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Hosting Friendsgiving Dinner

The Dos, Don'ts, And A Hostess's Tip To Planning Thanksgiving


In the last post, I talked about the other thing I did in October...and well, this is it. In typical fashion, I decided to host Friendsgiving this year, and while this post is six weeks late, American Thanksgiving is just around the corner so am I really late?


Here's my hostess guide to hosting the perfect Thanksgiving with friends.


thanksgiving turkey image


1


Have a backup location

....that is if you're anything like me and plan to host it outdoors.

Long story short, I went against my better judgment and hosted it in my backyard. Did I know it was going to be cold? Yes. Did I still go ahead? Yes. Because there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing. Well, turns out there is in fact bad weather, and it succeeded in chasing us in.


2

Outsource

One good thing about hosting Friendsgiving is that you can always make it a potluck. It cuts your budget down by half.

Draw up a Google doc. Ask everyone to submit what dish they can contribute so you don’t have multiple people bringing the same stuff.

If you don’t want to go potluck style, you can ask each guest to bring a bottle of wine, that’s also a chunk out of your budget.

Still on outsourcing, unless you really like to cook (and can cook!), I advise ordering your dishes. I ended up preparing some appetisers, and that’s as far as I’d advise in terms of doing any cooking.


tablescape featuring dessert satnd with assorted thanksgiving cupcakes


3

Create a schedule

When are you sending out invites? Reminders to RSVP? Do you have to place orders that might take a while to arrive? What time are you picking up the turkey? If you’re preparing it, do you have sufficient time to thaw it(I learnt last month you have to thaw your turkey for about 4-5 days in the fridge!). Have you ordered all the dishes on your list? If you’re cooking, when do you plan to do groceries, and then cook?

Note down ideas as they come, create a to-do list and assign dates to everything on the list. 

fall themed cake


4

Visualise your tablescape

This is my favourite part of hosting anything, and I cannot emphasise enough that Pinterest is your best friend. Before I even decide to host whatever, I’ve already saved some pins for inspiration.

Some people will advise that you do a mock table setup the day before, but I recommend sketching your table way in advance. You need to have a rough idea of what you want your table to look like because then you know exactly what you have to purchase.

Will I need an extra plant vase? Cake stand? How many decorative pumpkins? I play around with my sketch (decor placements, seating arrangement, table setting, etc) up till the day before.

TIP: I mentioned this in the Easter post but the dollar store has nearly everything you need for décor.


thanksgiving tablescape


5

Delegate

I’m Ms Can-Do-It-All, but this time I had to admit too many cooks do not always spoil the broth. I had some of my guests help me prepare the appetisers, another set helped pick up one of the catered dishes, my housemate helped me with the table setting (which was even easier cause she had a sketch to follow), and you’ll not believe I was just going to ask them to sit and relax while I finished up!

Take it from Miss Independent, sometimes you need to accept help, and hosting Thanksgiving is one of those times.

You can even assign a clean-up squad (not that I’ll take my own advice on that).



thanksgiving tablescape


6

Enjoy

For me, hosting anything is an excuse to get everyone together and have a good time. I want people to enjoy themselves enough to come back next time.

And the good thing about Thanksgiving is that the whole point is to be thankful, so even if it rains just as you set your table, so what? Wait it out and set that table again! And when it gets so cold that everyone is shivering? Well, better have a plan B!


full thanksgiving tablescape


 

 

So those are my Friendsgiving hosting tips. What are/were your Thanksgiving plans?



closeup view of guests standing around table

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