Friendsgiving: The Millennial Phenomenon
From National Pumpkin Day to National Hug Your Dog Day, it seems like a new ‘holiday’ emerges every time I refresh my newsfeed. However, it’s no surprise that some of these national holidays have made more of a lasting impact than others.
My favorite of these ‘made up’-turned-mainstream holidays is Friendsgiving. Your feed over the past week was probably filled with people’s Friendsgivings. For the past three years, I’ve looked forward to hosting Friendsgiving dinner in my way-too-small Manhattan apartment. To me, Friendsgiving isn’t about a fancy table setting, or even ensuring each of my friends has a proper chair to sit on. It’s an opportunity to bring all of my closest friends together under one roof, celebrating the best parts of Thanksgiving before we head home to our families for official festivities.
Though the term Friendsgiving first emerged on Twitter in 2007, the millennial phenomenon didn’t breakthrough into pop culture until a few years later. Fast forward to today, Friendsgiving content is unavoidable — often taking over my newsfeed the entire month of November.
In the past few years, Friendsgiving became so prevalent that brands have started to insert themselves into the conversation. In 2017, mobile payment app Venmo and grocery chain Aldi teamed up to launch a Turkey Hand Friendsgiving Emoji that let users donate meals to the needy. Together, the two brands designed an algorithm where every time a user shared the turkey emoji in a Venmo payment during the month of November, Aldi donated ten meals to Feeding America.
Though a simple idea in theory, the Turkey Hand Friendsgiving emoji quickly picked up momentum and resulted in providing meals to 46 million people in need. This is a great example of two brands appealing to the core demographic who celebrates Friendsgiving, while inserting themselves into the mainstream conversation in an authentic way.
In my eyes, Friendsgiving isn’t meant to replace Thanksgiving. Instead, it supplements traditional Thanksgiving festivities by giving friends a chance to come together before the holiday craziness sets in.
As if gathering over delicious food and large-batch cocktails isn’t enough, Friendsgiving is one of my favorite times of year to unwind and disconnect. However, since my first year hosting, I’ve definitely learned a trick or two to ensure the evening runs smoothly.
Here are four of my favorite hosting tips for throwing a stress-free Friendsgiving or holiday gathering:
- Pick a date and stick to it. With the holiday season comes busier schedules, work obligations, and family affairs. In other words, your friends’ schedules are bound to be packed. So rather than trying to coordinate around everyone else, choose a date that works best for you to host, and stick to it.
- Distribute a menu sign-up sheet. I love a good ole potluck, and Friendsgiving and holiday parties are the perfect occasion for one. As host, I like to supply the main dish and then see all of the fun sides and quirky recipes my friends come up with. However, to avoid overlap, make sure to assign guests to different categories (i.e. drinks, main dishes, and sides) so that you don’t end up with four dishes of mac and cheese. Though, that doesn’t sound so terrible.
- Set a phone-less rule. Friendsgiving should be stress free, so don’t let your guests get distracted with Instagram scrolling and work emails. Once all guests have arrived, let everyone take that glorious photo of the food spread (because you have to do it for the ‘gram) and then tuck your phones away for the rest of the night. Friendsgiving is all about being present, so there’s no need for technology distractions.
- Curate a great playlist. A great playlist isn’t something that should cause stress in the minutes or hours leading up to Friendsgiving. Prep your playlist ahead of time to make sure all of your friends’ favorite jams are included, and there won’t be any awkward silences as your guests chow down on the main meal.
