If you have never hosted, or even been to a Friendsgiving dinner, you absolutely need to. Of course, Thanksgiving with your family is special, but having a Friendsgiving allows you to get together and process why you love your friends and how much they mean to you. The history of Friendsgiving is actually really interesting. On the show, Friends, the crew would get together to feast for Thanksgiving. This idea of a Friendsgiving resurfaced on Twitter in 2007 and on Google in 2011. Finally, the term “Friendsgiving” was defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2020. The idea of having a Friendsgiving is moderately new, but it is still extremely important to celebrate.
There are different people you can have a Friendsgiving with. You can have it with a group of your best friends, which is an obvious idea hence the name: friends-giving. But, you can also do a Friendsgiving with your coworkers. This is a great way to bond with people you may only see in one setting. Having a Friendsgiving with your coworkers allows you to speak to those you see everyday, but in a less stressful place. You can also have a Friendsgiving with your sports team, a club, or other organizations you are a part of. The idea of hosting a Friendsgiving is to get to know others more and to spend time with people you love. Overall, having a Friendsgiving allows you to bond with people. You also do not have to have only one Friendsgiving. You can go to one with your co-workers and then one with your best friends. The more Thanksgiving food, the merrier!
When hosting a Friendsgiving, it is helpful to do it as a potluck and have everyone bring a little something. This will make the cost per person more efficient because one person isn’t buying everything, nor are they making everything, while everyone else just shows up. It is really fun when everyone is able to bring something to support the idea of Friendsgiving.
You should host the Friendsgiving any time in November. It may also be a good idea to host the Friendsgiving after Thanksgiving, that way everyone can just bring leftovers. I’ve done this for one year at my house and it worked out perfectly. No one even cares about it being leftovers because everyone is still being fed Thanksgiving food! Another tip for hosting Friendsgiving is to designate different people to bring different items. You probably don’t want six plates of yams and no turkey. It’s better if everyone is able to sign up on a list of what they are bringing so it is better coordinated for all attending members. You should write it in a Google Sheets, so everyone is able to contribute and if someone changes their mind about what they want to bring, it is an active document where everyone else is able to also see the changes.
It is also a good idea to either buy Tupperware or tell your friends to bring Tupperware, because who doesn’t love leftovers? If everyone brings food, especially a lot of it, there is a good chance there may be leftovers of something. Your friends will want to bring home the food to have as a late-night snack after the sleepiness wears off. Just like you may want to keep all of the food for yourself, especially if the Friendsgiving is at your own house, your friends may want to be able to bring something home.
Having Friendsgiving is an amazing thing to do. It gives you an excuse to see your friends you don’t normally see, or something different to do with those friends you see every day. My last advice for Friendsgiving is to go around and say what you’re thankful for. I know this may sound corny, but it is really nice to be able to listen to your friends and really learn more about them. It’s amazing to be able to count your blessings and many people don’t stop their days to think about what they are thankful for. Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving give you time to self-reflect and reflect with each other about good memories you’ve shared and things to be thankful for!