Friendsgiving: Food Ideas & Games For Your 2023 Party (2024)

Written by Beth (she/her) and Matilda (she/her) who love throwing parties for their friends.

4 min read

Have you ever watched one of the iconic Friends or Modern Family Thanksgiving episodes and thought, “Wow, it looks so much fun”, or, “That food looks soooo good”?! Then Friendsgiving is for you!

WHAT IS FRIENDSGIVING AND WHY SHOULD I CELEBRATE IT?

Friendsgiving is a Thanksgiving-ish dinner party to celebrate friendship. It’s a great excuse to get into the festive spirit and have your very own take on a Thanksgiving-style potluck party. The best thing about Friendsgiving? There are no rules…. which means you make the rules!

WHEN IS FRIENDSGIVING?

The first rule to throw out the window: The date.

While Thanksgiving is always celebrated on thefourth Thursday in November, with Friendsgiving you can be a lot more flexible. Sure, you might want to organise your Friendsgiving party close to Thanksgiving — but choose whenever is most convenient for you and your mates!

THE MEANING OF FRIENDSGIVING

Various sources point to the term ‘Friendsgiving’ first being used back in 2007. But when it comes to the origins of Friendsgiving, there are different possibilities:

• Some people credit the hit series Friends with inspiring the concept of spending the holiday with friends.
• Others say Friendsgiving might be the result of social media, or of Americans living abroad and wanting to celebrate Thanksgiving.
• Another reason for the rise of Friendsgiving is that lots of people want to step away from the problematic roots of Thanksgiving and embrace a more inclusive celebration.

So… while we might not know the exact origins of Friendsgiving, we’re just happy it’s here. It’s a good excuse to get together with friends and eat some good food!

HOW TO CELEBRATE FRIENDSGIVING

This Friendsgiving, will you go ‘classic’, ‘colour party’, or make up your own rules?

Classic Friendsgiving Party

For a ‘classic’ Friendsgiving vibe, get your autumnal aesthetic on:

• Decorations: Candles, pumpkins, and dried leaves (while keeping those dried leaves and candles far far away from each other!).
• Colour scheme: Think earthy tones of rich browns, warm oranges, deep reds, and mustard yellows. Pinterest, as usual, has all the inspo.
• Outfits: Opt for cosy and comfortable. Tartan, browns, plaid, loungewear. Yup, it’s giving Joey’s maternity pants…

Friendsgiving Colour Party

An alternative idea for Friendsgiving is to make it a ‘colour party’:

• Assign each guest a different colour.
• They have to wear that colour clothing, and bring a food board or dish of that colour to the party.
• Head over to Instagram or TikTok to see how others have been doing their colour party. The hashtags #BringYourOwnBoard and #ColourThemeParty both have over 20M views on TikTok!

FRIENDSGIVING FOOD IDEAS

On Friendsgiving, it’s traditional to eat potluck-style, with each guest bringing a dish. Which is good, because then, even if you’re having the party at yours, you don’t have to do all the cooking! Here are a few Friendsgiving recipe ideas you and your friends might want to try out…

Sweet Potato with Marshmallows

A fun twist on the traditional ‘Thanksgiving candied yams’. Pureed sweet potatoes are blended with sugar and spices, then topped with marshmallows and baked to a sweet gooey perfection. Check out this recipe by Jamie Oliver.

Mac n Cheese

This classic Thanksgiving dish is filling, affordable, and easy to make. See this recipe from BBC Good Food.

Strawberry Turkeys

Chocolate-dipped strawberries end up looking like a Turkey thanks to a clever combination of marshmallows, pretzel rods and melted chocolate. See the full recipe on PopSugar.

Pumpkin pie

Pumpkin pie is a classic Thanksgiving treat. It’s sweet and comforting, and this pumpkin pie recipe uses only four ingredients — winning!

FRIENDSGIVING GAMES, ENTERTAINMENT & FUN IDEAS

Throwing a Friendsgiving party doesn’t have to be expensive. Why not try out some of these games, which won’t cost you a penny…

Guess The Gratitude Note

This fun idea incorporates what friendship and Friendsgiving are all about:

• Ask each friend to write down on a piece of paper one thing they’re grateful for.
• Put all the pieces of paper into a hat.
• Mix them up and then get each person to pick a piece of paper, read it out loud, and guess who wrote it.

The Punctuality Video

There’s always that one friend who arrives really really late, right? Record each person arriving, and then compile it into a funny video like the one below.

Other Fun Friendsgiving Games

Here are a couple more simple and fun games:

• 'Put cups over your hands (as if they’re a pair of gloves) and then you have 30 seconds to try and pick up as many sweets as you can and put them into a bowl.
• Obstacle course with paper cups — try walking blindfolded around the course without knocking over any of the paper cups.

We hope that’s given you the inspiration to start planning your very own Friendsgiving party. And, who knows, it might even become a new tradition for you and your friends to celebrate every year.

For now, all that’s left to say is this…

Happy Friendsgiving!

P.S. Don’t forget to tag @NCS on all your Friendsgiving photos and videos.

Want to meet new friends and make amazing memories together? Check out NCS away from home experiences and grab your place today.

READ MORE:

How to build healthy friendships
A love letter to friendship
How NCS gave me a BFF