3 Tips for Throwing a Festive Friendsgiving Gathering

Do you guys partake in Friendsgiving? If you’re new to the concept, Friendsgiving is a Thanksgiving meal cooked and shared between friends, often in addition to family celebrations. My sister, who lives cross-country and can’t fly home every year, has participated in them for years, and we’re celebrating Friendsgiving with friends here in town this weekend, so it’s definitely been on the brain lately. If you’re thinking about hosting one this year you’ve come to the right place! I’m teaming up with Butterfinger to share how and where to focus your time and energy to make it a thoughtful and festive gathering!

1. LOAD UP ON GOODIES FOR GUESTS

Savory dishes always seem to be well represented on the Friendsgiving dinner menu, but let’s not forget about the sweet tooth friends among us! I like to have a variety of goodies on hand for indulging throughout the night, including these Butterfinger Cup Cereal Treats, a chocolatey, peanut butter treat that compliments all those warm flavors and spices at play during Thanksgiving.

These babies are just like making rice cereal treats, only you sandwich the Butterfinger cups in between two layers of the gooey crisp rice goodness. Easy, right? AND browning the butter at the beginning of the recipe makes your kitchen smell like an olde tyme candy shop which is always a welcome aroma at my house! Definitely make and wrap these guys up a day ahead of time, so there’s one less thing to do the day of.

What You Need: Brown Butter Butterfinger Cup Cereal Treats Recipe , 5” Wooden Lollipop Sticks, Cellophane Bags, Gold Twist Ties

Prepare bars according to the recipe. Once cool, cut into roughly 3″x 5″ rectangles. Trim the length of the cellophane bags down by about 1″, and skewer the short end of each bar with a wooden stick. Insert the bars into the trimmed cellophane bags, and gather the bag around the wooden stick, securing with a gold twist tie. Arrange the bars stick-end up in a serving dish and pass them around after dinner or as a “thanks for coming!” gift as people head out for the night.

Want more sweet treat inspiration? Visit Butterfinger’s Pinterest page for all the recipe ideas you can handle.

2. SET A FESTIVE SCENE

Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving, possibly more than any other Holiday, is focused around sharing a meal together at the dinner table. So if you’re planning on adding any sort of special décor, the dining table is where you’ll get the most impact and bang for your buck. I love greenery garlands because they’re (seriously) easy, and if you’re short on time and budget they’re festive enough that you could only make the garland, layer in your food, maybe some candles and friends will STILL be impressed by your skills.

With our tablescape, we first laid kraft wrapping paper down the length of the table, added in the garland, and filled in with flowers, candles, whole fruit, and of course delicious food. As I mentioned above though, garland, candles and food are your main key ingredients to a beautiful spread.

DIY Table Garland

For the garland, I used Israel Gold Grevillea leaves, but any leafy floral greens, like magnolia leaves, bay leaf, etc. will work. The great thing about Grevillea is that the stems come with relatively dense leaf positioning, so you can use the stems pretty much as is. (No need to pull each leaf off one by one, and reattach individually). I mean who has time for that?! You can make the garland a day ahead too as the leaves have great moisture retention.

What You Need: 1-2 Bunches of Fresh Greenery, Rope, Floral Wire, Scissors

1. Trim the stems right at the base of the leaves.
2. Measure the length of your table, add 12-18” if you’d like the garland to drape over the ends of the table, and cut a piece of rope to this length. Lay the first branch on the rope, allowing the branches to extend about 6″ longer than the rope. Cut floral wire into 2-3″ pieces, bend into a “U” shape, and use the wire to attach the branch to the rope in 2-3 locations.
3. When securing the wire, twist the two ends tightly around the rope/branch and then press the wire “tails” back around the branch, so they’re not sticking up.
4. Position another trimmed branch so it overlaps the first branch by 3-6″ depending on the density/positioning of the leaves, and attach with wire in 2-3 spots along the branch. The idea is to cover up the previous branch’s wire and create a consistently dense display of leaves throughout the garland.
5. Continue adding leaf branches until you reach the end of the rope. Place the garland down the center of your table and fill in with as much or as little additional décor as you like to round out the tablescape.

3. GET PERSONAL

Place cards are a simple way to add a thoughtful touch to the table, and these “cards” in particular could not be faster to make. Pick up some mini backsplash tiles at the hardware store, and write the names of your besties on them. When selecting tiles, look for cool shapes or ones made of pretty materials like marble.

DIY Tile Place Cards

What You Need: 1 Sheet of Mesh-Mounted Small Backsplash Tiles, Fine Tip Paint Pen

Remove tiles from the mesh backing and write guest names on each tile with a paint pen. If you don’t love your handwriting, you could also use small vinyl letter stickers to spell out names. Place a tile atop each setting, and you’re good to go!

One last entertaining tip before you go. If you can’t find the color fabric napkin you’re after, pick up some cotton broadcloth or linen at the fabric store, and turn under/sew the edges. Typically you can make them much more affordably, than premade in stores, and you get the exact look you’re going for. The napkins I made here are 20” x 24” each, folded in quarters and then in half.

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This post was made in partnership with Butterfinger. Thanks for supporting brands that help make Francois et Moi possible.

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