Hosting for Friendsgiving? Tips to avoid the fuss

Oh, the whole. The holiday season is fast approaching. It's busy behind us, isn't it? I know. I was like, what's going on? Plenty of gatherings with family and friends this Thanksgiving. But hosting a Friendsgiving celebration doesn't have to be stressful. Etiquette expert Diane Goetzman joins us this morning with more information on how to host the best Friendsgiving without the fuss. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So we have a slew of holidays coming up, right? So we have all kinds of food-related dilemmas. And Friendsgiving is such a fun time to get together with friends. That's why I think this is going to take away some of those awkward moments that we worry about. So we're talking about once you kind of agree on a date, some things that the host can remember so that things move smoothly, right? Yes. Okay, so the first thing is if you're hosting, you don't have to have a big budget, right? That's right. So what I did today to show you is... I set up the main course. So you can say, and I think the host should be the one who, if you, of course they can do everything, they can do everything from beginning to end, but if you are on a tight You can say, listen, I'm going to do the main course, and then you bring, you know, friends bring the sides, but the host has to keep a list of who's bringing what, so there's not multiple sweet potatoes and no salad or greens, and it doesn't have to be what you would think, a turkey, or in this case, I made a ham, which is so good, but it can be pizza, tacos, it could be whatever you would like to have, and then somebody else, let's say it's tacos, and you make tacos, and somebody brings them. The host does the bones, and then everyone else does the healthy stuff. I am going to want to know if some of my guests have certain dietary restrictions. And I'm not talking about things like, oh, I don't like olives. Okay, that's the like, like a preference. I'm talking about I have a serious nut allergy or I have a serious medical allergy, you know, some gluten issue that really makes me very ill. So we want to know that. Is there anything that I should know? And then the guests should feel free to let them know. Exactly. So what about when it comes to, like, besides allergies, you say there are no rules. What do you mean by that? So what I mean by that is, you know, there's nothing set in stone when it comes to what you serve. So you can serve anything from lasagna to ham. And we worry because we don't have the right plates or the right setups. And you can use paper plates. You can use whatever you use every day. Don't wait until the holidays to use your best china, though. If you do have some, do you have any china that has been passed down from your... She's not married yet. Not yet. Do you have any that hasn't been passed down? I do, yes. You do have some. So I think it's important to bring it out any time of year because we want to appreciate what we have. So you say, you know, use what you own, but if you're also a guest, can you bring, you know, your own dishes that you have from home or what's kind of that? I feel like that's what I'm running into at Friendsgiving. I'm like, what do I bring? Yes. So ask your host. What they're missing, first of all, so, you know, well, what are you missing? So you're making the entree. Somebody else is bringing the salad. What would be good for, you know, get asked for ideas and then you can bring it in something disposable or you can bring it in a bowl or casserole dish and just know that you may have to pick it up later or you might need to before you leave and it's almost all gone, you know, transfer it and bring your, take your bowl home. Okay. I have an etiquette question. Of course, Jen. So what if someone brings like a sweet potato casserole and not all of it's eaten? Can you take the rest home? Yeah, do you want to? I always want, you know, I always say, I don't know if I want to. I don't know what's left. Okay, does somebody know? What if it's a dessert? What if it's a really good dessert? You can take, what you can do is. You can take it home if the host says, take this home, take what's left. But if they say, would you mind leaving that behind? Of course, you're going to leave it behind. Well, if they don't say anything at all, is that just the common courtesy to just leave it there since you brought it for the host? If it's a dish you're leaving, yes. If it's a disposable dish. If you're bringing your casserole dish home, you know, glass dish, you can just take what's left if it's just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You're going to use your best judgment, in other words. Remember the story we did where someone brought a really good dessert, or maybe it was a trending story. Someone brought a really good dessert and it was a Reddit debate. Because they wanted to, it wasn't all eaten and they wanted to take it home. Yes. I mean, if you just got to make extra at home. Yeah. You have to make extra at home. The same goes for, you know, this often happens with liquor. You know, just bring your own liquor to these holiday events. Well, if you put a bottle of wine out, you know, for everyone, and there's still some left, leave it. You're not taking it home. Totally, for sure. Yes. Okay. Next, they're telling us, get through the bullets. Give gratitude. Give gratitude. Meaning, oh, you're friends. You can get together and you can maybe exchange gifts if you're going to not see them again. I love that. I think it's so important to show gratitude for our community, show gratitude for our friendship, and make it fun. You know, you might say at the end of our party, before everybody leaves, we're going to watch a movie, so bring your favorite house slippers and let's watch a movie and eat popcorn. Be creative. Yes, plan a movie and a popcorn dessert. Oh, right. I love buying those bags of caramel corn and handing them out as gifts, giving everybody their blanket. If that's gonna be a little gift, you can find them cheap right now. Yeah, so just, it's all about spending time with your friends. You may not see them except once or twice a year, but this is the time to really lean in. Yeah. Thank you so much. Making me excited. I know. We're gonna eat some ham in the commercial break.