Your Guide To The Ultimate Friendsgiving Party
One fantastic way to spend the holidays is to have a Friendsgiving party. There’s nothing better than surrounding yourself with your best friends and a plethora of delicious food. In order to make your party as enjoyable as possible, you probably want to consider decor, appetizers, amazing entrees, decadent desserts, and even festive cocktails. Remember that Friendsgiving is a group effort, and you definitely don’t have to do everything by yourself, especially if you’re the one who’s hosting. To make sure your party goes as smoothly as possible, check out the tips below!
Make sure to decorate!
You don’t have to deck out your place in a colorful explosion of festivity, but it’s worthwhile to clean the area your friends will be in, add any small decorations that you have, and create the ambience you’re going for. Doing simple things like lighting candles, placing decorative pumpkins around your space, and playing relaxing music in the background will all help transform the atmosphere of your party.
Even though decorations can be super fun, don’t stress yourself out too much if you don’t have the time, means, or motivation to fully decorate your place. Thanksgiving is more about the people you’re with and the food you’re eating than the way your dining area looks. If you have the time, decorating can be super fun, but if there’s no time, don’t worry.
Spice things up with some Thanksgiving-themed cocktails.
One sure-fire way to make your Friendsgiving party more enjoyable is to add alcohol. That goes for a lot of events, honestly. If you don’t know how to make Thanksgiving-themed cocktails, don’t worry, because there are tons of unique ideas that you can find online. Some incredible cocktail ideas include spiked apple cider, cranberry margaritas, apple cider mimosas, pumpkin pie martinis, Brandy Alexanders, and cranberry moscow mules. There are all sorts of festive cocktails to be found online, and it might be fun to experiment with drink combinations on your own, too. You and your friends might end up finding a new favorite!
If you want to make things even more interesting, play some drinking games! Today, drinking games are way more fun than ever before, because there are all sorts of hilarious versions that you can buy online for relatively cheap prices. If you don’t have a game of your own, ask your group chat if anyone can bring a game of their own.
Have appetizers ready early.
As soon as your friends arrive, they’ll probably be ready to snack. If you want to truly satisfy your guests, have some appetizers ready for when people start to arrive. There are all sorts of Thanksgiving-themed appetizer ideas and recipes online, and you’ll easily be able to find recipes to suit your needs. Keep in mind which guests you’ll be hosting, and that way you’ll be able to plan ahead and appeal to everyone’s dietary needs and preferences.
Some foolproof Thanksgiving appetizers include chips and dip, cheese and crackers, vegetable platters, deviled eggs, meatballs, and more! Your appetizers can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. If you’re the host, you might want to stick with simple appetizers, or you might ask people to bring small starters of their own. Either way, don’t stress yourself — appetizers definitely aren’t the main attraction of the Thanksgiving meal, and as long as you have something, you’ll be totally fine.
Consider designating dishes to each of your friends.
Your Friendsgiving party will be so much easier if you aren’t the only one doing the cooking. Assuming you’re the one hosting this party, it’s definitely a good (and fair) idea to consider asking people to bring side dishes and desserts. That way, you won’t have to worry about being the only one responsible for the appetizers, side dishes, main course(s), desserts, and drinks. As the host, you’re more than likely going to be the one cooking the turkey, but if you play your cards right, this could be one of your only tasks. Divvying up the cooking is a great way to make your party more of a group effort!
When you’re deciding what your menu will hold, keep in mind any important diets that your friends might have. For instance, if any of your friends are vegetarian or vegan, it’s important to come up with an alternative entree for them that doesn’t include turkey. Believe it or not, there are tons of vegan Thanksgiving entrees that can be found online. That way, you’ll have a dinner that appeals to everyone.
Check out the graphic below to get a better sense of what you’ll need based off of how many guests you’re expecting. Among your guests, you’ll probably want to make sure you have the major Thanksgiving side dishes covered: stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, vegetables, cornbread or biscuits, and several desserts, of course.
Don’t skip out on dessert.
Dessert is arguably one of the most important parts of any Friendsgiving party. Once again, it’s not a bad idea to ask your guests to bring the desserts. There are all sorts of decadent and festive desserts to compliment any Thanksgiving meal, such as pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan cheesecake, tiramisu, snickerdoodles, and so much more. If you leave the desserts up to your guests, you’re bound to end up with a wide variety of sweets. You really can’t go wrong when it comes to holiday desserts, and an unholy amount of sugar is the perfect way to finish off your festivities. Once again, it’s worthwhile to try to be mindful of the dietary restrictions and allergies of your guests.
