Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but there’s no reason to panic! As a Southern girl who loves hosting her friends and family in her home, I’ve written a complete guide of how to host Thanksgiving. These tips and tricks will help you keep your cool and put together an excellent meal, whether you’re an old pro or are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time.

Shortly after we purchased our first house in Dallas, Winston and I hosted my mom, his parents and some of our friends one evening.

Miraculously, our kitchen was clean, the cabinets were organized and most of the moving boxes were cleared out. Our furniture was in place, and since our families and friends were in town, we made fajitas for LSU’s season opener.

At some point during the evening, my mother-in-law turned to me and said, “You’re really good at keeping your cool while entertaining.”

I shrugged it off, explaining that I just rolled with the punches and liked having people at my home.

I didn’t think about this compliment until much later.

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I’ve loved entertaining since I was a college student. Something about cooking a warm, homemade meal for people I love makes me so happy that I try to welcome folks into my home whenever I can.

It all started when my friends and I formed a rotating weekly dinner club. The chosen chef would cook a homemade meal, and everyone would arrive at a specific time to eat, bringing beer, wine, bread or dessert to go with the entree prepared by the host.

This love of creating meals and welcoming friends and family into my home has continued ever since.

And because I love entertaining and cooking, I wanted to share some tips I’ve learned over the years. And since I recently hosted a Friendsgiving, I wanted to pass along Thanksgiving-inspired tips.

You ready? Let’s do this!

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1. Choose your Thanksgiving meal time and put together your guest list.

Chances are, you’re hosting this shindig on Thanksgiving Day, though sometimes, it might be rotated to a day before or after due to travel schedules, work, etc.

No matter the date you host this meal, you need to decide the meal time. Specifically, are you making this a Thanksgiving lunch or a Thanksgiving dinner?

Either works, so choose what you like best.

Keep in mind that if you’re aiming for a midday meal, you will need to get your turkey in the oven as soon as you wake up and get started on cooking. You will have a more leisurely start to your day if you are serving this meal at a traditional dinnertime.

Decide who to invite, and invite them. You can call them to invite them, send out a digital invitation with the details or a printed out design… you do you!

Thanksgiving Invitation Ideas

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You can invite your people in any way you’d like to. If you want to send an invite, great. If you’d rather invite via a phone call, a text or a simple email, have at it! The key here is making it easy on yourself.

If you’re looking for something to make your Thanksgiving to feel a little more special, here are a few ideas of how to step up your invite game.

• Design a Friendsgiving invite in a free program like Canva and send it via email.
• Design a Friendsgiving virtual invitation in a program like evite.
• Print out an invitation from a company like Zazzle or Amazon and send. I really like this pumpkin and leaves invitation and these simple gobble ’til ya wobble invites that you fill in the details for.
• Purchase a digital invite to message to friends. This digital animated invite has a page where you can share the menu, and this fall autumn pumpkins invite is classic.

2. Plan a menu.

Once invitations have gone out, it’s time to plan the Thanksgiving menu.

While you might not the only person who is going to be cooking for Thanksgiving, you’re the one who is planning this… which means you’re coordinating.

Here’s what you should do:

• Write out a list of what you will serve. This is your menu.
• Decide what you’ll cook… and if you want others to bring a dish or two OR help you in the kitchen.
• While planning your menu, consider the dietary restrictions of your guests. Speak to these your people who have dietary restrictions and make a plan so they have something to eat.
• If asking others to bring a dish: Assign other dishes to guests or have guests run their dishes by you. I realize this might sound a little controlling, but it’s best to do this so you don’t have three Green Bean Casseroles and no classic mashed potatoes, stuffing or gravy.

Obviously, you need to take into account the number of guests that you’re hosting to ensure there is enough food. And since every guest is going to be bringing a food or drink item, you can ensure you’re going to have enough.

Thanksgiving Food Ideas and How Much Food to Serve

Thanksgiving is allllllllll about the food.

If you’re looking for specific recipes, let me recommend reading the following:

• The Best Thanksgiving Appetizers: This list includes 20+ seasonal appetizers, some of which can be made in advance.
• The Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes: This list includes 20+ of our best side dish recipes. The list is broken down into vegetables/vegetarian-friendly recipes, recipes that can be made in advance (AKA casseroles and some others) and sides with bacon. Because we love bacon.
• The Best Thanksgiving Drinks (Cocktails + Mocktails): If you want to serve a signature cocktail or mocktail at your shindig, this is the place to go. There are 20+ drink recipes here to peruse.
• 33+ Thanksgiving Desserts That Aren’t Pie: The name says it all. If you want to serve a dessert that’s not pie, we have a lot of options for you in this post.

In addition to this, I’ve also written out a whole post that includes Friendsgiving food inspiration. (Yes, I know this is not Friendsgiving, but there is a lot of overlap between Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving.)

The Friendsgiving food post includes items like turkey (and turkey breast), brussels sprouts, butternut squash, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce, mashed potato casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie and more.

How much food should I serve?

The answer to this question is going to depend on how many people you’re hosting for your Thanksgiving meal. A group of 10 will eat less than a crowd of 20.

Generally speaking, here’s what I like to plan for each person for a holiday meal:

• 4-6 bites of appetizers
• 1-2 dinner rolls
• ½ lb. boneless turkey (or 1 lb. of bone-in turkey)
• ½ cups of 2-3 side dishes
• 1 slice of dessert
• 2-3 drinks

The portioning is going to be different for each group, too, and everyone’s diets and likes/dislikes, too.

Also, while you’re thinking of your menu, consider what tools you’ll need to make the dishes.

Obviously, you don’t want to go into debt while hosting, so plan your menu around tools you already have. So if you don’t have a roasting pan* (affiliate link), plan to borrow one from a family member or a friend, ask someone else to make the turkey or order a pre-cooked one from a grocery store or a local restaurant.

3. Once your menu is planned, write a cooking timeline.

The quickest way to stress yourself out the day of a big event is not being prepared. You need to know what you’re cooking, as well as how long each dish takes to prepare AND cook (and cool, if it needs to do that.)

I write a timeline for the cooking for every party or event I host so I know when I need to start cooking and can ensure that my dishes are ready at the time I want to serve them.

This can make hosting significantly less stressful simply because you aren’t scrambling and you have a game plan. It is a life-saver to keep yourself on track when you’re in the kitchen!

I’ve written a detailed post on how to create a cooking timeline, but here is the general idea:

• First and foremost, print out any recipes you plan to cook. Open up the cookbook(s) you are using, too.
• Take out a pen and a sheet of paper. Alternately, you could do this digitally.
• Write down how long every recipe takes to cook, INCLUDING times for brining, chilling, etc.
• Make notes of anything that needs to be made the day of vs. dishes (or parts of dishes) that can be made in advance.
• Decide on your food serving time (which should be about 45 minutes to an hour after guests arrive) and work backwards to know when everything needs to start cooking.
• Build in wiggle room. I like to leave 30-45 minutes of this for myself before serving, so I start a little earlier just in case something takes longer.

Once you know your start time, write out a detailed list of what goes into the oven (or on the stovetop/slow cooker/etc.) and when so you can stay on top of it on Thanksgiving day.

Keep this list on your refrigerator or somewhere in your kitchen that is very obvious so you can check it as you prepare.

4. Know what you’re going to cook with, as well as serve your dishes on or in.

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Once your menu is planned, figure out what kitchen tools you need, as well as what you’re going to serve your dishes in.

Here are some tools you might need when hosting Thanksgiving:

• If you’re making a turkey, you’ll need a roasting pan, a digital meat thermometer , a carving knife and a serving tray.
• Casserole dishes of all sizes are helpful.
• Depending on what you are cooking, you will also need some pots and pans.

As far as what to serve your dishes on… I like to get out my dishes and label them with a sticky note to say what is going in them so I don’t forget or have the panicky moment when something comes out of the oven. (Yes, those happen.)

Heck, you can label and put them back in the cabinets until the day of.

Here are some of my favorite dishes to use while entertaining:

• Long Porcelain Serving Platter
• Rectangular Platter in White
• White Medium-Sized Serving Bowl
• Large Bowl in any color of your choosing
• Pottery serving bowls

That said, feel free to use whatever you have on hand and get creative! Your dishes don’t have to all be the same shape or pattern. Mix and match patterns to add some color and fun.

Remind your guests that if they are bringing dishes to bring their own serving platters — and remember to tell them to bring items like tongs, servingware and serving pieces, too! This comes in handy if you don’t have a ton of serving items at your house.

You can learn about My Favorite Easy Entertaining Tools and Products, too!

FINALLY, you will also plates and cutlery for your guests.

Depending on how big your meal is, you might need the following for each guest:

• Appetizer plate and napkins
• Cocktail glass or wine glass (multiple wine glasses if people might switch between red and white wine)
• Dinner plate
• Napkin (paper or cloth)
• Water glass
• Silverware and utensils (fork, knife, spoon, etc.)
• Dessert plate

Take stock of what you have and what you might need to get in order to feed your guests. If you want everyone to eat off your everyday plates or your fine china, make sure you have enough.

If you do not have enough, consider asking a guest to bring extra with them.

If you want to keep it low-key, consider using paper or compostable plates and glasses. We are big fans of these compostable dinner plates, clear cups and biodegradable cutlery* (affiliate links) for parties, but you can use plastic or melamine reusable plates, cups and cutlery, too.

5. Grocery shop.

I recommend grocery shopping for Thanksgiving up to a week in advance. You can also place a pickup order or a delivery order, too, if that makes life easier.

In fact, you’ll want to shop in advance, especially if you’re roasting a turkey, because they normally come frozen, and you need to give your turkey time to defrost in your fridge. (More on defrosting a turkey from the USDA.)

Get everything you could possibly need when you’re at the store, too.

This means purchasing paper plates, cups and cutlery if you don’t want to use your actual plates, cups and silverware at the event. (Which makes cleanup a lot easier. Also, if you’re hosting more than 4/6/8/10 guests, do you really have enough plates for everyone? Take stock.)

Will you send your friends or family home with to-go containers of leftovers? If so, grab a package of takeout containers while at the store.

Need beverages: beer, wine and spirits? Add that store to your list (if your state requires you to go to a specialty store), and purchase what you need in advance so you don’t have to run out the day-of. Alternately, you can assign 1-2 friends this job and let them have fun with it!

Some guests might bring a bottle of wine with them, so prepare for that, too.

6. Make anything you can in advance.

This step obviously depends on your menu and what you are cooking. It also depends on what you can prep in advance, but not cook.

Whenever I host a holiday gathering like Thanksgiving, I like to include as many dishes as possible that can be made in advance — partially or all the way — because it makes my life a lot easier and less stressful.

Obviously, this doesn’t work for every recipe, but getting out ahead of the cooking is a great way to be less stressed when entertaining.

Here are some examples of things you can prepare ahead of time:

• Chop fruits and veggies the day before. Obviously, some fruits and veggies will keep better than others, so use your discretion. For example, chopping an apple or a banana one day in advance is a bad idea. Strawberries are OK if you want them to have tons of juices, but otherwise, hold off.
• Purchase pre-chopped veggies at the store, like onions or even a bag of salad greens. Do what you need to do to make it easy on yourself!
• Mix the salad dressing in a mason jar. Set it aside until guests have arrived to pour on top of the salad. Alternately, just get a jar of your favorite salad dressing at the store and don’t fret about this.
• Make a casserole. Wrap in plastic and store in the fridge before baking the day-of.
• Make a drink (like a Citrus Cranberry Sangria) the day before. Let it hang out in the fridge!
• Bake your dessert one to two days before your event. Many desserts can be kept on the countertop. Just be sure to wrap it in plastic wrap once it’s cooled completely! (Concerned about baking pies? We’ve got 33+ Thanksgiving Desserts That Aren’t Pie for ya!)

Obviously, these are all dependent on your menu, but think it through and see what can be done.

Really sit with your menu and decide it intentionally so that you can give yourself as much wiggle room as possible.

7. Decorate (if you want to.)

I am of the mindset that we do not need our homes decorated to the hilt with decorations that we will set out for just a few days a year.

Let it be known: You don’t have to decorate your whole house for Thanksgiving. You can make this gathering as fancy (or non-fancy) as you’d like. So if you run out of time, no one is going to judge you on your lack of flower arrangements or cutesy pumpkin decor.

That said, you can definitely consider adding the following decorations quite easily:

• Pumpkins and fresh gourds are your friends! I like to grab a bag or two at the grocery and use them as the centerpiece on my table. Toss them into a bowl or set them on a wooden serving board. They’re easy and seasonal… they also last a long time.
• Another centerpiece idea: Fresh cut greenery from your yard (or your neighbor’s) in a vase makes for stunning and simple table decor.
• Candles add to the ambiance. I always like to burn unscented candles when we have guests since scents can bother some people, me included.
• Festive paper (or fabric) napkins that match your gathering can add a pop of color to a Thanksgiving table! Chances are, you’ve probably got ‘em at home already. 
• Make a bar! Turn a buffet table or another unused table in the dining room into a bar and offer up different mixers for friends and family to make their own cocktails! Or set out the ingredients for one specific drink, print out the recipe and let everyone mix up their own. Learn how to stock your bar for $100 or less.
• Add a pitcher or two of water or tea to the table. Add mint leaves, lemon slices and more things (like other citrus or even fresh herbs, like rosemary) to both water and tea, so have fun with it! This will add both height and color, as well as allow your guests to stay hydrated.

8. Take a deep breath, keep your cool and have fun!

The morning of Thanksgiving day, take a deep breath. The reason you’re doing this is because it’ll be fun.

Here’s how I like to fashion the start of any entertaining day:

• Drink a cup of coffee and collect my thoughts.
• Choose what I’m wearing, if I haven’t already. (Honestly, this is great to decide days or even weeks in advance.)
• Go over my cooking timeline. Make note of when I’m going to get ready.
• Empty my dishwasher. This way, I won’t have dishes in the sink when guests arrive.
• Get started with my first task.

Hosting and entertaining can be stressful. Things can (and probably will) go awry. But you can control how you respond to things.

I haven’t always been the coolest cucumber in the kitchen, but I am actively working on this. It’s easier said than done!

So when things go wrong? Take a deep breath and focus on what matters — the love that goes into the making of a Thanksgiving feast and the love for the people you’ll be hosting — and roll with the punches.

Some ways to combat the stress when things aren’t going as planned:

• Deep breaths. My older daughter’s teacher taught her all kinds of breathing exercises, and I like to use these to this day.
• Enlist help. There is nothing wrong in asking for assistance!
• Serve appetizers early. This list of 20+ Thanksgiving Appetizers has a lot of fabulous ideas for you!
• Let guests mingle for a little longer than planned.

You can do this. Promise.

Don’t let entertaining keep you from interacting with your guests. Whenever we host, we’ve found everyone tends to gather in the kitchen as we finish whatever we are serving, and it’s a lot of fun to chat as you finish cooking.

When you’re hosting Thanksgiving, this line of thinking applies, too. Also, your guests might be in the kitchen with you finishing up their dishes, too. And if your guests offer a hand, let them help.

Make this fun for everyone — and everyone includes YOU. Your friends are celebrating with you because they like you, so spend time with them!

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