Thanksgiving is a great time to get together with your family to eat great food and reflect on your blessings. But what if you don’t live near family, or have a small family? After all we don’t choose our family but we can choose how family will impact our daily life. Friendsgiving is the answer. In fact, Friendsgiving is the answer to grow your network of social groups and connections. One of the best things you can do is host a Friendsgiving before or after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Planning A Friendsgiving Menu
If you love to cook, it’s amazing to invite everyone over for a home-cooked meal, but don’t feel like you have to do all of the cooking yourself. It’s perfectly fine to ask your guests to bring a dish.
Everyone can make their favorite family Thanksgiving recipe. It’s a good idea to ask what your guests are interested in bringing to make sure you don’t end up with six different versions of green bean casserole. You can also assign a general food category to each person (dessert, side dish, rolls, etc). It’s a good idea to assign the turkey to yourself so no one has to transport it.
If you know a lot of your friends are already going to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, you can skip the turkey and get creative with your Friendsgiving celebration.
Friendsgiving Celebration Ideas
Friendsgiving Brunch: The holiday season is so busy, try planning your party for early in the day. Invite your friends over for breakfast casseroles, bagels, pastries, and mimosas.
Friendsgiving Pizza & Game Night: Friendsgiving doesn’t have to be super fancy. Order a few pizzas (or make your own) and play cards or board games. A batch of brownies for dessert is a great way to top of your night.
Friendsgiving Pie Party: Instead of a whole dinner, have everyone bring their favorite pie, and you provide the drinks. You can even vote on your favorite pie at the end of the night.
Friendsgiving Cookie Exchange: This is a great idea if you are hosting your Friendsgiving the weekend after Thanksgiving. You can have everyone bring a plate of their favorite cookies along with recipes to share. You will be all set with delicious new cookies recipes to recreate for Christmas. Serve coffee and hot chocolate to pair with the cookies.
One Thanksgiving tradition I like to carry over to my Friendsgiving gathering is taking time to talk about thankfulness. You can either have each guest share one thing they are thankful for that year, or you can take a few moments to share something special for which you are thankful about each one of your guests. It’s a beautiful way to honor your friends.
What are you thankful for this year?
XOXO,
BLENDstyles