Sitting at the table for more than an hour with that terrible family member? This is what you should do
An uncle who gets a bit too clingy during the gourmet dinner, that unbearable cousin who never stops chatting, or your brother's new lover whom you could just shoot. Do you have such a least favorite person at the Christmas dinner? Help is here.
If you celebrate Christmas with large groups, there’s always one: the person you do NOT want to sit next to at the table. It feels like a kind of musical chairs to ensure you end up on the cozy side of the table. Everyone dances around it, but at the starting signal ‘at the table’, everyone runs away from the clingy uncle or gossiping aunt.
Into the kitchen
Make sure you cut, chop, poach something, and especially do not irritate the Christmas cook, because this way you always have an escape from the table in between. The kitchen is your way out, even if you don’t like cooking at all. Of course, you have to make sure that the annoying person in question is not in the kitchen themselves, but that seems obvious.
Arrange the table
If you have a family that easily lets things be imposed on them, do a seating arrangement. Make artistic cards to ensure that the blood-irritating people annoy each other on the right, so you have a good time on the left. Is a seating arrangement not feasible? Then do a switch per course, so you never sit next to that unbearable family member for more than an hour.
Get a pet
It might be a bit drastic if you don’t have a pet, but a dog is the ace up your sleeve to escape a bad conversation. As soon as Fido spins around once, you exclaim that it’s an emergency and off you go. Suddenly needing to smoke was always rude but handy, but I don’t want to encourage anyone to start that (again). So let’s just stick to taking the dog out.
At your home
If Christmas is at your home, then you have all the favorable cards in hand. Your house, your party. No one dares to mess with your seating arrangement, you’re in the kitchen yourself, and there’s always a dog that needs to be walked. By the way, being at your parents' is also good, because then you get the benefits without the burdens. Read: you have a say, but not the dishes.
