TL;DR
Apartment Therapy Style Editor Emma Dangel says her mother’s advice for hosting Thanksgiving was to bring their family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings to the table. Dangel also suggests inviting guests to share a decorative item or tradition, arguing that familiar personal touches—not perfect table settings—help a gathering feel welcoming.
Apartment Therapy Style Editor Emma Dangel says her mother’s advice for Dangel’s first time hosting Thanksgiving was to bring out the family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings, a decoration Dangel and her mother and sister made when Dangel was a child. The tip shifts the focus from an elaborate menu or polished tablescape to personal traditions that can make a new gathering feel connected to earlier family celebrations.
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Dangel describes her mother as the family’s longtime Thanksgiving host and an experienced cook. With the holiday moving to New York for Dangel’s first hosting attempt, she called her mother for advice on recreating the familiar, festive feeling of celebrations at home. She expected suggestions about food or table styling, but her mother pointed to the family’s paper turkeys instead.
Dangel says the napkin rings have appeared at every Dangel family Thanksgiving for 20 years. She made them with her mother and sister as a child, and says setting the table with her mother has been a recurring part of the holiday. For her mother, seeing the decorations brings back memories of making them and of the celebrations that followed.
Her mother’s advice extends beyond one family heirloom. Dangel says she would ask out-of-town guests to bring a decorative item for the table, rather than only contributing food, or ask them about traditions they would like to share. The idea is to give guests a role in shaping the celebration and make the gathering feel like theirs as well.
A welcoming table starts with personal traditions
For her first Thanksgiving as host in New York, Emma Dangel asked her mother for advice. The answer was a family decoration, not a menu or a polished tablescape.
A familiar tradition
The handmade napkin rings connect a new gathering with celebrations at home.
Paper turkey napkin rings
Dangel made them with her mother and sister as a child. Their meaning comes from the memories attached to them.
Thanksgiving in New York
Dangel plans to ask her mother to bring the decorations to her first time hosting.
Give guests a way to contribute
A host can invite visitors to help the table feel like theirs, too.
Bring out an object or ritual that carries family memories.
Ask out-of-town guests about a decoration or tradition they would like to bring.
The table can tell a family story
- Polished tableware
- An impressive meal
- Handmade family decorations
- Traditions shared by guests
Traditions Can Make a New Table Feel Familiar
Dangel’s account offers practical advice for people hosting a holiday in a new home, city or family arrangement: familiar objects and shared rituals can carry meaning that a carefully coordinated table cannot supply on its own. The paper turkeys are worn and, beside fine china and silverware, may look out of place. Dangel says their value comes from the memories attached to them.
Inviting guests to contribute a decoration or share a custom can also make hosting more collaborative. Instead of treating visitors only as recipients of a meal, the host can give them a way to bring part of their own history into the room. That can be especially useful when people are gathering away from the home where they usually celebrate. Dangel’s piece presents this as personal advice, not a guarantee that one gesture will resolve every challenge of hosting.
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A First Thanksgiving as Host
Dangel says her mother has hosted the family’s Thanksgiving at home every year since Dangel was born. This year, Dangel is preparing to host for the first time, with the celebration taking place in New York. She wanted the gathering to feel recognizably like Thanksgiving rather than an ordinary family visit, prompting her to ask her mother what she would do in her position.
The family’s paper turkey napkin rings are the specific tradition at the center of the advice. Dangel says she and her mother and sister made them during her childhood, and the decorations have been used at each family Thanksgiving for two decades. She plans to ask her mother to bring them to the upcoming celebration.
The account is a first-person home and holiday feature by Dangel for Apartment Therapy. It describes her family’s experience and her mother’s recommendation; it does not report a broader survey or research into holiday hosting.
“I expected her advice to center around the menu or the tablescape, but my mom’s response surprised me: The answer, she said, lies in the napkin rings.”
— Emma Dangel, Apartment Therapy Style Editor
Details of the Gathering Remain Open
Dangel’s account does not specify the date of the planned dinner, how many guests will attend, or which traditions visitors may bring. It also does not say whether guests have already been asked to contribute decorations, or whether the paper turkeys have been packed for the trip. The advice is framed as a family’s approach to hosting, not as a universal rule or a tested measure of what makes a holiday gathering successful.
The Turkeys Head to New York
Dangel says she plans to ask her mother to pack the family’s paper turkey napkin rings for the Thanksgiving gathering. She may also invite out-of-town guests to bring a decorative item or share a favorite tradition. Her account leaves the eventual menu, table setup and guests’ contributions undecided; the next step described is bringing the family decoration into a new hosting setting.
For readers planning their own holiday, the concrete takeaway is to identify one object or ritual that carries meaning and make room for guests to contribute, if they wish. Dangel’s story suggests that a table can reflect the people gathered around it without requiring every detail to match a formal design.
Source: rss
Key Questions
What Thanksgiving hosting advice did Emma Dangel’s mother give?
She suggested bringing out the family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings, which Dangel and her mother and sister made during Dangel’s childhood.
How long has the family used the paper turkey napkin rings?
Dangel says the decorations have appeared at every family Thanksgiving for 20 years.
What does Dangel suggest asking guests to bring?
She says a host could ask guests to bring a decorative item for the table, as well as invite them to share a favorite holiday tradition. The suggestion is separate from asking someone to bring food.
Why does Dangel say the decorations matter?
They remind her family of making them together and of the Thanksgiving gatherings where they have been used. Dangel says their sentimental value matters more than whether they match the tableware.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
