Ina Garten's Hosting Tip We'll Be Implementing For A Less Chaotic Christmas

As fun as Christmas is, it's also incredibly stressful — especially if you're the type to host dinner parties. Between all the shopping, scheduling, meal-planning, cooking, and decorating, it's the season for absolute chaos. Any tips that make your next dinner party near-perfect will definitely be appreciated, and with the hecticness of the holidays in full swing, more really is merrier. And when those tips come from the Barefoot Contessa herself, you can be sure that they'll make your Christmas dinners a lot easier to handle.

One particularly ingenious hosting tip from Ina Garten comes by way of Instagram. In 2022, Garten shared a picture from one of her summer dinner parties, and one detail about her table setting stood out both for its simplicity and practicality: numbered dinner plates. Each plate on the table had a number elegantly written out in calligraphy as part of its design, which is incredibly helpful when it comes to seating assignments. Instead of dealing with the clutter of individually printed place cards that your guests will have to move to the side when dining, it makes all the sense in the world to have their assigned places on the plates themselves.

Ina Garten's numbered dinner plates have uses well beyond seat assignments, especially during the holidays. Rather than assigning each guest a number, for example, you can instead ask them to pick one, with each number coming with a corresponding mystery gift. You can also use the numbers to facilitate dinner games and conversation-starter questions; since Garten's specific plates are conveniently numbered one to six, you can even roll a six-sided die to randomize everything.

If you're hosting a lot of people and decide that buffet-style catering is the best choice for your big event, the numbers can help your guests keep track of which plate is theirs. On the flip side, serviced dinner parties can use the numbered plates to help servers keep track of who gets what dish. Getting dietary restrictions wrong is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when planning a dinner party, after all, so anything that allows you to avoid that awkward situation is a huge help.

Lastly, having numbers on your plates can also just help you organize your dishes. You can have each number correspond to a course, low-key letting your guests know what to expect. You can also use them to organize a variety of dishes for the same course; if you're laying out six appetizers from Trader Joe's for your holiday hosting, you can assign a number to each and immediately identify which ones need replenishing throughout the night.

The exact plates that Ina Garten uses are all handmade by porcelain artist Melissa Goldstein, and are available on her website alongside a lot of other beautiful works. There's a bit of a catch if you want them, though: A set of six will set you back $1,320, while a single plate goes for $220. They appear to be a favorite of Garten's, however, so much so that you can spot them in her other posts three years apart. Given their quality, handmade uniqueness and apparent durability, it appears they're well worth the money.

If budget is a constraint, however, you can always look for cheaper alternatives elsewhere, or have them custom-made at stores offering print-to-order plates. You can also go with a set of different colors and textures instead of numbers, making sure to follow a few good tips for mixing and matching plateware. If you're going the color route this Christmas, it'll also help to know Ina Garten's simple pro tip for creating a beautiful table setting using different hues.