Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Ignite Your Dinner Party: Tabletopics Conversation


Pottery Barn’s fall catalogue came in the mail yesterday. It immediately made me want to throw a dinner party. It was the vision of warm, autumnal light playing over the table -- highlighting the pumpkins and ceramic gourds -- that did it. I could just envision the fun and festive environment. The peals of laughter from dinner party guests. Only here’s the thing: tablescapes are great, but they alone do not make a dinner fun or festive. Here’s what does: “Tabletopics: Questions To Start Great Conversations”.
The set contains dozens of conversation starters like “What’s your favorite place to vacation and why?” or “What would you most like to know about the future?” There are  different “Tabletopics” editions so you can get a pack tailored for kids, family gatherings, dinner party, wedding shower etc.  

We have the family set, and it’s enlivened many a dinner. You pass the cube around the table, and each person answers the questions that are called out. The results prompt much better conversation than talk about the weather.

One time the game even prompted tears at our house. They were tears of laughter, from both sets of grandparents, me and the 10 year old, after hearing our 6 year old’s response to the question “What is your favorite poem?”

She recited the poem verbatim. It was impressive on a number of levels.
1)    that the youngest person at the table had memorized a whole poem.

2)   that the poem turned her father speechless and bright red.

3)   that a poem about a highly inappropriate dinner topic (a certain someone’s, ahem, bathroom habits) could inject so much fun into a family dinner.  

I’m not going to reprint the poem here because my fella’s in Vegas this week, and I fear his wrath. It’s fine that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I want my guy to not stay in Vegas once his sales meeting is over because he’s mad. So use your imagination to envision what the poem was about. And use your credit card to get yourself a “Tabletopics” set.(Available on amazon.com for around $25.)

No comments:

Post a Comment