As the red, orange, and yellow leaves drift to the ground, fall approaches alongside its chilly yet comforting weather. The air fills with the scent of pumpkin spice, warm vanilla, and cinnamon. The season of warmth and gratitude begins, and Thanksgiving is around the corner, the special time of the year when to enjoy time with family and friends.
Are you looking for a way to enjoy your Thanksgiving break? Friendsgiving is a great way to celebrate this relaxing holiday! Together, with friends you can enjoy a multitude of exciting activities. Jayce Nguyen (9) says, “Although I’ve only celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, I think it would be fun to celebrate it with friends, but I don’t know what we could do together.” Many can relate to Jayce, so here are some ideas for fun activities that you can do with friends!
Have a Potluck
What is Thanksgiving without food? A great way to celebrate Friendsgiving is to have a potluck, where each friend brings a dish. It doesn’t have to be homemade either; it can be anything! It would be even better to have a variety of options for foods from cultures all around the world. For example, someone can bring pizza and another could bring fried rice!
Make Food Together
If you don’t want to have a potluck, you can simply make food with friends. You won’t feel forced to bring anything, and you’ll have a great time cooking together. Some classic dish ideas are turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and stuffing.
Create a Snack/Drink Bar
No matter what occasion, creating a snack bar is always a great treat! With friends, you can set up a nice stand and decorate it with anything you’d like. It can include snacks such as mini pumpkin pies, cupcakes, cookies, small sandwiches, nuts, popcorn, cranberries, cheese and crackers, or fruits. Some ideas for drinks are apple cider, pumpkin spice latte, cranberry juice, hot chocolate, soda, or simply any type of tea.
Host a Baking Contest
For competitive people, holding a baking contest is the perfect event for Thanksgiving! You can make goodies such as pumpkin pie, fruit cobblers, cheesecake, bread pudding, tarts, cookies, cornbread, carrot cake, nut bread, or any fruit pie, like apple pie. A new food invention can even be made for the contest. Afterward, everyone can try out all the creations and decide on a winner. Whether there will be a prize or not, it is still a fun, friendly competition.
Bake/Decorate Thanksgiving-Themed Cookies
Cookies will always be a delicious dessert and it can serve as a fun activity to do with friends! You can choose any recipe you want and grab some cookie cutters in shapes like a turkey, pumpkin, leaf, acorn, cornucopia, or pilgrim hat to decorate with frosting and small candies. It doesn’t have to just be a plain cookie too! Some flavors that you can add are cinnamon, pumpkin spice, nuts, apple cinnamon, maple, gingerbread, or any that suits your tastes.
Have an Ugly Sweater Contest
As the chilly season comes, sweaters are being worn all around. Not only are they good for comfort and warmth, but they can also be quite stylish. Having an ugly sweater contest is a small, yet humorous activity that can allow creativity and build long-lasting memories for years to come.
Host a Sleepover
No matter what time of the year it is, sleepovers will always be fun. It allows friends to spend quality time together and relax in a cozy setting with pajamas. With friends, you can go on a movie marathon, eat all the snacks you would like, share stories, and overall just enjoy your time together. Not to mention, you can also plan your Black Friday lists together and get as much advice from them as you need!
Play Thanksgiving-Themed Games
Thanksgiving is a day to simply have fun with friends and to appreciate each other. You can spend quality time together and celebrate with some games like bingo, pictionary, trivia, charades, pin the feather on the turkey, puzzles, board games, word searches, and even more.
Make Thanksgiving Crafts
With all the food and games, there is one thing that is missing–Thanksgiving crafts. You can celebrate this special day with fun DIY activities, like pine-cone turkeys, appreciation cards for each other, turkey handprints, watercolor leaves, paper flowers, fall wreaths, turkey pom poms, thankful turkey, and even more!
Whether you choose to celebrate your Thanksgiving with friends or family, these are some activities you can do to create countless memories throughout this comforting holiday! Happy Thanksgiving!
