What is Friendsgiving?
Friendsgiving. Catchy name, right? Well, what exactly is a Friendsgiving? A Friendsgiving dinner is simply a dinner with your friends on or around Thanksgiving Day. The dinner can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it and is centered around being thankful for what I like to call “the family you choose“. Thanksgiving is typically a family-centered holiday, but sometimes we can’t be with our families on that specific day or perhaps you just want to spread the holiday out just a little more. I mean, bingeing on delicious food with people you love – who wouldn’t want more of that? Well, we fell in love with this whole Friendsgiving idea and we have created for you a free set of customizable printables to help you plan, organize and successfully host your very own hit Friendsgiving dinner party!
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I have participated in a Friendsgiving dinner twice and both were so much fun! The first time, my friend Holly invited me to a Thanksgiving Soup Swap Party at her home that she called Friendsgiving. She invited several of our co-workers and had a potluck-style Thanksgiving feast as friends a few days before the actual Thanksgiving day. It was the first time that I had heard of this concept and loved it. Many of the women that came practiced a recipe they wanted to try later with their families and it was fun to be with friends and share delicious food.
The second Friendsgiving was different. This last Thanksgiving we had recently moved and didn’t have family nearby for a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. We combined with our friends the Allens and enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner together in our own Friendsgiving on Thanksgiving day. It was nice to know that even if we couldn’t be with family, we had friends to share the day with.
Customizable Friendsgiving Printables
Whether you are interested in hosting an additional dinner party with friends or if your Thanksgiving day will be shared with friends rather than family, Friendsgiving is a fun idea that you will love! We have great Friendsgiving Ideas and 6 gorgeous customizable printables designed by our very own Carisa from Messes to Memories including:
- Invitations (editable)
- Friendsgiving Organizer (editable)
- Menu (editable)
- Utensil Holder (editable)
- This or That Game
- Take Home Gift Tag
Personalized Friendsgiving Invitations
The Friendsgiving invitation that we have made for you not only has beautiful, fun designs but you can customize it with your own information. After downloading the .pdf Friendsgiving file, you can edit the files using a free Adobe program. That means no more handwritten-have-to-start-over-because-I-messed-up-problems (you know what I mean?) AND the OCD in me can be at peace that everything looks neat and orderly.
You can personalize the invitation with all of your information to include the date, time and location of your event. There is even a place for you to put additional notes such as RSVP or to make food assignments if you want to go the potluck route. And here is a little tip for you: After you fill in all of your information, you could easily take a screenshot of the page and then email or text it to your friends. No printing or delivering required! Cute, informative and so convenient! Your friends will be so impressed with you.
Friendsgiving Organizer
To get everything organized for your Friendsgiving dinner event, we have this handy-dandy printable organizer that can also be edited on the computer. It has a place for you to type up your invited guests and to organize what food will be served. If you are going to do a potluck style and want to make assignments, you will definitely want this to keep track of who is bringing what. We would hate to have too many salads and not enough pie.
Friendsgiving Menu
Once you have your menu all settled, you can create these fancy menu cards. They can add a nice touch at each place setting. The menu is also customizable with your specific menu items (seeing a pattern?). A menu is one of those special touches that will make your Friendsgiving dinner memorable.
Personalized Utensil Holder for Friendsgiving
Probably my favorite thing included in the .pdf are these personalized utensil holders. I am a firm believer that a good party is in the details. I just love this personal touch to each place setting. It is so easy to do and will add that special touch to your Friendsgiving.
This or That Friendsgiving Game
Included in the .pdf download is an easy game for you to play either at the dinner table or as a break before you bring out the pie. It is a great conversation game and helps you get to know your guests even more. We call this Friendsgiving game “This OR That”. The idea of the game is to read one of the game cards out loud and everyone shares their preference. So, Black Friday shopping or Cyber Monday deal finding? Which would you choose? Cook the meal or clean it up? What do you think your friends would say? You could even add a fun twist where you try to guess how each person will answer. What a fun way to see how well you know your friends!
Bonus Take Home Gift Tag
As a little bonus, we included some take-home gift tags to let your friends know they are the sweetest. You could prepare a special gift for them or you can easily just tape the note to the top of the leftovers you send them home with. Either way, you are letting your friends know that you are thankful for them.
Additional Friendsgiving Ideas
We have a few other ideas that I totally recommend for your dinner that come straight from our site. Check these out!
- Thanksgiving Conversation Starters – Get the conversation focused on the meaning of Thanksgiving with these unique Thanksgiving conversation starters! When your friends are gathered at the dinner table on Thanksgiving day, use these questions to get everyone talking.
- Thanksgiving Charades – A fun twist to a classic game. All of the words to act out are related to Thanksgiving. This is a fun and easy game to play with friends.
- Gratitude Thanksgiving Signs – Large engineer print posts where everyone can write their blessings on a poster for all to see! This could be really fun to have at the entrance as an activity for when your friends first arrive.
- Leftover Bags – Our printable Thanksgiving leftover bag tags are the perfect addition to those to-go bags and boxes and are a fantastic way to add a little flair to all the leftovers that you will be sending home with your friends.
Friendsgiving Food Ideas
- 50+ Fun Thanksgiving Food Ideas – If you really want to get fancy with some themed foods we have lots of ideas here!
- 101 Unique Ways to Use Your Thanksgiving Leftovers – Tasty and creative ways to use all of that yummy food you have leftover after your friends have gone.
We hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving season however you decided to celebrate! When you host your Friendsgiving, make sure to take lots of pictures and tag us on social media! Use the hashtag #datingdivas so we can see all the fun you have!
Those little napkin holders are PERFECT! So cute and I love all the editable features!
I think that might be my favorite part too! So personal!
Oh my gosh, I love all of your ideas for a fun Friendsgiving celebration! I think I might do this sometime during the year and not in November just to surprise my friends.
That is a wonderful idea! We hope you love it!