TL;DR
Apartment Therapy style editor Emma Dangel is hosting Thanksgiving for her family in New York for the first time. Her mother’s unexpected advice was to make the celebration feel like home with the family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings—and to invite guests to share meaningful traditions of their own.
Apartment Therapy style editor Emma Dangel says her mother’s advice for hosting the family’s first Thanksgiving in New York was not to focus on the menu or table settings, but to bring out the family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings. The decorations, made by Dangel, her mother and sister when Dangel was a child, have appeared at family Thanksgiving dinners for about 20 years.
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Dangel writes that she is hosting her family for Thanksgiving for the first time. Her mother had hosted the holiday at the family home every year since Dangel was born, and Dangel describes her as both a skilled cook and an experienced host. With this year’s celebration in New York, Dangel wanted the gathering to feel recognizably like Thanksgiving rather than an ordinary family visit.
She called her mother to ask how she could recreate the holiday’s familiar, welcoming atmosphere. Dangel expected recommendations about food or the tablescape. Instead, her mother pointed her toward the paper turkeys the family made together when Dangel was young. The rings are worn and whimsical, with googly eyes and paper feathers, but they carry memories of making them and of the family gatherings where they have since been used.
Dangel’s mother also suggested asking guests to bring something personal for the table—not necessarily a prepared dish—or to talk about traditions they would like to share. Dangel says she plans to ask her mother to bring the turkey rings to the New York gathering. The article presents this as personal advice from one family’s experience, not as a formal hosting guide or a report about broader holiday trends.
A familiar holiday in a new home
Hosting Thanksgiving in New York for the first time, Emma Dangel turns to a family keepsake and invites guests to bring traditions of their own.
A keepsake makes it feel like home
The handmade paper turkeys connect a new gathering with years of family Thanksgivings.
Made together
Dangel, her mother and sister made the whimsical napkin rings when she was a child.
Bring the tradition
Dangel plans to ask her mother to bring the rings to Thanksgiving in New York.
Make the table shared
Her mother suggested inviting guests to contribute something personal, whether or not it is food.
Guests can add an item that makes the table feel like theirs.
Guests can talk about a custom they would like to bring to the gathering.
What’s known so far
The article describes preparations, not the dinner’s outcome.
- Ask her mother to bring the turkey rings
- Invite guests to share something personal
- Guest count or menu
- Whether guests will contribute
- How the gathering went
Keepsakes Give a New Gathering Familiarity
The advice addresses a common practical challenge of hosting a holiday in a new place: how to make the celebration feel connected to past gatherings without trying to reproduce every detail. In Dangel’s account, a small, recognizable object helps bridge that gap. The turkey rings are not expensive or polished decorations; their value comes from the memories attached to them and the repeated role they have played at family dinners.
Her mother’s suggestion to include guests’ traditions also gives visitors a way to take part in shaping the occasion. Asking someone to contribute a meaningful object or custom can make a new host’s table feel more shared, rather than presenting guests with a finished celebration they had no hand in creating. That is Dangel’s interpretation of her mother’s advice, rather than a claim that the approach will work the same way for every family.
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Twenty Years Around the Family Table
Dangel describes a longstanding family routine: she and her mother set the Thanksgiving table together, and the paper turkey rings have been part of the dinner for roughly two decades. The decorations began as a childhood craft made by Dangel, her mother and her sister. Their continued use gives the objects a history that a newly purchased centerpiece would not share.
The change this year is that Dangel, rather than her mother, is taking the lead on hosting, and the gathering is taking place in New York. The article does not specify the family’s full travel arrangements, guest list or menu. Its focus is narrower: Dangel’s effort to carry one family tradition into a new hosting situation, and her mother’s recommendation to make space for traditions brought by other guests.
“I want it to still feel like Thanksgiving — not just any ol’ family visit.”
— Emma Dangel, Apartment Therapy style editor
Details of the New York Dinner
Dangel’s article does not provide the date of the gathering, the number of guests, the menu or whether relatives will bring decorations or share other traditions. It also does not say whether the paper turkey rings have been packed or set out yet; Dangel writes that she plans to ask her mother to bring them. The account is a personal essay about one family’s preparations, not evidence that every guest will want to contribute an object or custom.
The Turkeys Join a New Table
Dangel says she will ask her mother to pack the family’s turkey napkin rings for the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration in New York. She may also invite out-of-town guests to bring a decorative item or share a favorite tradition. The article does not report how the dinner went, whether guests took up the invitation or what traditions they brought.
Key Questions
What was the Thanksgiving hosting advice?
Dangel’s mother recommended using the family’s handmade paper turkey napkin rings, rather than making the menu or a formal tablescape the main focus.
Who made the turkey napkin rings?
Dangel says she made the paper decorations with her mother and sister when she was a child. The family has used them at Thanksgiving dinners for about 20 years.
What did Dangel’s mother suggest guests bring?
She suggested inviting guests to bring something decorative for the table or to share a favorite tradition. The contribution need not be a prepared dish.
Has the New York Thanksgiving dinner taken place?
The article describes preparations ahead of the gathering. Dangel says she plans to ask her mother to bring the napkin rings, but it does not report the dinner’s outcome.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
