At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

 

 

Dear people,

We all know them the awkward (forced) family Christmas dinner parties. With family members you might not know too well or are not very fond of. For us, these night are rather uncomfortable and over the years, we came up with a few steps that help us out to make the evening a bit less awkward. 

 

 

STEP 1, Choose your seat wisely

You can avoid some awkwardness by choosing the right person to sit next to. Instead of sitting next to the aunt who won’t stop talking about your love life and school achievements, sit next to the fun uncle who always makes jokes the whole night long.

STEP 2, Avoid certain topics

Know which topics you feel comfortable to talk about and avoid the topics you are not so comfortable with. You can do this by having prepared some, as we call them, save-sentences. These are sentences which will start a discussion about a different topic. For example, when you do not like the topic that your family members are talking about, you can just ask what they think of the changeable weather and whether they think it is going to snow. This way your crisis is averted.

STEP 3, Wear something you feel comfortable in

Wearing something you feel comfortable in can be very helpful. It helps with your confidence and self-esteem. Besides, it is easier to chitchat with people while you are feeling confident rather than when you are feeling very insecure. Thus make sure you are wearing something in which you feel/look smashing.

STEP 4, Enjoy the food

If there is absolutely no point in making the evening less awkward for you, then at least try to enjoy the food. And please eat as much as you can. It is Christmas, you are allowed to enjoy the festive meals.

STEP 5, Have a minute for yourself

For us, it is usually quite helpful to have a few minutes for ourselves during the evening. This way we can rewind for a moment and step away from all the uncomfortable conversations. So make sure you have a place where you can be alone during the evening. Even if it is just in the lavatory. Take some time and relax.

 

 

These are the steps we use to get through our family dinner parties.  We find them rather helpful and our dinner parties are much less awkward than they used to be.

How do you cope with awkward family dinner parties?

Love,

Kiki~Jane & Lily~Rose