A Guide To The BEST Thanksgiving Party Ideas – Impress Your In-Laws & Guests
Are you getting ready to host a big Turkey get together, and you need help with a few Thanksgiving party ideas? This is a wonderful season to celebrate with friends and family, and I’m ready to help you make this cherished season a fond memory! I’ll share with you what I did with my family in hopes to help you create the ultimate party experience of your own!
This post is all about Thanksgiving Party Ideas!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHAT IS THE BEST THEME FOR THANKSGIVING?
Deciding on a theme can be a little difficult with this particular holiday because we often see turkeys as the main overarching theme. Don’t get me wrong as I love a good turkey themed event, but I’m here to tell you, you can honestly do whatever you want when decorating for Thanksgiving. The reason is because it’s YOUR party and you can be as traditional or unique as you want. This year my mom and I decided to go with an ‘apple harvest party’ theme! We placed apples throughout the decor and had a couple of apple baskets as well as apple nameplates on the tablescape.
Get A Similar Look…
The miniature white pumpkins were from Hobby Lobby, but the links have long since shown ‘out of stock’ online. Miniature pumpkins are pretty much everywhere during this time of year, so I highly recommend you check out your local stores, but I’ll leave a link here to show you the closest I could find online.
What Should I bring To A Thanksgiving Dinner Party
While this blog post is focused on helping a host or hostess create the best Thanksgiving party, I want to give a quick tip to my friends who are guests to said turkey party.
Hosting an event is a lot of work to put together, so it’s considered good etiquette to bring a hostess gift to the get-together. Unless, in my humble opinion, you’re going to a potluck to which the food you’re bringing is already a contribution to the event.
A few easy hostess gift ideas are:
- Flowers
- Box of chocolates
- Gift basket filled with goodies
- A scented candle
Thanksgiving Tablescape: Folding Napkins
HOW TO FOLD A NAPKIN FOR THANKSGIVING
How To Fold A Napkin
Step 1: Ignore the fact that these napkins are in desperate need of a good ironing. lol
I found this elegant napkin fold online, and I’ve fallen in love with the design! Just follow the steps shown in the images below and you’ll have a wonderful napkin display for your tablescape!
{Loving Our Thanksgiving Party Ideas post? Check out: Best 2024 Autumn Socks}
HOW TO MAKE THE NAMEPLATES
Quite possibly the easiest nameplate you’ll ever make in your life! I used apples as the base and then purchased clip on chalkboard signs. I fastened the chalkboards onto the apple by the stems. If you run into the same issue as I did where not all of your apples have stems, then push a toothpick into the apple. You can latch the chalkboard sign onto the toothpick and your guests will probably not know…unless they try to take a bite of the apple.
Sometimes Dollar Tree has these clip-on chalkboards available, but if your local Dollar Tree doesn’t then here is the link to a similar version on Amazon.
How To Make A Thanksgiving Party Fun?
Do you have a hard time getting your family off of their smartphones and focused on spending time together? This trick is a clever way to use the smartphone to make family memories by playing the digital came ‘Quiplash’. Everyone uses their phones to play. You’ll be asked funny questions to come up with creative answers to. Your answers are anonymous and your family votes for their favorite responses! The best part is the devices are necessary to play the game, so your guests won’t be spending time scrolling on social media apps.
Do You Like Our Thanksgiving Party Ideas? Check out: Entertaining Hacks To Make You Look Like A Pro
RECREATE THIS THANKSGIVING OUTFIT
Similar Dress
I purchased my dress from Dillards, but that was quite a long time ago. I did some product research for you, and I found this lovely denim dress Dillards is currently selling.
Thanksgiving Outfit Accessories
Earlier this year, I purchased these belts from Amazon, and they have been a great investment so far! I highly recommend purchasing a variety of colored belts to go with more outfit choices.
Amazon is a fantastic place to shop for fleece tights and this pair has a lot of great reviews!
Here is a beautiful pair of boots from Amazon that look similar to the ones I’m wearing in the photo with my husband.
THANKSGIVING INVITATIONS
You can send out invitations physically or, if you’re like me, send them out digitally if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. I create my invitations from Canva.com which doesn’t cost me any money. I highly, HIGHLY recommend you try it out!
I like to always give you a list to help you know what you will want to include in your invitations before you send them out to friends and family.
- Type of party – Thanksgiving party, harvest party, Halloween costume party, etc.
- Date
- Time
- Place
- Light Refreshments or main meal served?
- Attire. – if applicable
What food is served at Thanksgiving Party?
On my mom’s side, her parents immigrated to the United States from Canada, so she didn’t grow up with certain staples like pumpkin pie or sweet potatoes. This showed me that it is not about following traditional rules but putting effort into cooking food you WANT to eat and are not required to eat. If a dry bine turkey is your favorite, then by all means make it happen! However, if you’re like my family we often have a glazed ham as our main meal.
Traditional Thanksgiving Meal:
- Turkey
- pumpkin pie or pecan pie (or both)
- Mashed potatoes
- Gravy
- Cranberry sauce
- Mac & Cheese (not the MOST traditional item on this list, but I’ve seen this meal show up at a few Thanksgiving tables)
- Dinner Rolls
- Salad
This post was all about Thanksgiving Party Ideas!
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This post was about Thanksgiving Party Ideas
