Friendsgiving: The Do’s and Don’t’s

This weekend, I had a few friends over to celebrate Friendsgiving. And by a few, I mean we had 10 girls packed into my tiny kitchen, using every single plate I owned to stuff ourselves with every Thanksgiving food imaginable.
And It. Was. Wonderful.

This was my first Friendsgiving I've ever celebrated though, and I really had NO idea what I was getting into. So for all you who are in the same boat, here's my retrospective do's and don'ts of my weekend.

1. DO: PICK A DATE EARLY ON

This was a fairly planned-ahead thing for my group of friends. We discussed 2 weeks ahead and continued to discuss up until the date. But even with discussion 2 weeks ahead, we had some plans that didn't line up, the date had to be changed, and some people couldn't make it. The absolute worst thing is having a group event where the whole group can't join. Planning as far in advance as possible really helps with schedules. Switching dates last minute is messy, so getting a solid event on a calendar as soon as possible lets people plan their schedules around the event!

2. DO: DECIDE ON THE SIZE OF THE EVENT JUST AS EARLY

We had 10 girls packed into my tiny kitchen, and as stressful as this sounds, it made the event really special. But I definitely have some friends who would rather die then be packed in a small space with a ton of people. Setting the size of the event early keeps invites at the perfect size. Make sure everyone agrees on the size and stick to it. I am totally a fan of 'the more the merrier' but for the sake of your introverted BFF who wants to have a good time with a few friends, stay with the memo.

3. DO: MAKE A FOOD LIST

Thanksgiving food is my favorite and when I eat, I want to have a little of everything. We made sure we had all the foods we needed and everything everyone wanted with a Google Doc! We made a list of essential foods and left room for people to add more as they wished! This gave people ideas of what to bring but also made sure we had all of the staple Thanksgiving foods and more to our dinner than just 10 pies.

4. DON'T: FORGET TO PREP YOUR FOOD EARLY

This is a tip you see over and over, but that's because it's such an important one. My contributions were a veggie tray and peanut butter pie, so I figure those were easy enough to do day of. Big mistake. Of course, traffic was bad and the store was for some reason packed on the one day I needed to get in and out. I even forgot an ingredient and had to send a friend by on their way over. And then how great was the fact that I only allotted an hour to cook and cut everything, but of course it took longer, so I was still cleaning up and taking out the trash when people started arriving! Lesson learned, preparing as much as possible the day before leaves time for stress-free problem solving and finishing touches the day of.

5. DON'T: FORGET TO BRING TUPPERWARE

Not the normal tip, but definitely the important one. Bringing your own Tupperware means all the leftovers. Everyone willingly makes a ton of food for the event, but who really wants to take all of their one single dish home and be forced to eat the same meal for the next week? No one, I promise. If everyone brings take home containers though, you can build-a-meal to take home. Then everyone gets a variety of food and no one is stuck eating the same thing for breakfast lunch and dinner.

EXTRA TIPS FOR THE HOST:

6. DO: CHECK YOUR RESOURCES AHEAD OF TIME

This is a big mistake I made actually. I don't ever really host multiple people so I'd never thought about if I had enough dishware to - and turns out I didn't. I got really lucky and happen to live with roommates who did have enough, but that would have been a really rough time if I didn't have their plates to use! So moral of the story, check and make sure you have enough plates, cups, utensils, etc. so that no one is left eating out of their hands.

7. DO: USE AS MUCH REUSABLE AS YOU CAN

This is something I've been moving my kitchen processes towards recently. Reusable is not only better for the planet, but so much cheaper in the long run (which is the #1 reason I'm switching over). Using real plates and cups when people come over may seem like a hassle, but it's so much cheaper to run a load on the dishwasher than go out and buy all the one time use items you'd need. Also, it makes you look classier and you can take MUCH nicer pictures.

*This post was written 11/19/2018 but moved to this site on 11/29/2020 - I was not throwing a party in the middle of a pandemic, I promise.