How to Plan a Friendsgiving Party
Katherine and I prepared for our most recent podcast by reflecting on what kind of Fall/Winter we want to have. I realized that I am craving community. I immediately started thinking about how to plan a Friendsgiving Party.
My preliminary research showed that there’s quite a range of what you can expect at a Friendsgiving Party. You could do traditional Thanksgiving foods, or you can shake it up entirely by doing something like breakfast for dinner or even just a potluck where you ask everyone to bring their favorite pizza. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
You know I’m all for casual community. I don’t want to feel stressed when I’m trying to bring friends together.
For my Friendsgiving Party, I decided to do a “Favorite Foods” potluck. I’m asking guests to bring their favorite foods. And that’s it!
We’re going to party in the backyard because of COVID. Hopefully it won’t be too cold or rainy!
Preliminary Planning Thoughts
We are going to ask people to set up the food inside the house to keep it safe from bugs (and because we will run out of table space). Then families can go inside one at a time to fill their plates when it’s dinner time.
We will probably have a small table outside for drinks and appetizers.
We will set up our dining room table plus folding tables out in the backyard for dinner. I think I will set up a separate area for kids.
I wonder what I should do for tablecloths? I’m thinking about really inexpensive burlap. Apparently you can wash and dry burlap. These plates could look really cute with burlap. And maybe tea candles and jelly jars with flowers and greenery all around the table?
I think I’d like to have the table all set, even though people will go through the food in a buffet style. So maybe I’ll make some rock name “cards” so everything stays in place.
As far as activities go, we will have:
- Corn hole
- Foosball (we’ll drag our table outside for the party)
- A fire with a S’mores station
- A backyard movie from approximately 7pm-9pm
- A heated dipping pool
I’ll ask folks to bring:
- Warm clothes and blankets
- Campfire chairs
- Tupperware for leftovers
- Bathing suit and towels if they want to go in the dipping pool
Things to Do in Advance
- Make the rock name “cards”
- Write names on glasses
- Hang Christmas lights in the yard
- Make the seating chart
- Make signs about where to put buffet items (main dishes, sides, appetizers outside, desserts)
- Design a welcome sign for the front door
Day of To-Do List
To make hosting as stress-free as possible, I like to plan the set-up in advance. That way, Matt and I can work from the same list and tag team it together.
- Get the chili started in the crockpot early in the day
- Get all the ingredients ready for a chili bar
- Set up the folding tables
- Move the dining room table outside
- Cover the tables with burlap
- Set up folding chairs
- Fill the jelly jars half-way with water
- Put greenery and flowers into jelly jars
- Move the foosball table outside
- Set up our camp chairs around the fire
- Set out the plates, napkins, silverware, glasses, and rock “name cards”
- Tape up the signs for the different areas of the buffet
- Set up lemon water
- Set up a music speaker
They say that the anticipation of an event can bring as much joy as the event. I’m having so much fun planning this party so far. I hope the actual party is just as fun!