For many American Jews, Passover seder means one thing: tradition (cue music from Fiddler). We spend days in the kitchen making matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and brisket and serve it on wedding china. But it doesn’t need to be that way. One year, I invited friends over for an informal seder where we ate savory breakfast—fried matzo topped with roasted tomatoes and karpas-inspired chimichurri—for dinner around a crowded folding table in my old studio apartment. It was one of my favorite Passovers on record.
The springtime Jewish holiday meal is equal parts storytelling event and epic dinner party. There are so many ways to interpret the tradition so it’s meaningful to you and your guests, which also makes it a hosting dream. But no matter what your ideal seder looks like, hosting one can be a lot—if you don’t plan smartly.
The most important advice I can offer? Map. Out. Your. Menu. In addition to mains, sides, and desserts, your guests will thank you for preparing snacks—chopped liver, crudités, dried fruit, whatever you like to nosh on. You can serve them before seder even gets started to stave off everyone’s hunger, or put them out when you get to the “karpas page” of your Haggadah and we eat the first bites of the seder meal.
You don’t need to do all of the cooking yourself (I would argue you shouldn’t do it all yourself). Delegate desserts or sides to a handful of friends and family members, so there’s one less section of your menu to think about. If you're concerned about making sure that everything on the table is kosher for Passover, help out by recommending specific store-bought sweets or wine that fit with your level of observance. Or just ask them to bring flowers or show up an hour early to help with last-minute prep. Here’s everything else you’ll need.
Matzo and its accessories
Love it or hate it, matzo is essential for seder and all eight days, so stock up. Both Streit’s and Manischewitz sell one-, three-, and five-pound packages. Don’t worry about having extra—unopened boxes will last for months and cheesy matzo brei is really a year-round food anyways.
At seder, the matzo needs to be covered for part of the meal, which gives you a chance to add some art to your table with a graffiti-inspired cover or one that features the phases of the moon from the Jewish Museum Shop. If you are short on time for shipping, this simple floral one is available on Prime.
Seder plate style
The seder plate is a helpful guide to the evening, reminding us of many of the key parts of the Passover story. Customarily, there’s charoset to recall the mortar enslaved people used in ancient Egypt, karpas (typically parsley) to be dipped into salt water to remind us of their tears, maror (often horseradish) and hazeret (another bitter herb) to remind us of the bitterness of slavery, an egg to symbolize spring and rebirth, and a shank bone in honor of the Pesach offering.
Pick a seder plate that goes with the aesthetic of your table like a simple ceramic one that’s handmade in Brooklyn, or one with colorful food illustrations if you worry about forgetting something. If you like to adapt tradition and add other foods to your seder plate—like an orange in honor of the LBTQ+ Jewish community or olives as a symbol of a hope for peace—pick out one with simple plant illustrations or this gold pomegranate plate.
Add some new recipes to the rotation
The Passover menu in many families is fixed and if you dare to change things, you may be met with wrath (is family wrath/drama the 11th plague?). If this sounds like your clan, try adding a new recipe or two to your menu of staples. Trust us, no one will be sad about more varieties of charoset on the table.
Or, if you host more than one night, plan one seder menu that sticks with your family’s traditions and switch it up for the second. Cook Roman recipes for stracciatella (egg drop soup) and tomatoes stuffed with rice from Leah Koenig’s Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen. In The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long by Naama Shefi & the Jewish Food Society (full disclosure: written with me) you will find full menus for a Ukrainian-Mexican-New York seder, a modern Soviet-inspired one, and a recipe for Sephardic mina or layered matzo pie. And Micah Siva’s Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine has lots of plant-forward Passover options like herbed horseradish salad and vegan “gefilte” cakes made with potatoes and parsnips.
Set your table wisely—and early
Everything happens at the table during seder; you and your guests could be here for a while—if you’re into kitsch, make it comfortable with matzo-themed pillows to recline on. Set it a couple of days in advance, so there’s one less thing to worry about. I used to tease my dad for using this time to take out all of his serving plates and label what he would serve in each of them with scraps of paper, but the man knew what he was doing.
Start with your tablecloth: Seder can be a slightly messy affair (at one point, we’re instructed to dip our fingers into wine and remove several drops), so something dark or with a pattern is best and oilcloth is a good pick for a kid’s table.
Place cards with a spring design (or ones you can decorate) are helpful when you have a big group, especially if your youngest guests might need some help.
Passover is a wine-centric holiday. Pick out fun, affordable glasses sans stems to prevent toppling—if one breaks during the chaos of cleanup, it’s fine.
Add some light and sparkle
Lighting candles gets most Jewish holidays started. I like to use colorful ones that double as part of the dinner decor. Try teal spirals or striped acid yellow tapers in silver candleholders topped with jade rings or pale blue ones that look like large format rigatoni bent into interesting shapes.
Lean into store-bought desserts, really
For many millennial Jews (including my editor), certain store-bought desserts were the highlight of childhood Passovers—and the holiday remains incomplete without the nostalgic taste of Barton’s almond kisses, candy fruit slices, Joyva’s Jell Rings, and/or Manischewitz’s macaroons. Supplement them with fruit and a flourless chocolate cake, if you’re feeling ambitious. And if you’re going to a more secular seder, Compartés makes a very luxe chocolate covered matzo gift box.
Devra Ferst is a freelance food and travel writer and the coauthor of ‘The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long.’ She simply doesn’t understand people who prefer sweet matzo brei over savory versions.