybride0705

We are taking shifts. I will have 16 people, 2 are toddlers. 6 in dining room, 2 toddlers at kids table, 4 in kitchen.  4 will have to wait for someone to finish, I don't think it's a big deal. I joked that I'm doing a lottery for seating.  

Budnotes

Our dining room table seats 12 as well.  We put a 6-foot folding table at one end of the dining room table (yeah - it stuck out into another room a bit), but we were able to seat another 7 people at that table and we all were able to sit "together" for dinner.  I don't know how your house is set up - but maybe this will work for you.  Just an idea.  Another option is doing something more casual - setting up dinner as a buffet and everyone sit wherever - family room, dining room, kitchen, etc. or mingles.

 

Gloric21

We always had a lot of people at our Thanksgiving, 30-40 people so we ate in groups at the one table. The men, the kids, and the women.

Lilou902

We are moving furniture out of our dining room so that we will only leave our dining room table that seats six.  We will add another table against our regular one making one huge table to accomodate everyone.  There is always a way.