Friendsgiving Festivities

Friendsgiving is a Thanksgiving, but instead of with family members it is attended by someone’s friends. After having spent an entire semester working hard at school, it is a good time to wind down and spend some quality time with friends. Sophomore Ariana Moran explained it in better terms. “You and your friends get together and make a random Thanksgiving,” Moran said. “It is not a perfect dinner, it is just you and your friends goofing off.”

Halle Dittmer, Jade Rains and Ariana Moran’s Tips to a Great Friendsgiving

“Plan,” Dittmer said. Make sure that everyone pitches in, because if they don’t then it will be stressful when you have to cook everything yourself.

“Make it fun so that everyone has a part they can participate in,” Dittmer said.

“Find people that you feel really close with and trust and invite them,” Rains said. “Just enjoy each other’s presence and be thankful to have each other in their lives.”

“Don’t try and make everything perfect,” Moran said. “I feel when it happens in the moment it is more fun than planning everything out.”

You’re Invited!

Though Friendsgiving is for friends to get together to show that they are thankful for each other, sophomore Jade Rains thinks that others can be invited too. “Friendsgiving is for everyone,” Rains said. “Invite the people you maybe aren’t as close with. By inviting they feel accepted and welcome.”

Timing

Junior Halle Dittmer has participated in Friendsgiving for the past two years. She suggests planning your date in advance. Most Friendsgiving events happen before or after Thanksgiving day, but timing can be unique to your friend group depending on who throws it and who attends.

Directions

1. Plan everything out: Who is coming? Where is the dinner going to be? What day is it happening? “First you might want to plan out what you are doing and when you are doing it,” Rains said. “Also plan which friends are coming, because people usually can’t do it on Thanksgiving day.

2. Cook all the food: Dittmer has tried to find different recipes for her Friendsgiving dishes, but only one of them has what she truly is looking for. “I recommend Pinterest,” Dittmer said. Going into detail about what the cooking portion entails, she gave a play-by-play. “You need to get all the ingredients together. Everyone should go shopping for it and bring the things they need for the recipe they chose,” Dittmer said. “You need to start pretty early because you want to have it and make it before so it is ready to eat.

3. Disconnect from technology: “Today everyone is obsessed with technology. Everyone is obsessed with their phones and Friendsgiving is a day to be thankful, not to tweet ‘Hey, we are having a friendsgiving,’” Rains said. “You should just disconnect from the internet and enjoy the people you have around you.”

4. Eat, and don’t forget dessert: After spending all that time on Pinterest trying to find recipes and then cooking the dishes, it is finally time to eat. But there is one more thing that has to be at the perfect Friendsgiving. You have to have dessert. Moran has one special dessert that she has to have in order to call her Friendsgiving a success. “Bring a lot of pie. Pumpkin pie to be specific,” Moran said. “One time I had 12 friends come and eight of them brought pumpkin pies. It was awesome.”

5. Do an activity after: After feasting on the delicious food that everyone made, do something fun after. You can watch a movie, play a game, listen to music or go shopping. It doesn’t have to be super active. Moran sums that up in one phrase. “Just be lazy,” she said.