Thanksgiving Day Planning

Don’t get overwhelmed with Thanksgiving Day planning, read on to inspire you to plan and excute a stress free holiday.

Thanksgiving Day planning can be overwhelming but don’t worry, let’s break it down so you can enjoy yourself too. Thanksgiving is one of the smaller occasions for us—not in food, of course, but in the guest list. Usually, there are about 6-12 of us, but that doesn’t stop me from making a big turkey with all the side dishes! In my opinion, leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving. I have a lot of different dinners I like to repurpose for Thanksgiving leftovers. Don’t worry; we’ll get to them later!

We start where we always do, with a plan! I like to use my Thanksgiving Day planning sheets I made on Canva a few years ago. They help break down all your tasks with easy fill in style sheets, making the planning that much easier. And we all know if there is less stress, Mama can have more fun! The secret to a stress free Thanksgiving Day is to be organized with a plan, and a backup plan.

You can purchase these planner sheets on my Etsy shop, use CODE: BLOGTHANKS and get 75% off these pages! Valid only on this listing. They are an instant download, which means you can print these out right at home and start using them immediately.

Now lets get into it. First decided who you are inviting. Whether its small group or a large crowd, you want to get as close to and exact number of guests as you can.

I like to decided on a start time at this point as well. Deciding on a guest arrival time will be crucial when we count our time backgrounds later for cooking scheduling purposes. You might want to also decided how fancy your dress code is going to be at this point, to let your guest know ahead of time. You might want to go a little fancy with the attire, or comfy cozy, some families like to set a color for everyone to base their outfits on. Whichever you decided, give your guests a heads up so they are prepared as well. 

Once you have a rough idea of how many guests you’ll be hosting, you have to deicide on a budget you are comfortable with and if you will be cooking everything or will you ask your guests to do a potluck style table or buffet. I personally love to cook it all!

Now that you have an idea of how much food you will need (based off the number of people), you can get started on choosing your menu. We like to start with a coffee table full of appetizers and cocktails. Here, I have a full list of all the Thanksgiving Day Appetizers we set out that day, as well as a list of our Thanksgiving Day Cocktails. 

Next up, plan out your dinner menu. We like to serve a soup first course before the turkey dinner comes out. There are a few fall soups I like to rotate between.

You’ll want to figure out the size of your turkey based on how many people you are hosting. A general rule of thumb is that 1 pound of turkey per person is a safe amount to plan for or 1 1/2 pounds of turkey per person is a good amount if you want leftovers.

I talk all about fresh vs frozen turkeys, and prepping a frozen turkey all in my post; Thanksgiving Turkey Post. At this point, I usually plan out my cooking schedule at the same time as writing my shopping list.

Next is your side dishes. This is where I have seen and heard a lot of family traditions are represented and established. I have a few my guest and I love every year, and some I will swap out for a different version or a different dish all together. 

A few days before Thanksgiving I alway set the table the way it will look the day of. Making mental notes, sometimes real notes of where food is going to be placed and I avoid heavily decorating that part to the table. Check out my Thanksgiving table scape in my Thanksgiving Decorating post. 

Are we feeling prepared for the big turkey day! Start your Thanksgiving Day planning now! Discover more thanksgiving recipes, tips, tricks, and more to help you feel empowered to host!