A Cornucopia of Thanksgiving Planning Tips & Tricks

Preparing for Thanksgiving Guests

If you’re hosting overnight guests for Thanksgiving, there’s more to consider than simply where they’ll sleep. You’ll want to think about cleaning, arranging who might help with cooking, accommodating a range of palates, and more.

Review the following Thanksgiving checklist for making your home comfortable and welcoming for overnight guests.

Determine how many people you can comfortably host.

Sure, middle school sleepovers were fun when friends brought their sleeping bags and bunked on the floor, but not all adults are well-suited to sleeping on a hard surface. If you have a guest bedroom, cots, air mattresses, couches, or futons, decide how many people can fit into those sleeping arrangements. It’s also important to draw a boundary for yourself as far as how many people you are mentally and/or emotionally willing to host overnight. Once you determine that number, let your loved ones know that it could be a first-come, first-served basis for staying overnight.

Decide how long you want them to stay and coordinate arrival and departure times.

The old saying goes, “Guests are like fish—they begin to smell after three days.” If you’re willing to let people stay for longer than three days, make sure you have everything at home to accommodate them as necessary (more on this later). Of course, if people are coming from out of the country or if there are other unique familial or cultural circumstances, keep those in mind as well.

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Create a welcoming environment.

The entrance of your home should be clear of clutter with plenty of room for people to set down luggage or other things they’re carrying when they come inside. Make plenty of room in your coat closet or on wall hooks for people to hang jackets and purses. Another nice touch is to freshen up your welcome mat, either with a new one or a good vacuuming.

If you’re able—and willing—to do a deep clean of your home before guests arrive, try to get that done at least a week before their arrival. This way, you won’t have to worry about freshly mopped floors when your guests first arrive, and you can do small spot cleaning in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Set up your guest room(s) and bathroom.

Ready the sleeping areas with clean linens and bath towels for each guest. If you have them, provide extra blankets and pillows just in case. Clear away nightstands and other surfaces to allow people to set down their things. It is also nice to offer clearly visible outlets or extension cords to let people plug in charging cables.

Whether you are lucky enough to have a guest bathroom or only have one for your whole home, get it ready with a good cleaning. Wipe down the mirror and shower doors, scrub the tub, and sweep the floors. Make room on the vanity for guests to place their own toiletries. Offer some extra toiletries like shampoo and body wash in case someone forgets theirs. Empty the wastebasket and add a fresh liner. Include air freshener of some kind to help put your guests at ease. Ensure you have plenty of toilet paper within reach, and account for extra toilet paper if your guests are staying for an extended period of time. Include a stash of menstrual products in a basket as a helpful addition.

Prepare and stock your kitchen.

Feel free to ask your guests ahead of time what kinds of things they’d like to nosh and sip on besides the Thanksgiving feast. Label cabinets and guest-specific items in the fridge in order to let people grab things themselves, including mugs, utensils, and plates. Make sure you have plenty of coffee, tea, and easily accessible water as well.

Decorate and add personal touches.

Pick up some cute Thanksgiving decorations to set the scene. If you have kids, let them draw some hand turkeys or create construction paper chains to hang around the house. Light some scented candles to greet your guests with a lovely scent when they enter—or better yet, start your baking.

Remember the folks who can’t make it.

Try a virtual Thanksgiving celebration over video chat.

Thanksgiving Meal & Menu Planning

Almost every group celebrating Thanksgiving in the U.S. will have a different selection of dishes on their tables. While we’ll focus here on a more typical menu, the planning breakdown can work for menus of all kinds. Planning ahead is helpful no matter what you serve on Thanksgiving Day.

Potluck or Dinner Party?

If you’re hosting the Thanksgiving meal, you can decide whether you want to host a potluck, where everyone brings a dish to pass, or a dinner party-style meal where you cook everything. To ease some of the duties of cooking and hosting, you might want to host a potluck and prepare the main entrée. Cooking the entire meal is also totally doable with some helpful tips.

Planning the Thanksgiving Menu

When cooking the entire Thanksgiving meal, there are some important steps to follow, starting about a month ahead.

Four Weeks before Thanksgiving

• Invite all your guests. Send out formal invitations in the mail or shoot everyone an email or text. Some families decide hosting duties earlier than a month out, so you may need to adjust the timing for this accordingly.
• Plan your menu. Consider what you have the capacity to do alongside your main entrée. Take into consideration as many special requests or picky-eater dishes as you can but try not to overextend yourself. Make your whole shopping list, too, with a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel or on good old-fashioned paper.
• Order your fresh turkey. If you’ll be cooking a fresh turkey, rather than from frozen, place an order with your local butcher to pick it up about three days before Thanksgiving.
• Prepare and freeze pie dough and fruit pies. Fortunately, pie dough and fruit pies are perfect to make well in advance since they freeze well.

One Week before Thanksgiving

• Make space in your cupboards and refrigerator. Throw away anything expired and plan to eat things you have on-hand in the coming days in order to make room for veggies, non-perishables, and baking ingredients.
• Shop for any hardy and non-perishable ingredients. Pick up canned goods and frozen foods like canned cranberries, frozen sweet corn, boxed corn muffin mix, etc.
• Buy a frozen turkey or ham. If you are preparing your turkey or ham from frozen, pick it up now to have it ready to thaw in a few days.

Four Days before Thanksgiving

• Thaw your frozen turkey or ham in the refrigerator. Place the bird or ham in a large enough tray or plate to be able to catch any condensation during the thawing process.
• Wash any table linens, rinse fine glassware, and polish silver. If you are feeling fancy enough to bring out the good china for Thanksgiving, give everything a once-over to make sure it’s clean for your guests.
• Decorate. If you’ve already decorated for your overnight guests, you’re in a great spot! Otherwise, consider adding Thanksgiving holiday accents around your home. Create your own posters to hang on your front door. Even one or two wreaths or a small turkey on a mantle can add a touch of holiday cheer.

Three Days before Thanksgiving

• Shop for perishable items. Purchase things like fresh herbs, spinach, and green beans just a few days before you need to cook them.
• Pick up your fresh turkey. If you pre-ordered a fresh turkey, pick it up a couple days ahead of time to make sure you get what you want and so that you can brine it, if you so choose.

Two Days before Thanksgiving

• Prep some of your dishes. You can assemble and even cook some of the dishes such as green bean casserole a couple days beforehand. Keep them in the fridge with a lid on or covered in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
• Prep ingredients for tossed salads. Cut up veggies like cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and mushrooms to simply throw together in a bowl on Thanksgiving. Consider getting pre-washed mixed greens to save even more time on tossed salads. Store everything separately. Avoid adding cut-up tomatoes and dressings to greens or lettuce to avoid them wilting or getting soggy.
• Make the marinade, turkey butter, or brine for the bird. Tomorrow you will add these things to the turkey, but for now, get that ready ahead of time to get it out of the way.

The Day before Thanksgiving

• Prepare and refrigerate stuffing for the turkey. You can get the bread cubes/croutons and seasonings ready with the chicken broth before you need to bake it on Thanksgiving.
• Remove pre-baked pies from the freezer to thaw in the refrigerator. The next day, you can serve them at room temperature or warm them up briefly in the oven.
• Make additional homemade pies. Allow the pie crust you made a month ago to thaw for a couple hours before using it. Store pumpkin and sweet potato pies in the refrigerator.
• Set the table and arrange chairs. If you are feeling really fancy, add name cards to each place setting to help arrange your dinner guests in a way that will facilitate conversation.
• Brine the bird. If you’re using a wet brine, place your thawed or fresh turkey in it overnight to lock in all those delicious juices. You can also add a dry brine or marinade at this time.

The Day of the Feast

• Put beverages in the fridge early to chill. If your fridge is full, consider using a separate cooler filled with ice to hold cans and bottles.
• Cook your turkey or ham. If you have many guests, you probably have a pretty big turkey or ham. Make sure to get started on cooking it earlier rather than later to help time everything. Remember that the meat will have to rest before serving, so you have a bit of time once it finishes cooking before it’s ready to eat.
• Make mashed potatoes and reheat pre-prepped sides. Pull those assembled or pre-cooked dishes out of the fridge to cook alongside or shortly after the turkey or ham.
• Assemble the tossed salad. Put it all in a bowl and serve the dressing on the side or add the dressing right before serving.

Additional Thanksgiving Tips

• Let cooked dishes come to room temperature before freezing, like the homemade fruit pies.
• Shop for containers or bags to let guests take home leftovers.

Thanksgiving Menu Planning for Picky Eaters

While it can be inconvenient to cook entirely separate or additional dishes to accommodate picky eaters, it can be tough as a kid to go hungry because of incompatible textures or flavors. Try some of these tips to help even the pickiest of eaters to enjoy Thanksgiving festivities.

• Inquire about preferences. For example, some kids can’t handle certain spices. Can you prepare a minimally seasoned turkey and offer sauces and other seasonings for guests to add once it’s cooked?
• Have extras of dishes that are typical crowd-pleasers. Items like dinner rolls, macaroni and cheese, and fresh fruit or fruit salad are healthy enough options that can accommodate choosy palates.
• Consider new combinations of your existing menu. Offering sandwich buns and condiments can be an easy way to get a picky eater to enjoy the turkey or ham.
• Try to avoid taking offense at their pickiness. Even the best home cooks and world-renown chefs struggle to get kids to eat sometimes. As long as you’re trying to help them feel welcome, that is enough.
• Worst-case scenario: Tell the picky eaters or their parents to bring some of their own favorite dishes. This is especially easy if you’re celebrating with a potluck, but even at a dinner party-style feast, you can let someone contribute.

Thanksgiving shouldn’t be stressful: It’s a time to celebrate family and the bounty of food that we get to enjoy. When you follow these tips, you’ll be able to put your mind a little bit at ease and lean into celebrating the holiday.