How To Host Thanksgiving Dinner for the First Time

If you were tasked with hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for the first time and looking for fresh table inspiration, you are likely already recognizing the irony that for a holiday centered on eating, gathering, and gratitude, planning for it can easily take away the spirit of the day. Avoiding those anxieties is why we’re here to provide you with some helpful tips for hosting Thanksgiving, from cooking tools that make the hard part go faster, to entertainment inspiration that can change any occasion into an opportunity for spontaneity and joy.

Basic Thanksgiving Hosting Tips

Make sure you have some of the essentials planned for hosting your Thanksgiving dinner:

1. The Real Basics

Thanksgiving Hosting Pro Tip Number One: plan size, place, and even time, before anything else. 

Are you planning for an intimate gathering with just your close family, a big reunion with extended relatives, a getaway Thanksgiving, or a large party that feels more like a neighborhood tailgate? With that, consider space and whether you are planning to host in your home, outside in a park (weather permitting!), or a vacation rental. Knowing where you will host your Thanksgiving dinner can help ensure that it’s convenient enough for our guests.

Likewise, consider the actual time of your gathering: if you have guests with very young children and/or those who work the day after, consider hosting an event that is earlier in the day; on the other hand, if you know that you and your guests would revel in an elegant experience with fashionably late fine dining, then by all means, plan accordingly!

2. Theme and Formality

This is the fun part! What mood do you envision your guests will enjoy? Are you excited to host a Thanksgiving dinner by creating a luxuriously upscale fine dining experience, or more looking forward to a simpler day spent hanging out, doing crafts or playing board games, and staying cozy? 

Regardless of your choice in style, quality goes a long way in investing not just in a day, but in a better day-to-day appreciation of life’s small celebrations. Using savvy cooking tools for your Thanksgiving feast not only spares you stress on the day-of, but for any future daily endeavors. And, as one related Thanksgiving hosting tip, consider this your excuse to find sophisticated serving arrangements and linens, which can go a great deal in functionally enhancing the vibes of the Thanksgiving dinner you will host, while keeping you focused on what matters: putting the fun in function!

And this means that any invitations you send out can help express the mood you wish to convey, whether it is a soiree or an evening at play.

3. Make More Than One “Plan A”

By this we mean that it is important to host a Thanksgiving dinner where all feel like equally valued guests. Take dietary restrictions into account as a priority, to make sure all guests feel welcome. Do you have a guest who is vegetarian or has allergies or sensitivities? Does someone use mobility devices like a wheelchair or walker? How about for sensory needs — such as a young infant or someone with lower tolerance levels for loud noises? 

Plan for these contingencies in ways that show that the guest is fully invited, rather than an afterthought. In other words, plan your party for wheelchair accessibility before anything else, “quiet rooms” and quieter activities for guests with sensory needs, and that for guests with dietary restrictions that everything from having enough choices on the menu to having separate serving and cooking tools for your Thanksgiving meals.

Make the (Kids’) Table Bigger

Who said there needs to be an age limit for the kids’ table? Not us, because nurturing our whimsical side is even more important the older you get! The biggest tip for hosting Thanksgiving that we could ever give is that you give yourself permission to welcome joy, even in unexpected moments. After all, getting to host Thanksgiving Dinner for the first time means taking advantage of the opportunity to recreate old traditions while creating new ones — which can show up as overtly as changing the main course, to simply refreshing the kitchen textiles that your guests use. Knowing that fun during the holidays is about fun for any age is your ticket to playfulness that you can extend to your guests.

For the Football Fan

Whether your family is one of sports aficionados, or your hosting duties require you to keep your uncle distracted enough to not rant about politics, it’s always great to get creative on one of the signature indulgences for Thanksgiving. 

Perhaps in such a case, your Thanksgiving cooking tools include outdoor cooking mainstays, with tongs, serving trays, and skewers best ready for fired up grills for brats, potatoes, and fall vegetables, followed by cozy throws either for watching a game of pickup football in the yard or for watching the big game in a big, pillowy easychair.

For the Crafty One

If you make your art in the form of edible treats, beautiful table arrangements, or sculpted creations, Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity to hunker down and enjoy a puzzle, a painting, or another fun buildable piece with loved ones. Explore fantastic and fantastical ways to create memories with crafty games and creations!

New Traditions

We’re seeing more people striking out on their own to find new spins on tradition, if not finding completely new festive occasions that become tradition. After all, for some, Thanksgiving holds more complicated memories, including bittersweet ones — and it’s for those reasons that gatherings like “Friendsgiving” or even “Wolfenoot” have become so popular in recent years. 

It’s also for those reasons that when you get to host Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, you get to create something that is a unique, yet shared, experience. As one final tip for hosting Thanksgiving, just remember that if you are providing opportunities for creating fun and meaningful new memories, you are doing it right!