I was at my dad’s house the day after Christmas. Actually, it was me, my dad, my dad’s wife, my brother, my grandfather, my aunt, uncle and their two children. 9 people. My dad’s house’s dining room can sit 12 people, yet when it was time to eat dinner, we sat 4 at the kitchen’s table and the other 5 at the counter. I suggested that we eat in the dining room, the next room over from the kitchen, and he just shruged and said it was easier this way.
The only time I have EVER seen the dining room used was on Thanksgiving, and even then we only had 4 people. Thinking back, in the last house we lived in pretty much the only time we ever ate in the dining room was on holidays, although I usually ate in there when I made my own meals.
Does your house have a Thanksgiving room, and if so, why? Is it really that difficult to carry your food an extra 15 feet so that everybody can eat together at one table?
Nope. I live alone, so most of the time I use the table in the dining room (which is between the living room and the kitchen) for piling stuff I’m gonna deal with at some point – but if I have even a single guest for dinner, that’s where we eat, even if it’s just a take-out pizza. (Breakfast or lunch with guests is served in the kitchen.) The table seats 8 people comfortably; if I have up to 12 I can squish them in by adding a card table to one end; if it’s more than 12 we do a buffet.
I’ve had a couple of houses with dining rooms, and they rarely get used. The first house was like the OP talked about - a separate room off the kitchen with a big table in it. I used it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and on occasion when I had guests over. I can’t think of ever using it for a meal with only Mr. Athena and I, and we like formal dinners. We just like 'em at a smaller table more.
The second house had a teeny tiny kitchen with openings to a dining room and the living room. We used the dining room marginally more, as it was the only place that more than two people could sit. Still, when it was just Mr. Athena and I, we ate in the living room most often.
When we bought our current house, we consciously went with a great room rather than a dining room, since we realized we never used 'em. So now we have a huge room that encompasses the living room, dining area, and the kitchen. The dining room table is closer to the kitchen than the couch is. We either eat at the counter in the kitchen or sitting on the couch. I guess we just don’t like tables
When I was looking for houses I very specifically didn’t want a “Thanksgiving room” - I couldn’t afford a really big house and I didn’t want space I don’t use, like my parents do. They haven’t used their dining room at all since they added onto their living room and put a bigger table in there. They might as well shut the front end of the house up - parlor and dining room. Ihave a dining room, but it’s in the middle of the house, there’s no eat in kitchen, and I eat all my meals at the dining room table.
We have a small house (about 1,000 square feet), and the dining room is as big as the living room, and bigger than the kitchen. We eat dinner in the dining room every night, don’t even have seating space in the kitchen. If I’m here all by myself, which isn’t very often, I’ll eat at the 'puter. But since that’s in the dining room, too, I’m still eating in the dining room!
