Cute Ideas For A Meaningful Friendsgiving
So, you’ve decided to host a Friendsgiving - you’re a brave soul! Just kidding, it’s a wonderful task to create a space for friends to come together for food, laughter, and sharing in each other's company. Whether your Friendsgiving will substitute for a “traditional” Thanksgiving due to familial hardships or personal boundaries, or you simply want to tack on another celebration dedicated just to friends, it can be exciting while nerve-wracking to plan your meal with friends. Let’s say you have the date set, the invitations are out, and you’ve got your decorations - now how do you plan the meal in a way that brings meaning for you and your guests?
Read on for some ideas for hosting a meaningful Friendsgiving!
1. Make It A Potluck
Cooking an entire meal for a group of people can be A LOT of work - on top of all the other host duties. Make it a bit easier on yourself - and more fun for the group - by making your Friendsgiving a potluck! You can ask all of your guests to bring a dish or food/drink item that means something to them - whether it be something they eat on Thanksgiving or another holiday per family tradition, a dish from their cultural or religious background, or simply something they love to cook (or, let’s be honest, buy - it’s a busy time of year!). This is a great way to take some of the hosting burden off yourself, as well as engaging your guests and creating space to share something of themselves.
2. Add A Clothing And/Or Food Drive Component
Thanksgiving at its core is all about giving back, right? (Well, it’s at least a close second to stuffing and mashed potatoes). Adding a clothing or food drive component to your Thanksgiving can be a lovely thing to do for your guests and your larger community, by making it easier and more fun to donate. Schedule a donation pick-up (there are free pick-up services in most areas) for the morning after your Friendsgiving, and encourage people to bring along clothes or food items that are going unused! This is a minimal effort way for your group to give back to your community while having an amazing time together.
3. Break The Ice
Your invite list may be long-time friends who have known each other for years - or it may consist of a mix of people from different areas of your life! New friends, friends from different stages of life or geographic areas - come one, come all! For groups that may not be as connected with each other as they are with you, it can be really meaningful to create opportunities for them to simply connect and get to know each other better in a less intense/sillier way. Try asking some fun Thanksgiving-themed ice breakers at the table! You may want to start with this list of Thanksgiving Ice Breakers That Don’t Suck, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box. For example, you could ask:
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving cartoon or TV show special? Why?
If you were going to host a Thanksgiving and could invite any three guests, living or dead, who would you choose?
Marry, Kiss, Kill: stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese
Feel free to get creative!
4. Integrate Reflection
Thanksgiving is an excellent excuse to exercise our gratitude muscles. When guests arrive, you can have them write down one or two things that they’re grateful for (anonymously or not), and post them on a “gratitude wall.” That way, guests can peruse the wall and soak up all the gratitude throughout the night!
Another way to integrate reflection, if you’re comfortable, is to pause conversation at some point during your meal to create space for sharing. You can ask your guests to share with the group: a) something they’re grateful for in this moment; b) one thing they want to carry forward into their next season and one thing they want to leave behind; and c) one way they want to give back to their community in the coming months/year. This is a nice way for all your guests to get to know each other a little better, and to think intentionally about how you want to move forward this holiday season.
5. Make It A Letter Writing And/Or Swapping Event
For this activity, you can either:
1) set up a station for letter-writing for people to engage with throughout the night, or
2) designate a time to letter-write as a group.
You can supply some cute cards, envelopes and some pens/markers for folks to write a letter to a loved one sharing their gratitude or their reflections on their relationship. These letters can be to others at the Friendsgiving if your group is close, or you can encourage guests to write to whoever they’d like in their lives! At the end of the night, you can have guests take them home to deliver them in person - or you can collect them and mail them out for folks in the morning (make sure to stock up on stamps!). This is a lovely way to forge connection, encourage reflection, and engage in a meaningful activity as a group.