Miss Manners: Can I plan ahead for leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner with my daughter’s in-laws?

[ermingarden]

Dear Miss Manners: I'm invited to Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws of my daughter. Is it rude to take my own to-go container to bring home leftovers?

And a burlap bag in which to take home the silverware when they are finished using it?

Comments

[ambyr]

I come from a tradition where the expectation is absolutely that every guest will leave with at least a couple meals worth of leftovers (not doing so would be seen as the same level of faux pas as sending people home hungry). . . but the expectation is also that the host will supply all the containers, so I still come down on the side that bringing your container is odd.

[mommy]

That's roughly the same tradition that I grew up with. We'll gladly give guests food to take home, but they're getting our containers.

[fred_mouse]

I come from a similar tradition, which meant that I ended up taking a plastic bag on potato salad on a cross-continent train trip. I imagine, that were my grandmother still with us, that bringing your own container would be counted as a sign of love. But then, their attitude in catering was that if there was less than half of the provided food left at the end of the gathering, you had under catered, so take from that what you will.