How to Host a Friendsgiving

Our Friendsgiving table last year!

One of my favorite fall traditions is celebrating Friendsgiving with my girlfriends and their families. We started it up last year and had SUCH a blast. It was an amazing day with friends and food and fun… the beginning of a beautiful tradition that I am SO excited to continue this year!

As its the beginning of November, I thought it was the perfect time to share some tips on how to throw the perfect Friendsgiving celebration, in the hopes that you’ll start the tradition with YOUR friends!

Invite Your Friends

The first step to executing the perfect Friendsgiving is obviously to schedule a date! If you’re the hostess, you can either choose the date and hope your gals will be free, or… you know… ask the group text. Once you nail down a date, I still you think should do a formal evite or, if you’re fancy, actual paper invitations.

Paperless Post has my absolute favorite evites, many of them free. Here are a few of my faves! (Click on each to be directed to the page where you can personalize and send them out!)

Divvy Up the Duties

You can go one of two ways- take on the full responsibility of executing dinner on your own, or, as my friends and I do, divvy up the food, potluck style. Obviously, throwing the dinner yourself will most likely be pricey.

If you decide to go potluck, the easiest way to dole out the food assignments is via trusty old Google Docs. I think it’s a great idea to make a list including the foods you think should be served, but be flexible! Leave a space for your gals to bring a family recipe or a signature dish they maybe love bringing. I made this handy little sign up sheet that you can feel free to use!

Hostess should be responsible for the decor. (Plus, that’s the fun part anyway!)

Check out our spread last year! So yummy, right?

How Much Food to Serve

I added all of this information to the Google Doc, but here are the correct amounts of food you should have:

• Turkey: 3/4 to 1 lb per guest for no leftovers. Want leftovers? Allow 1 to 1 1/2 lbs per guest.
• Sides: 1 starchy and 1 veggie side per every 5 guests.
• Salads: 1 green salad per every 10 guests.
• Breads: 2 rolls or breads per guest
• Desserts: 1 dessert per every 5 guests
• Drinks: 3 bottles of wine per every 10 guests. For punches or lemonades, 2 gallons per 25 guests.

  Behold: Sharon! I still can’t believe I made this beauty! 

More Tips on Hosting a Fabulous Friendsgiving

Other things you’ll need:

• Table Decor
• Plates
• Napkins
• Glasses
• Utensils
• Serving Dishes
• Extra Tables
• Chairs
• Ice

• Make sure you and your guests take into account oven space when deciding who will be bringing what, prepared or unprepared. Obviously the turkey should bake on the premises.
• I was responsible for the turkey (whom we named ‘Sharon’) at our Friendsgiving, but was not the hostess… I just popped over early in the am, deposited Sharon into the oven, and then came back later. If you can have the turkey made in one of those separate broiler pans so as to free up oven space, that would be ideal.
• Speaking of turkey… if you’ve never made one… REMEMBER THAT THEY TAKE A REALLY LONG TIME. Also, if you go frozen, remember to THAW THE TURKEY for a few days BEFORE you’ll be cooking it.
• Curate a cool and chill playlist ahead of time. Nothing too wild, frantic or stressful.

Make sure you have a separate table for the food! 

• Make sure you have plenty of tables and chairs! Designate a separate table to the food. If you don’t have enough space, ask around to see if anyone has folding tables handy. If you entertain regularly, you should totally invest in a 6′ folding banquet table. They’re a STAPLE at our events. While you can usually scoop them up at Target at a great price, for some reason, their website doesn’t show they have any right now! This one from Amazon is a GREAT option; really durable.

Don’t forget the kiddos!

• Keep in mind if you have kids coming over… set them a cute little table, have crayons and maybe a copy of Frozen handy.

At the end of the day, the whole point of Friendsgiving is to celebrate the people you love and be thankful together. No matter what, it’ll be a fun day and everyone will love spending the time together!

So, I’d love to know- do you do Friendsgiving?? Have you ever hosted? What are your tips? Tell me in the comments!