Hosting your first Thanksgiving is right of passage. It’s the ultimate dinner party of the year where you can indulge in heartwarming food with the people you love.
I aim for my blog posts to be objective and informative, but Thanksgiving is very personal for me. I’ve been helping my dad in the kitchen on Thanksgiving since I could stand on a stool to reach the countertop. Now, I host my own Thanksgiving dinner in New York City surrounded by my chosen family and my dad.
Thanksgiving spurred my love for hosting and bringing people together. Whether it’s your first time hosting Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving, this guide will help you make it go smoothly.
Set Your Guest List
Everyone has a seat at the table at my Thanksgiving, but the guest list always depends on who’s in town and who has existing family obligations.
Instead of sending formal invitations, start to chat with your friends and family in October to see who might be around. Make your intention known for hosting a Thanksgiving at your house. In November, check in with everyone to see how their Thanksgiving plans have shaped up. Will they be available to join you? Do they intend to bring any plus ones?
Determining your guest list ahead of time is crucial for designing your menu. Your guest will determine how many dishes you need to make, what size turkey you need to order, and what you will be serving.
Make sure you ask about any dietary restrictions or allergies and be clear on what you want your guests to bring if they ask.
Design Your Menu
The typical American Thanksgiving has a playbook. It’s turkey with potatoes, vegetables, and some sort of casserole, but your Thanksgiving table should bend the rules. As a host, it’s your time to curate a menu that you and your guests will love.
Here is an outline for a basic Thanksgiving menu:
- Appetizers + Snacks
- The Turkey
- A Starch
- Vegetables
- Salad
- Dessert
I challenge you to skip the casserole and think of a simple way to elevate traditional classics instead. Make this skillet cornbread or this green bean and mushrooms with crispy shallots in lieu of casseroles. Your guests will thank you.
When you’re looking for serving sizes on recipes, you don’t need to make the exact serving size for the number of people on your guest list because people aren’t likely to eat a complete serving of each and every dish. For example, if you’re hosting 10 people, a mashed potato recipe that serves 8 people will do the trick.
As you find recipes online, save them as PDFs to have on hand while cooking, especially if you’re sourcing recipes from publications like NYT Cooking or Epicurious where you only get to access a set number of articles per month.
Grocery ShopPING
Once you’ve designed your menu, it’s time to make a grocery list. For group trips or large dinner parties like Thanksgiving, I recommend making your list on Google Sheets to calculate quantities and for easy access while shopping.
Order Your Turkey in Advance
If you take anything away from this blog post it should be to order your turkey in advance. Whole Foods allows you to order an already thawed turkey from their butcher counter on their website.
If you’re buying a frozen Butterball turkey, make sure you buy it in time to thaw it out. It takes 24 hours for every five pounds to defrost a turkey in the fridge. So, if you buy a 15-pound turkey, it will take three days to defrost, which means you need to defrost it starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving so you can brine it the day before.
Your Turkey Size
Full turkeys range in size from eight to 24 pounds. Plan on 1.5 pounds per person because you never want to be short and you’ll be wishing you had extra meat for turkey sandwiches on Black Friday.
Here’s a cheat sheet for buying your turkey by the pound:
Choosing Wine
As a rule of thumb for all dinner parties, I make sure I have one bottle of wine per two people (or half a bottle of wine per person). Ask your local wine shop which wines will pair best with your Thanksgiving dinner but you can’t go wrong with an easy-drinking Pinot Noir.
Evite has a handy drink calculator where you can input the length of your party, the types of drinkers attending, and the type of alcohol you’re serving to calculate how much booze you need to buy.
The Day Before
Most of your prep should be done the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Dessert, mashed potatoes, or any kind of casserole dish can be made a day ahead and warmed up right before Thanksgiving dinner.
Your turkey should be brined and seasoned at least 24 hours before you pop it in the oven on Thanksgiving day. So, if your Thanksgiving dinner is at 7 p.m., your turkey needs to be ready to be popped in the oven at 3 p.m., which means it needs to be brined by 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Reminder: Depending on how you buy your turkey you may need to defrost it days in advance.
On Wednesday, do a last-minute pantry and fridge check to make sure you have everything. You don’t want to be running to the store on Thanksgiving Day and praying that your local supermarket is still open.
Thanksgiving Day
On Thanksgiving Day, you’ll cook the remaining vegetable dishes, set the table, and cook the infamous bird.
Timing Your Turkey
My favorite way to roast a turkey is broken down into its individual pieces. This speeds up the cooking process to an hour and a half. But, if you cook a turkey whole, it’ll likely take you around three hours.
You’ll need to backtrack the cooking time from the time you want to sit down for dinner. Make sure to factor in at least 30 minutes for your turkey to cool down and rest before carving and serving. For example, if my turkey takes 2 hours to cook and I want to sit down to eat at 7 p.m., my turkey needs to be in the oven by 4 p.m. latest to account for resting and carving.
Setting the Table
Before your guests arrive, set your table with place settings. At family-centric events like Thanksgiving, it’s good to make a seating chart so significant others and family members don’t need to do the awkward dance around an empty dinner table when it comes time to eat.
With a party of more than six people, it might be best to designate a serving table so people can serve themselves buffet-style. For smaller groups, the dishes can be easily laid out on the table.
All that’s left is to make yourself a plate and enjoy your Thanksgiving!
Need more help hosting Thanksgiving or friendsgiving? I’m happy to answer any questions in the comments below.
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