Anyone do quick family-only meals for the RH lunches?

amother

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:27 pm

we have big dinners with guests and tons of food (w all the simainim) that go on late. davening goes so late, and we want to get in a nap (we don't hold that you can't nap on RH). plus every shul we've ever been has had a nice kiddush spread before shofar blowing / mussaf, and people fill up there because they want the energy for mussaf and know lunch is super late.

we do very simple lunches with family only - just wash, challah and maybe something light like a chicken salad, and bench. is this normal?

oohlala

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:33 pm

Of course. We never entertained for rh growing up. Davening ended so late anyway and there was a seriousness to the yt that my parents found it surprising that anyone would entertain on rh. We will have company also only for an evening meal. The others will be small meals, just us.

amother

Cornsilk

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:38 pm

Yep. Lunches are family only unless we knew someone needed a meal (older single, elderly neighbor, kiruv... an actual need, not just to host friends).
Shul ends way too late plus every place ends at different times. Just way too complicated.

amother

Acacia

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:41 pm

We dont host rosh hashana too hard to coordinate with shul time. We still have a full yom tov meal. My menfold are famished by then. Tots can consider it dinner

Elfrida

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 12:21 am

We daven neitz, and there's no kiddush at shul. We get home around 12:00, having been in shul since soon after 5:00, and we're hungry. Guests are limited to people davening at the same shul, because of timing, but sometimes we have guests, and sometimes we don't. We do have a full meal, because by then we want it.

Because we are getting up early, we don't make tbe evening meals any longer than necessary.

This year, with a three day Yom Tov, second day lunch will be a fairly light meal, probably milchic. Well warn anyone who wants to come, but I doubt they'll mind.

amother

Bergamot

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 3:33 am

Yes, definitely. Apart from my children and parents in law, I don't really host on Rosh Hashanah. My plan for this year is to finish off leftovers from the night before for the first lunch. My reasoning is that leftovers tend not to improve with age so better to be done with them sooner rather than later. I do make sure to prepare things that will look and taste nice the next day. The second night we will have a completely different menu. The second lunch we will do bagels, cheeses, salad etc so that we will be ready for a regular Shabbos meal a few hours later.

imaima

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 4:07 am

amother OP wrote:

I think it’s normal when it works for you. If dinners are big, then lunches are small, it makes sense

amother

Azalea

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 5:25 am

We do the other way around.
We daven neitz, shul ends late, and we want to sleep.

I do night meals that are quick - all the simanim as the appitizer, soup and a main.

The lunches we do longer with guests ect.

But everyone does what works for them...

amother

Slateblue

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 7:00 am

We don't socialize on RH since we're supposed to use the day for tehillim. So to me it's a funny question.

amother

Impatiens

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 9:06 am

We almost never have guests on YT. Shuls get out at different times, you can never be sure when your own shul will get out, second night YT is insanely late, etc. I serve a regulation YT meal, but family only, or, at lunch, a guest/s who daven in our shul and goes home with us. Maybe a drop simpler when it's just family, in that I don't do multiple side dishes and multiple desserts, but still a full YT meal of fruit salad, soup, chicken or meat, a salad and a starch. Cake for dessert only if anyone wants.

amother

Tulip

Thu, Sep 26 2024, 8:40 pm

We really only had family for yontiff when I was growing up. My mother did invite some elderly people from the shul without family to join us so they wouldn’t be alone.

amother

Mulberry

Thu, Sep 26 2024, 8:45 pm

We don't eat before tekios, never heard of a shul kiddush on RH. We have guests by day, not by night. We tell them to just come whenever their shul ends and if we started already, they'll make kiddush and lechem Mishna and join us. Everyone around us ends within 30-45 mins of each other so it's not issue