Week 1: Stress-Free Thanksgiving – Invite, Plan, and Delegate!
I’m excited to be hosting Thanksgiving this year in my home. The last few years my family and I have been out of town, over at the high desert, where we created wonderful memories with our kids. Let’s say that our colorful friends are coming this year. The Greens, Blacks, and Browns – 4 families, a total of 18 people.
Here are my thoughts on planning a dinner, on how to be organized, and how to make the meal come together, with little stress.
It’s easy to either dread the day, or to love the day. To be completely disorganized or to have a plan where it all flows easily.
My timeline goes like this: If you are planning a traditional turkey dinner, I’ve found it’s exciting to venture out and to try a few new recipes. Personally, I don’t feel like you have to “test” a new recipe, either. With the traditional menu, why not change it up a bit and try something new? There’s always an abundance of food on Thanksgiving Day, so if a new recipe isn’t the “star” recipe for the day, that is okay. (You will just make a note that you do not want to make it again).
Do this NOW — this weekend!
1. Notebook: Gather or buy a notebook (Dollar store works!)
2. Guest List: Write out your guest list.
3. Menu: Plan the menu and decide what YOU want to cook first, and then what you want your guests to contribute. (But be flexible!)
4. Invite: Call or email your guests and invite.
5. Delegate: When you hear back from your guests, follow up right away and tell them what you’d like them to bring.
Example Menu for Traditional Thanksgiving Meal:
Remember, have fun and gourmet it up a bit! (I am Coughlin, the hostess, so you can see exactly what I will be making.)Drinks – Coughlin and Black
Appetizers – Smith and Brown
Turkey – Coughlin
Dressing – Green
Potatoes – Coughlin
Sweet Potatoes – Coughlin
Vegetable – Smith and Green
Salad – Brown and Black
Rolls – Green
Dessert – Coughlin and Black and Brown
Since I am the hostess, I am preparing most of the food, but not all of the food. Thanksgiving is a time to include everyone in the meal. If you feel you have to do it all, to be honest, I feel sorry for you. You will be exhausted. I am not super-woman and I need the help.
Plus, I love how each family can contribute to such a beautiful day.
Have you made your Thanksgiving Day invitation?
Have you planned your Thanksgiving Meal?
You’ve got your homework outlined for you this weekend, so get going on your planning! Next week, join me for Part II of organizing your recipes, shopping list, and thinking about the table! Watch for the promised Balcony Girl’s Apple Charlottes recipe and the Pecan Pie recipe that goes with this easy “no-roll” pie crust! Have a great weekend, friends!
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
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Oh, Sandy, you’ve inspired me! We always have out-of-town guests for Thanksgiving, so I usually provide all the food and drinks. But I need to get things really organized, and I think I can follow your method!
Thanksgiving this year will be quiet and small. My husband will be recuperating from total knee replacement and unable to help me as he always does. It will be just us and our son’s family.
Dinner will not have so many side dishes and I will cook a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey.
I will probably have my daughter in-law bring a dish or two.
This year is super simple…just hubby and me! The kids are going to their in-laws [we alternate years] and steaks will be on our menu per husband’s request. I will grill them so clean-up will be super easy. It might even be a p.j. day for us including a nap.
Sandy, Thanks for all of the great tips. We’re hosting Thanksgiving this year and your list is helping to get me going on getting organized. Thank you, my dear….
When it is what I think of as a Food and Family Holiday, I feel it a particularly “inclusive” touch to ask your guests to bring a dish. While being strictly a guest is wonderful most times, I think on these occasions everyone likes to feel they made a contribution and played a part in the whole celebration.
Looking forward to reading your posts as you get ready for Thanksgiving.
Darla
Sandy, do you make your dessert up ahead of time or is it domething you make on Thanksgiving day? Just curious how much is done ahead-of-time from a seasoned entertainer! :)
I am like you…super, duper organized with a list for everything. I would like to ask you how you would handle this Thanksgiving dilemma: We have always celebrated the day at my mother-in-law’s home where she includes families who are in the US from different countries. This makes the holiday so very meaningful, for it is so unique to our country. The past three years we have had the dinner at our home and I find that I am making adjustments to the guest list up to the very last minute. Either my mom-in-law adds folks that she “forgot”
about, or the family from Russia have guests they would like to bring. Last year the number of guests around the dining room table, the kitchen table, the card tables set up here and yonder totaled 26. But the morning of our
gathering, I was expecting 18. That’s alot of dishes, flatware, glassware, napkins, etc to throw together! Any hints on how to best handle such a fluctuation in numbers? The good news: no leftovers (although my husband did miss having a turkey sandwich the next day….)
I would like to hear comments on this too- I hosted my first family get-together as a married woman earlier this year. I was expecting eight, but ultimately hosted around eighteen people. My husband and I did all the cooking the night before, and the last-minute guests were so last minute that they didn’t bring anything. I sent one person out to get some ice, my sister went to get some sodas, and my F-I-L went and got some fried chicken and sides. It turned out fine, but is there a better way to plan for something like that?