With Thanksgiving around the corner (it’s tomorrow!!!) we got you covered! We absolutely understand how stressful it can be to host, cook, and entertain your dinner guests! So we have come up with tips and tricks to ease the stress!
The environment is a very important part of any holiday event. Your decorations should match the holiday. For many people, this means leaves, pumpkins and other gourds, cornucopias, and anything turkey-related. If you need any inspiration for this, Pinterest will be your best friend! Also, check out this blog post by Brit&Co! They have beautiful landscape designs for your dining table!
You don’t want to be one of those people who is running to the store on Wednesday night to get groceries for the big meal on the next day. Nearly everyone else in America is trying to have the perfect Thanksgiving meal too. Here are some points to consider when it comes to your Thanksgiving dinner shopping process.
Count how many people you expect to visit. How many will be coming from your immediate family? Your extended family? Will there be any non-family members such as neighbors and friends?
Depending on how big of an event you’re putting on, that number could go from 5 to 20 or beyond. It’s important to know how many people to expect so that you can make sure that there’ll be enough seats and food for everyone. This will also help you if you want to create place cards! BHG has some pretty designs for inspiration! Check it out here!
One of the most stressful parts of preparing Thanksgiving dinner is making sure that all of the food is cooked in time. If you set a time for dinner and calculate how long each dish will need to cook, however, you should be okay.
Doing a traditional turkey dinner? At 325 degrees, an unstuffed turkey typically takes 15 minutes per pound to cook in the oven. The timing changes if you decide to stuff it or if you put it in the oven frozen. Because it can take 4-6 hours for some turkeys to cook, you might want to start on this in the morning.
As for all other food, do the prep work and/or cook the side dishes that you can the day before Thanksgiving. Doing the prep work earlier will help you cut down on the time you’ll have to spend in the kitchen (and not with your family) preparing food. Cooking certain dishes the day before that can easily be reheated is also really helpful if you’re limited on oven space.
For many families, Thanksgiving is all about football. If that describes your family, plan some way to incorporate that activity. Weather permitting, of course, you can go to the park or rent out a community center gym to play indoor flag football.
Is your family not into football? That’s okay! There are other games like turkey bowling or gratitude pick-up sticks. You could also go with a family favorite board or card game.
Thanksgiving is meant to be a fun day spent with family, not a day that you worry about to the point where you can’t wait for it all to be over. Use these tips as a guide so that it can be the fun and heart-warming day its supposed to be. You can also check out our games we have to offer here.
