How to Throw a Friendsgiving Dinner Party That All Your Friends Will Adore

This blog post shows you how to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party in 6 simple steps! 

Celebrating Thanksgiving this fall? Thanksgiving is the perfect day to spend time with your loved ones and express your gratitude. 

One of the best ways to do this is, of course, having a Thanksgiving dinner. But what if you had a Friendsgiving dinner too? Carry on reading to find out how to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party that all your friends will adore, including inspiration for themes, games, and decor! 

1. Pick a theme

2. Pick a date and send invites

3. Plan the menu

4. Shop for decorations

5. Decide on entertainment

6. Clean your apartment

What is Friendsgiving?

Friendsgiving is a way to celebrate Thanksgiving with your friends, as opposed to the traditional Thanksgiving celebration you would have with family. It’s a lovely way to get you and your friends all together under one roof, celebrating your friendship and expressing gratitude to each other. 

How to Throw a Friendsgiving Dinner Party: A Simple 6 Step Guide

Now that we have established what a Friendsgiving is, you’re probably thinking, “Okay, that sounds cool, but how do you actually celebrate Friendsgiving?” Just like how you would have a Thanksgiving dinner with family, you can have a Friendsgiving dinner party with your beloved friends! The dynamic may be a bit different from a traditional Thanksgiving with family, but the principle is pretty much the same when hosting any kind of dinner party! 

If you’re wondering how to pull off throwing a Friendsgiving dinner party, then here is how to do it in 6 simple steps! 

1. Pick a theme 

The fun thing about hosting a Friendsgiving dinner party is that you can pick a theme that you and your friends can all resonate with. The theme sets the vibe of your Friendsgiving dinner, so it’s important that you’re certain everyone can get on board! 

You could go for a classic fall Friendsgiving theme, as the day will fall (pun intended) during the autumn season. If you’d prefer to have a funny theme, you could do a meme-themed Friendsgiving dinner where you’re all dressed up as different memes from the Twitter and Vine eras. You could even do a pajama theme, taking inspiration from slumber parties!

2. Pick a date and send invites 

Once you’ve decided on the theme, it’s time to pick a date and time for your Friendsgiving dinner party. 

If you want to send physical invites, you can use templates on Canva to design them and mail them to your friends! Alternatively, if you want to send e-vites, you can use a website like Partiful, which makes sending online invitations and tracking RSVPs easy.  

Make sure that you send your invites at least a month before the date of your Friendsgiving dinner party. Obviously, everyone will have different commitments during Thanksgiving time (e.g., dinner with their family), so sending invites early will help avoid clashes with other events they may be attending. Also, it gives your friends more time to prepare! Honestly, the earlier you can send the invites, the better!  

Don’t forget to include the theme and address on the invitations, too! 

Alternatively, a simpler way to keep everyone in the loop regarding general updates on the dinner party and who is bringing what is to create a group chat after everyone has RSVP’d, so you can all easily communicate!

There are different ways you can go about planning your menu for your Friendshiving dinner party. But the most important piece of information you need before you start planning the menu is dietary requirements. Send a Google form to your friends asking about any allergies, intolerances, or dietary requirements they may have to ensure everyone will be able to have dinner. 

Next, figure out the type of dinner you’d want to have. You can do a potluck where everyone brings a dish, or, if you know your friends won’t commit to doing a potluck (and if you really like cooking), you can make all the food while your friends bring the drinks. You could even have your friends bring all the mains while you bring desserts.  Every friendship group is different, so choose whatever option you know you and your friends can commit to. 

Doing a potluck is definitely the easier option to go for, as it takes a lot of pressure off your shoulders as the host. If you decide to do this, you could use a spreadsheet or the comments on your Partiful e-vites to track what everyone will make to avoid bringing the same dishes. 

The fun thing about doing a potluck is that you can turn it into a theme, too! For example, you can do a potluck where everyone brings a dish that matches the first letter of everyone’s name, or you can do a “bring a dish from your culture” potluck. 

If you want to cook all the food, an easy way to go about planning the menu is to decide what you want to cook 2 weeks in advance. Once you know what you’re going to cook, write down all the ingredients you would need and do the shopping around a week in advance, so you know that you have everything you need. 

A few days before, start cooking and prepping the menu. If there are some dishes you can prep and keep in the freezer until the day of the dinner party, then go for it! This will make things so much easier when the day arrives, as you won’t be rushing to make several dishes within a few hours. 

Another part of the menu that you need to keep front of mind is drinks! If you want to host the best Friendsgiving dinner party, make sure you never run out. If your friends are in charge of drinks, remind them that it’s best to buy drinks in bulk so that there is enough for everyone. 

If you and your friends are having alcoholic drinks, you could also set up a cocktail corner! Make your favorite fall-inspired cocktails or alcoholic mixers in a dispenser so it’s easy for everyone to pour out and drink!

4. Shop for decorations

So you’ve picked the theme, sent the invites, and sorted out the menu. Now it’s time for the fun, creative part of throwing a Friendsgiving dinner party: shopping for decorations! 

Your tablescape is probably the most important aspect of your Friendsgiving dinner party, so you’d want to make it look gorgeous! The main decorative components of a Friendsgiving tablescape that you will need to get are a tablecloth, table runner, candles, and fall centerpieces (e.g., floral arrangements). 

Additionally, there are endless types of table arrangements you could choose to make everyone’s seat at the dinner special. For example, you could add name cards on each plate or get ribbons with everyone’s name, and attach them to each wine glass on the table.  

Some other decorations you could get are banners, balloons, and garlands to add to your ceilings and walls. If you love DIY, then this is your chance to DIY some decorative pieces too! 

5. Decide on entertainment 

The penultimate step on how to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party is all about entertainment! After you have dinner, there’s gotta be some fun interactive games that you and your friends can all get sucked into! 

Here is a list of some of the best board games, card games, and group/party games you could play!

Board games:

• Monopoly
• Herd Mentality
• The Chameleon

Card games:

• Cards against Humanity
• Bad people
• Phase 10

Group/party games:

• Mafia (like the Traitors reality TV game show) 
• Stack cup
• Fish bowl

6. Clean your apartment

Now that you’ve prepared everything you need for your Friendsgiving dinner party, there’s only one thing left to do. A day or two before the Friendsgiving date, clean your house. Do a proper deep clean, from your living room to your bathroom, making sure everything is neat and tidy.

If some of your friends are staying over and you have a guest room, make sure to create a warm, cozy space and to include a welcome basket to make them feel extra cared for. 

The day before your Friendsgiving dinner party, you can also clean up, organize, and set the dinner table! Setting up your tablescape is a much longer task than you’d think, so doing it the night before will save you from rushing it the day of.

If you follow this cleaning schedule, you’ll find that on the day of, the only cleaning and setting you’d need to do is dusting off surfaces, vacuuming the carpets and hardwoods, and lighting the candles on the dinner table! 

This post showed you how to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party that your friends will love! 

If you follow these steps on how to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party and truly plan ahead of time, then hosting will be stress-free, and you’ll be able to genuinely relax, have fun, and celebrate this season of gratitude with your friends! 

Enjoyed this article? Find some more inspiration for parties and fall activities from our blog posts below:

• How to Throw a Friendsmas Party That Will Get You and Your Friends in the Festive Spirit
• How to Throw an Adult Slumber Party to Spend the Best Night With Your Friends
• The Ultimate Fall Bucket List for Adults: 30 Best Things to Do This Autumn
• 30 Cozy and Romantic Fall Date Ideas for Couples

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