Hosting

A small kitchen can feed a holiday table. It cannot do it if the oven and both burners are asked to finish at the same minute. Buy the things that cook while the oven is busy, then store without a second cabinet. The one that earns its counter space in January, not only on the 25th, is a 5 quart air fryer (on Amazon). The Ninja AF141 is a single basket with air fry, roast, reheat and dehydrate. The basket holds a tray of appetizers or a pan of vegetables while a roast has the oven. The machine is about 15 inches deep, 11 inches wide and 10 inches tall. If that spot on the counter is already a landing strip, it is the wrong appliance, however good the potatoes are. ...

A Christmas coffee bar is one corner of your kitchen set up for holiday drinks: mugs, syrups, a few toppings, and a little decoration. It’s handy all December, for slow weekend mornings, for guests, and for a cup of something before you wrap presents. You don’t need a big kitchen. One small section of counter or a cart is enough. Where to put it Pick a spot near the coffee maker or kettle, out of the main cooking area. If your counter is full, a three-tier rolling cart (on Amazon) works: machine on top, mugs and syrups in the middle, extras on the bottom. Roll it into the living room when friends come over. ...

When the dining table only seats four and there are nine of you, a sit-down Thanksgiving with every dish passed around isn’t going to work. A buffet does. Everyone fills a plate, finds a seat wherever there’s one (sofa, floor cushion, the arm of a chair), and the table is free for the food. The tricky part in a small apartment isn’t the food, it’s the traffic. Here’s how to set it up so people aren’t queuing through the kitchen while you’re trying to carve. ...

A small apartment is actually a good place for a holiday party. People stand closer, conversations overlap, and it feels busy with fewer guests. You just have to plan where people will stand, where the drinks go and where all the coats end up. How many people A rough guide: about one person for every 10 square feet of floor you can clear. A 300-square-foot living area that’s half furniture fits around 15 people standing, fewer if most of them want to sit. If you’re inviting more than that, plan for people in the kitchen too, because that’s where they’ll go anyway. ...

You don’t need a long farmhouse table and fourteen chairs. People remember the food, the company and whether they had somewhere comfortable to sit. Eight people around one table in a small apartment can feel more like a feast than a big formal dining room ever does. Here’s how to make it work, in five parts. 1. Choose the table Dinner happens wherever the biggest flat surface is. A 6-foot folding table (on Amazon). Seats six, or eight with one person at each end. Put a floor-length tablecloth over it and nobody will think about what’s underneath. The kitchen island. Stools on both sides seat four to six. Two tables pushed together. A desk or card table against the end of your regular table, with one long cloth over both, seats eight. Measure ahead of time. Each person needs about 24 inches along the edge of the table, and there needs to be about 36 inches behind the chairs so people can get up. A 6-foot table is 72 inches: three people per side, exactly. ...

Someone is staying over for Thanksgiving, and the spare room is currently storage with a bed in it. Think of it less as decorating and more as setting up a good hotel room: a handful of things that need to work. Go through this list in order and it takes about an hour. The bed Clean sheets. Strip everything, including the mattress protector, and make it up fresh. Not the sheets that are “probably fine.” Wash the pillowcases on hot, and if the pillows are completely flat, replace them; a new pillow is about the cheapest hospitality upgrade there is. ...