Great Service Series: Holidays The Season of Service
The weather is turning colder here. Colorful displays are beginning to be seen in local stores. The holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. And this year, in a calendar oddity, the three holidays celebrated in December will overlap, bringing lots of opportunity for creativity and celebration. As the weather gets colder outside, we particularly enjoy the personal warmth of service professionals.
In the spirit of the holidays, here is a question heard recently from two esteemed restaurateurs: In this era of political correctness, is it appropriate to “deck the halls” of a restaurant in holiday style?
Let me answer with one word: absolutely! What brings diners to a restaurant is the food, the service and the ambiance. The holidays are a time to excel at all three. People enjoy parties. We love to celebrate and want to feel welcome and recognized. Festively decking your halls can help bring diners to you to share in the holiday spirit. But what of those customers who celebrate a different holiday from you? Would they not be offended by your decorations? No! Celebration of one holiday does not mean that you are profaning another. If, however, you know that you have customers who celebrate other holidays, why not make them feel welcome by recognizing their holiday in some small way? Here are a few hospitality ideas for the holiday season.
Thanksgiving this year will be on November 24. At the first Thanksgiving, they dined with spoons, knives and their fingers – no forks. They had cranberries, but sugar had not yet come to the new world, so there was no cranberry sauce. In addition to wild turkey, they might have enjoyed venison, shad, herring, sea bass or even eel, though potatoes, yams and apples had not yet made it across the ocean. To make things family friendly, have a “children’s buffet” on a small table no more than two feet high. Adult holiday drinks might include mulled cider or wine, peppermint hot chocolate, white chocolate hot cocoa, cranberry bog cocktail, brandy milk punch or cranberry hot toddies. The traditional symbol of the holiday is the cornucopia (horn of plenty).
Christmas, December 25, one of the most important of all Christian holidays, is the celebration of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Symbols include references to the manger scene of the birth, angels, decorated trees and cultural icons such as Santa Claus. Parties and celebrations may include Christmas Eve, Christmas Brunch, and a special Christmas Tea. A fun idea is to have gingerbread houses for decorating, and bits of icing or raisins that children can use to decorate gingerbread people. Adult drinks include wassail and eggnog.
Hanukkah, an eight day Jewish festival called the “Festival of Lights”, begins this year at sundown on December 25. It celebrates a 2000 year-old miracle that turned one day’s worth of candle oil into eight days of light. The symbols include a 9-candle menorah (candleholder) and a four-sided spinning top called a dreidel. Foods include latkes (fried potato pancakes), blintzes, jelly doughnuts and apple or zucchini fritters.
Kwanzaa, which runs from December 26 to January 1, is an African American celebration that began in 1966. The name means “first fruits of the harvest” in the Kiswahili language. Each day of the observance represents one of seven guiding principles. Symbols include the Kinara (seven branched candleholder – candles include one black, three red and three green), Mkeka (straw placemat), and a Unity cup. Food ideas include wild green gumbo, spiced baked ham, seafood okra gumbo, buttermilk fried chicken, collard greens, sweet potato biscuits, pecan pie and red velvet cake.
In all your celebrations, have a happy holiday season, and I hope that 2006 will be your best year yet. Until next time, I remain at your service.
Wendy
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