How old were you before you were asked to sit at the "big table" to eat Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner?

I don’t ever remember sitting at a separate table. There was only ever five of us, and we always sat together.

When I finally done gradiated 6th grade a became me a brain surjin!

We always had one big table at home. My grandmother’s house had two tables pushed together, and I’m almost 30 and I still sit at the “kid” end. Then again, my 35 year old cousins do, too.

I remember sitting in the den watching TV with my brother and eating our dinner on stack tables. Uncle George and Aunt Lola, and Uncle Jack and Aunt Clara made 6 at the dining room table. When Uncle George and Aunt Lola stopped coming, my brother and I moved to the diner room table. 8, 9 years old?
I wonder why they stopped coming . Hmmm. That’s a mystery that will never be answered as all parties are gone now.

Worriedguy, your mystery may never be solved. Do families still get together for a big holiday dinner? Since my parents passed away, it seems like everything just went to crap. Now, it’s the Cracker Barrel for us.

I had nieces and nephews a few years younger than me. The card table didn’t come out until they came along and they tried to push me DOWN to the card table. This little 6 year old threw a few fits!

We never had more than one table for holiday meals. Our family was so small, it would have been silly. Just my mom and dad, my brother, my grandma, and me. Five people, so no need for a kid table when we all easily fit around one table.

Holiday meals with my husband’s family sometimes involves a kids’ table. It depends on who is hosting and how much room they have in the dining room. If there’s space, the kids sit with the adults. If not, they’ll sit at their own smaller table in the kitchen or family room. My daughter is the oldest “kid” (two of her cousins aren’t far behind though) at age 12 and she still sits with the kids. So far none of them have expressed any interest in sitting with us boring old grownups.

My daughter and her husband have talked about the difference they had in attitude towards a “kids” table. He loved it. He thought the grown ups were boring, while my daughter was insulted. Just shows, change your attitude, change tour experience.

Our family spent both holidays at the grandparents’ house in another state. Everyone was there for Thanksgiving, which meant the nine grandchilren, and it required a card table in the sun room off of the dining room.
At Christmas, an aunt and uncle and their four children stayed home, so there was enough room at the big table for all of us. Being left-handed, I would be given a seat at one end with a bird’s eye view of the dish cabinet, which housed an ecclectic salt & pepper shaker collection.

Because there wasn’t a ‘gradulation’ to the big table, it wasn’t that much of a deal for me. In fact, it was more fun to sit in a separate room with my cousins.

I loved being at the kid’s table. The adults were always preoccupied by their conversations and food, so we had a good time of our own. I graduated to the adult table when we ran out of room at the kid’s table and I was the oldest at the kid’s table. I don’t remember how old I was when that happened.

I think we only ate a kids’ table once or twice, and those times were at someone else’s house.

I enjoyed it because the other parents’ kids were nice and it was an adult-free environment. For me this meant no annoying reminders about my table manners, nor any of that other bourgeios BS. ;-p

I’m eighteen, my sisters are 22 and our cousins around our ages are all still stuck at the “kid” table. Some things will never change.

I keep hoping…

I was never at a children’s table because we never had a crowd that wouldn’t fit around the table we had. In my own family, we’d put another table across the bottom on the dining table In a T formation) when the group size grew. I think it’s a somewhat similar situation when there is a party and there are several tables. One always seems to be having a better time than the others, bursting into laughter and laughing harder than the others. I always wonder what I’m missing (unless it’s my table that’s being raucous).

We didn’t have a kids table until my older siblings had nieces and nephews. I was relegated at the age of 30 when my whole family became to large for one table. 25 years later in my late fifties I still haven’t made it on a regular basis.

There weren’t separate tables but one big one with two leaves to be inserted if needed. In our family, we were pretty physically distanced from most relatives so we would have friends come to our home or a few years travel to someone else’s home.

That’s funny! I sat at a card table for Thanksgiving for YEARS. It was just because there were way too many of us. I don’t remember what year it was that I sat at the table, maybe after my Uncle Chuck got married and moved away. Either way, it was great! Thanks for the memory!

We all sat at the same table unless my cousins came round. Then there were too many of us so the kids were relegated to the card table. It was fun.

When I was growing up, there were so many Aunts, Uncles, and ever increasing number of cousins, we ate buffet style, and everyone sat where ever they could find, mostly in folding chairs. My Grandma & Grandpa had five sons, with their five wives, and three or four children each, it was a real crowd.

All the Uncles lived within walking distance of us, and most of the meals were at our house. We got together nearly every Sunday. I was around 16, when a family diaspora took place, due to employment changes.

There were so many relatives at our holiday dinners, I hardly remember even eating.:D

Seriously, I think I was about 11 or 12 and still eating at the card table. To me those were the fun days…sitting amongst the grown-ups was a bit to stiffling.
Like @EmptyNest, Thanks for the memory!

@john65pennington Yep all parties involved have taken the secret to the grave. The dining room table was only big enough to hold 6 people. When Uncle George and Aunt Lola stopped coming there was room for my brother and me. Hey, maybe they started their own tradition. I’ll never know.
This was a fun question.

@Brian1946

“I think we only ate a kids’ table once or twice….”

Are you and your wife goats or termites? ;-)

”...bourgeios….”

It’s spelled bourgeois. Perhaps you should stick to simpler words in your own language.

Always say as one with the family. There was no kids table and still is not. It just keeps adding more table leaves

@Brian1946 A note to @Brian1946. You so funny.:DDD
How did that kids’ table taste? Was it chocolate or marshmello coated??...

When my family gets together for Thanksgiving, it means a minimum of 20 people. We always had a kids’ table for space-related reasons. The trouble was, growing up didn’t mean there were any fewer people around. When I was around 15, though, my family started rotating seats. That is, the kids’ table stopped being a kids’ table and became merely an overflow table. These days, it all depends on who gets to which table first and who wants to sit with who.

The big table gave me an Old Spice contact buzz. <shiver>

I still sit at the kids table :P

Thanksgiving comes with tables??

We didn’t have a separate table for children. I thought it was th eoddest thing the first time I experienced it at a friends house. I guess some of it maybe has to do with how big the family is? Although, I go to many holiday parties where everyone cannot fit at one table, and the kids are not separated from the adults. I don’t really understand why people do it. Dinner is a time for everyone to be together, for children to hear the adults, what they talk about, how they discuss various topics, how to behave at a table with many people. Before and after dinner the kids can play football, or computer games, or watch TV.