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DIY Friendsgiving Ideas

This Friendsgiving ideas post had products supplied by Oriental Trading. Affiliate links ahead.

Need a few Friendsgiving ideas?  Or just Thanksgiving ideas in general? I’ve got a few for you! In partnership with Oriental Trading, I did some one stop shopping and then added a few DIY touches to make our Friendsgiving spread a memorable one!

Set a Friendsgiving table for Thanksgiving

Friendsgiving is a neat name they’ve given to Thanksgiving spent with friends instead of immediate family. My family has done Thanksgiving this way for almost my entire life! We were a military family, and mom and dad always insisted any soldiers that had no where else to go come to our table to celebrate the holiday. It’s just part of us now.

We never lived near family growing up, so Friendsgiving is always been the norm. In fact, I continued the tradition when I moved out of the house and moved far away from my parents.

For the last 20 years, we’ve continued to host Thanksgiving with friends (sometimes up to 25 people at our table!) and loved every minute of sharing Thanksgiving with others. I’ve always called it a “lost socks Thanksgiving,” but Friendsgiving does have a nice ring to it.

Friendsgiving decoration ideas

When I started designing what we might put on the table for a rose gold and gold Friendsgiving this year, I poked around on Oriental Trading site and found lots of stuff that was going to work. And I only had to make one order.

Here is the list of what I bought and what you will see throughout this post.

My Friendsgiving Buy List:

  • White plastic gold rim dinner plates
  • Clear dessert plates with gold rim
  • Gold placemats
  • Boxwood garland
  • Rosegold candle holders
  • Porcelain turkey
  • Wood risers
  • Gold glitter pumpkins
  • Wood slices
  • Wood sign blank
  • Wooden beads
  • Rose Gold champagne flutes
  • Porcelain pumpkins
  • Magnolia wreaths
  • Copper Round Favor Boxes

Friendsgiving Menu Ideas

Now, I know a lot of you are always looking for good Friendsgiving menu ideas or Thanksgiving menu ideas. Totally admit it, I’m pretty much traditionalist for my family’s menu.

I literally make most of the dishes here on this list once a year. That is what makes them special. Some recipes are already on this site for you here and have been linked.

For a complete friends giving menu, this is what we usually prepare. Hope it gives you some ideas!

Thanksgiving Place setting ideas

The Friendsgiving place settings were probably my favorite part of this set up. The placemat, disposable plates (Yes! Disposable plastic plates!) Came from Oriental Trading. I added it in my own silverware, napkin, napkin ring, and place card. More on those in a minute.

One other purchase I was thoroughly impressed with from Oriental Trading were the rose gold champagne glasses. they are so pretty in person and really good quality. I love the texture that the woven gold place mat added to the place setting.

Napkins and Napkin Rings

This is where I did a little Friendsgiving DIY! I like pretty tables, but I like them to not be so serious. I am not so serious. (In fact I have a few stories about butterfly wings donkey heads and hospital gowns that would totally change the way you saw me.) So really, a straight laced Thanksgiving is not for me. Even though my table might have some polish.

I made these napkins with Cricut SportFlex in gold. I’m fairly in love with the turkey butcher picture I put on there. Making them is easy–upload the SVG, have your Cricut cut it out, and iron it on.

The napkin rings are a piece of burlap ribbon, a high hat acorn top, and it wooden bead I got from Oriental Trading.
 
I’ve had those high hat acorn tops in my craft supplies for about two years. I was so happy to finally use them. You can use a felted ball (DIY or purchased,) or a wooden bead like I did. Just glue the ball or bead into the acorn top. Then glue the acorn to the ribbon tied around the napkin.
 
I ended up sticking a little sprig of greenery into the napkin to give it a little more color.

Wood Slice Ornament Place Card

Another favorite piece I’m passing onto you as a Friendsgiving idea are these place cards. Get the wood slices at Oriental Trading, spread a piece of gold elastic through the hole and you have an ornament! That ornament can also be a place card.
 
I used my Cricut machine to cut out the names of my guests from Sportflex brown Iron-on. I then ironed on the names onto the wood.
 
You could also use vinyl, but the SportFlex is very flat–like paint to the wood. See my post on ironing onto wood here for more information on how to do that. I imagine soon I will turn these into actual ornaments to decorate a tree at my house!
 
 

Friendsgiving Centerpiece Ideas

I really did find everything at Oriental Trading for this Friendsgiving. They had quite the selection of nice porcelain statues. Including Tom Turkey here! I picked up a couple of sets of wooden risers To help give my table and buffet some height.

These are an item you’ll use again and again throughout the year so worth the investment. Oriental Trading also had lovely boxwood garland that I used as a runner down the table. Perfect little pop of texture and color!

Another favorite item? Without a doubt these rose gold candle holders. They come in sets of two and added a little modern flair to friends giving.

Glittery gold pumpkin votives rounded out the table. Just add your own votive! These will work through Halloween, so you’ll get two months of use out of them if you decide to buy them.

Thanksgiving Takeout Containers

I don’t know about you, but when I do Thanksgiving I tend to cook for an army. There are leftovers for days. Which is cool, because I don’t have to cook for a bit.
 
The bad part of being a guest at a Friendsgiving Thanksgiving is that your guests don’t have those lovely days and days of leftovers. In the spirit of generosity, pick up a few leftover containers from Oriental Trading to send your guests Home with. They too will be able to enjoy one more meal of Friendsgiving.
 
I love the gold pie containers Oriental Trading carried. Of course, I whipped up some packaging for them. Print this Free printable pie left over label to label paper, cut out, and slap on top of the pie favor box.

Click here to download free printable pie favor box label for friends giving.

Oriental Trading also has some pretty Copper Round Favor Boxes perfect for leftover containers. These are also perfect for putting a label on to customize for Thanksgiving. If you don’t get the Oriental trading leftover boxes, I’m a big fan of brown take out boxes from Amazon as well. Both are good for using the free printable Thanksgiving leftover label.

Click here to download free printable Thanksgiving leftover label.

DIY Friendsgiving Sign

One of my last DIY projects Friendsgiving was a rustic wooden sign. This is vinyl stuck to wood. I used a blank wooden sign I got at Oriental Trading and added the stick on vinyl. I did not use iron on here, because I will likely change the sign later and wanted to be able to remove the vinyl.

Click here to download thankful for friends that are family SVG file

Happy Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving to you all!

Hopefully you picked up an idea or two to help make your friend or family and friends gathering A more special one this year. eat drink and be thankful!

 

Paula Biggs

Owner at Frog Prince Paperie
Paula Biggs is a party planner, DIY crafter, and owner of Frog Prince Paperie, where you can find hundreds of party, craft and lifestyle ideas.