olidays are meant to be spent with family and friends alike! Sometimes going home to spend the holiday’s is just impracticable in your given situation: money, travel, getting the proper time off of work to go do it, etc. Perhaps you may even have an estranged and strained relationship with your family, but that doesn’t mean you have to cope alone through the holidays.
Throw yourself a proper Friendsgiving to help share in the holiday spirit. Since Friendsgiving only really popped up around 2007 it’s still a relatively new way to spend Thanksgiving and it’s likely you might not have gone to one let alone host one. Have no fear, the beginners guide to Friendsgiving starts here. Below you’ll find the basics on hosting your holiday celebration.
Determine The Guest List
The guest list will dictate a lot of things: venue, how much food you’ll need, the proper amount of blankets that will probably be needed, how big of a kitchen will be cooked in. The answers to these will affect even more things like: do there need to be sitting arrangements, are there any dietary restrictions, will everyone be bringing a side, etc. So first send out some invites and some feelers for Friendsgiving. While some of your friends might have some firmed up plans, others might be able to come given enough notice so be conscious of your friend’s time and obligations when inviting them. Once your guest list is relatively set you can move onto the next steps.
Decide The Menu
Consider how much effort it takes to cook an entire Friendsgiving meal. The main course, the sides, desert, so on and so forth. This might be easier to do for a smaller number of people, but when the more is the merrier you should consider opening up to dishes being prepared by some of the guests. Try to organize by who is bringing what. You don’t want to end up with 5 different pumpkin pies and just the Turkey to eat; that would be a touch disastrous. Organize who wants to bring what, and then fill any needed gaps. For instance, no good dinner is complete without stuffing. If you aren’t normally in charge of the menu check out the list below. Although it is your Friendsgiving so get as creative and innovate as you want to.
- Turkey or ham
- Stuffing
- Mashed potatoes + Gravy
- Mac and cheese
- String bean casserole or any casserole for that matter.
- Cranberry Sauce
- Cornbread
- Candied Yams
- Pumpkin Pie
- Pecan Pie
Get decorations
What’s a party without decorations? Still a party, but it is not nearly festive. Besides Thanksgiving needs to step up the decoration expectations for a holiday wedged between Halloween and Christmas. A good centerpiece might be as simple as setting out pumpkins and gourds! They are on theme, pretty affordable, and mad cute! A good alternative to the tradition pumpkin and gords are knitted pumpkins! You won’t have to worry about them rotting and they will be good to go for next year. Another way to get into the Turkey Day spirit would be putting up a stylish banner. There are absolutely no banners just laying around as home decor-- it’s a part of what makes them so declarative that there is an event going on. Cute turkey decor is always welcomed as turkey is generally the star of most Friendsgiving meals. Candles are always a beautiful addition to any decorations that go up as well.
Plan some activities
You could probably get away without some games and go for the unstructured social hang out, but activities just make everything so much more fun! Besides there are lots of simple ways you can fill out your activity list.
Board Games
If you’re missing out on the traditional drama of Thanksgiving sometimes the right board game will bring a friendly competition into the mix, unless you’re playing Monopoly that tends to get heated, but is nonetheless a great game to play. Besides it’s almost a lock in you have a board game laying around if not one your friends probably does something like Scattergories, Clue, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, or Scene It will do.
Football
Watch it, play it or even do both. Football has to be the one of the biggest fall sports around. Consider turning the TV to ESPN and catch some game coverage. If your friends are up to it even try getting your own football to toss around in the yard!
Card Games
With a standard deck of playing cards there are a variety of games to play: War, Poker, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Egyptian Ratscrew, just to name a few. Plus there are few other classics that make for holiday favorites like Uno. There is nothing more satisfying than throwing down a draw four card or hitting just the right person with a reverse.
A-Z reasons to be thankful for
It’s as easy as it sounds. You and your guests go around in a circle and list things you are thankful for with the letters of the alphabet. The first person starts off with A then B then C and so on. Since you're the host here are cheats for some hard letters to knock out K- kids, knitting, kindness, and kittens. Q- quesadilla, queso dip, quills, and iconic rock-band Queen. V- victories, vanilla ice coffee, Vans, voting. X- Xiaosaurus (A really cool type of dinosaur), X-ray fish, and Xenops (a type of bird). Z- Zelda (if you're a Legends of Zelda fan), zest, xoos, and Zippos.
Turkey Leg Wrap
Split up into teams and see who can wrap up their teammate in burlap fastest to make them resemble a turkey leg. Points for fashion and functionality are optional. This game is simple, fun, and you get to see your friends wrapped up like turkey legs. The entertainment is all too real.
Thanksgiving Charades
Thanksgiving charades or Friendsgiving charades are great entertainment activities for your holiday party. Image courtesy of BirthdayPartyIdeas4Kids.
It’s like regular charades, but with a fun Thanksgiving twist. It’s a good and wholesome time. If you’re struggling with a few ideas that aren’t food related try these: family, gourds, friends, kindness, football, Macy’s Day Parade, fall, and November.
Watch some Thanksgiving movies + TV Episodes
If you feel like settling down or taking a break from some of the energy intensive things you’ve had planned try taking a good ol fashion movie break. Try watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving! This movie is classic holiday viewing packed with a certain level of nostalgia for many. Although if the movie seems too daunting try picking out Thanksgiving episodes of TV shows you watch. Bob’s Burgers has a great many Thanksgiving classic episodes if you’re looking for some family friendly hits.
Set the schedule
Plan for when guests should start showing up, pre dinner activities, post dinner activities, and what time this bad boy all wraps up. Everything should be flexible, but there is nothing wrong with having an outline on how you want the party to go. A good Friendsgiving is a planned Friendsgiving. Remember to plan yourself time for cleanup whether you do it the same night as the party or the day after make sure you have a reasonable amount of time to get cleaned up.
Prepare the Friendsgiving Toast
Just like in the movies and on television Friendsgivings should have a pre-meal toast. You can take this in a couple different directions. First things first, pick a theme. Do you want to be serious, funny, dramatic, or get ambitious and go with all of the above. That will help frame and get you through what you want your Friendsgiving message and meal to be all about! If being the only one to speak is a little daunting invite your guests to say a little something about the holiday and what it means to them. It’s fun, interactive, and will help take a little of the pressure off you.
Get supplies
This step may seem similar to getting decor, but not exactly. These are specified that are good to have at any party. For instance, paper plates, disposable silverware, lots of paper towels, napkins, and paper cups are great for when you have a lot of guests because it cuts down on the dishes you’ll have to wash later. Consider getting a first aid kit especially if you're playing football you never know when someone will get hurt. Get a speaker to play music on for your guests. A coat rack would be useful especially because November is a cold month. Make sure you have extra toilet paper and extra soaps for your guests. Perhaps consider getting some hand sanitizer. You’ll need extra garbage bags for all the disposables you’ll be throwing out. Even get things like extra seasonings like salt and pepper so guests don’t have to collectively wait for one item to get passed around. Don’t forget the ice and consider getting some ice tongs or ice scoop.
Enjoy
Now that it’s all planned out and everything is ready to go all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Isn’t that what all of this planning was for anyhow? Friendsgiving shouldn’t be stressful, it should be fun! Even though getting everything together may feel a little hectic in the end it should pan out to be a really enjoyable event. Just remember to mingle as the host! It helps keep the party going on a smooth track.
