Mon. Dec 2nd, 2024

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so it’s a good idea to start planning how and with whom you might celebrate this special time of the year in 2022. If you feel it’s time to step things up a notch and bring the wow to your Thanksgiving, you might like to try out some or all of the tips below.

Set a Theme
Most people concentrate on the food they serve or make on Thanksgiving and don’t get around to thinking too much about how they decorate their homes for the holiday. If you want to up the ante this year, it’s worth setting a theme for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

You could go in numerous directions with this, such as choosing a particular color scheme or seasonal palette or basing the theme around your favorite film, TV show, book, or the like. You might prefer to select a country and create a travel-based theme, or you could opt for a formal affair or outdoors one, or pick a sport as the basis for your décor and other party elements.

Some people enjoy having a harvest celebration or farmers’ market feel to their Thanksgiving events. In contrast, others focus on wowing the kids in their life by choosing themes such as fairies, princesses, dinosaurs, robots, cowboys, or the circus.

Start Some Fun Traditions
Thanksgiving can be an excellent time to start new traditions with your family or friends. For example, since it’s the beginning of the holiday season, you could exchange Christmas tree ornaments or small Hanukkah gifts, choose and decorate a Christmas tree together, or enjoy some quality downtime after a big Thanksgiving meal watching a holiday movie.

You might choose to host a “Friendsgiving” event instead. This holiday doesn’t have to be a time purely for celebrating our related loved ones but can also be when we pay tribute to and enjoy hanging out with our best friends. Many people like to invite friends who don’t have family to celebrate Thanksgiving with or who can’t see their loved ones on the day, so that no one feels alone at this time of the year.

Other traditions to consider include creating a Thanksgiving-themed trivia or other game for all your guests to play, drawing thanks on a tablecloth or in a guest book or the like to create a fun memento of the day, or taking a special trip away for Thanksgiving.

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You might also like to hand your guests thank you cards and matching envelopes and suggest they write a note of thanks to someone in their life who helped them or otherwise made a difference during the past year. You could collect them all and send them off the day after, or attendees could hand out or post their own cards. This provides a beautiful way to reflect on what and who matters.

Hire a Wonderful Venue for the Day
If you have a decent budget for your Thanksgiving celebrations, you might choose to hire a wonderful venue for the day. You could book out a private room in your favorite restaurant, choose a local hall, rent out a fancy Airbnb or other property for the occasion, or even hire a boat for something different.

There are many avenues that cater to all sorts of budgets, so this option doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive, either. Plus, going down this route is helpful because it means you don’t have to spend hours cleaning and decorating your home before your guests arrive or cleaning up after they go home.

Invest in Some Fireworks
Another way to wow the people in your life this Thanksgiving is by investing in some dazzling fireworks. Put on a display at your home or the venue you choose (just check regulations before purchasing), and you’re sure to have all attendees oohing and ahhing and talking about your event for years to come.

Create a Signature Cocktail for the Event
If you want to add some fun and frivolity to your Thanksgiving this year, why not start the day’s celebrations with a signature cocktail? You could serve your guests a drink blend when they arrive that you make and name for Thanksgiving or base it around the theme you choose for your celebrations.

If you’re a confident mixologist, you could concoct your very own blend, or you might like to take already-published cocktail recipes and play around with them a little to tweak them for your needs. If this all feels too much, you could serve up mulled wine or a spiced apple cider mix in striking glasses and with cocktail umbrellas, fruit slices, or other decorative embellishments.

Other ideas to ramp up your Thanksgiving parties are to:

Bring in a personal chef or other entertainment
Go all out with decorations, such as big flower or balloon displays
Give back to those less fortunate by asking guests to donate to a charity or bring items to donate to shelters
Set up some sports or other games for attendees to play
You are only limited by your imagination and your budget when designing a memorable Thanksgiving, so get creative and start planning today for a Thanksgiving you’ll never forget.