Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and Friendsgiving–which is a lot like your traditional Thanksgiving but is for friends rather than family–is the perfect opportunity to show your friends how grateful you are for them!  Friendsgiving is also a great excuse to hang out with your favorite people and eat lots of delicious treats.

My friends and I have done Friendsgiving for the past three years, and we are already planning our fourth, so I would consider myself a professional when it comes to planning them. There are so many ways to go about hosting a Friendsgiving, and I wanted to discuss a few of my favorite Friendsgiving ideas. 

For starters, you want to pick a place to host your Friendsgiving. We always have it at one of my friend’s houses, but that doesn’t mean the person who hosts does all the work–everyone pitches in to help! Make a Google document and type everyone’s name on the document. From there, everyone can decide which Thanksgiving dish they want to bring so you don’t end up with three green bean casseroles. You don’t have to do normal Thanksgiving food like turkey. Last year, the main course at my Friendsgiving was the Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets platter. It really doesn’t matter what kind of food you have. What matters is spending quality time with your friends. And though I keep using the word friends, try to include people outside of your immediate circle. Friendsgiving can give you an opportunity to get to know someone better and start new friendships. This time of year, you don’t want anyone feeling lonely!

Playing games is also a fun way to spice up your night. One thing you might try is putting all of your friends’ names in a bowl. Make everyone draw one name out of the hat, then go around the room and have everyone tell why they are grateful for that friend. Another game you can play is charades. Charades is the perfect game that will have the whole table laughing by the end of the night. It doesn’t really matter what game you play as long as everyone is enjoying spending time with each other. You can either open up the board game closet or just simply talk to each other. 

I hope you found a few of these ideas helpful. Friendsgiving should be fun, so don’t sweat the small stuff. The most important thing is being together and expressing gratitude to those in your life you are grateful for. It is such a special time to be able to convey how important your friends and to you and how much you appreciate them. Of course, you always want to appreciate your friends and family, but letting them know at Thanksgiving makes the holidays even sweeter.