Teaching proper manners

What’s the proper way to eat a Christmas cookie? Should you take dainty bites and risk frosting on your lips or shove the entire cookie in your mouth and try to chew with your mouth closed?

Local children will discover the answer to these questions – and more at two Holiday Etiquette classes offered this weekend.

Monica Brandner, etiquette instructor and president of IMAGE by m. brandner, says that good manners are building blocks for lifelong success.

“I build a foundation of kindness and respect,” she said of her classes.

Understanding proper etiquette is even more important during the holidays when children are often thrust into new social settings.

Karen Hughes’ 6-year-old twins, Adam and Avery, recently took one of Brandner’s classes. “I think it’s worth having some etiquette instruction to make sure they know how to behave and feel comfortable in all sorts of situations,” she said. “The boys now remind the rest of the family to keep elbows off the table.”

Brander says the classes are a great confidence builder for kids. The Holiday Party Etiquette class will cover topics like meeting and greeting guests, how to give and receive a gift, and how to write a thank-you note.

The Holiday Etiquette and Dining class includes a three-course meal, which will tackle the pesky question of which fork to use, as well as teach children how to present a toast.

Brandner says proper etiquette skills equip children to go further in life. “We miss opportunities and open doors because of our lack of social skills,” she said.

She cites a Harvard study that states 85 percent of a person’s success in life will be based on social skills, while only 15 percent is based on technical- or knowledge-related skills.

That is exactly why Erin Jones, an instructional coach at Rogers High School, has enrolled her three children, ages 9 to 11, in the Holiday Etiquette Class. “We are an African American family,” she said. “That’s important because whether it’s fair or not, the rules of this country are formed by middle class and wealthy white Americans. If my kids can learn how to operate those rules, the world is their oyster.”

But twins Adam and Avery Hughes had a more pressing question when their mom told them she’d signed them up for a holiday etiquette class. “Will there be a snack?” they asked.

When they heard about the Christmas cookies, they were ready to go.