5 Steps to Prep for Thanksgiving Day

Are you having a lot of family to your home on Thanksgiving? Do you have anything planned for the day? Are you having difficulty getting it planned? Here are five tips to help you prepare for the big day!

Tip 1: Buy Cooked Turkey

If you eat turkey for Thanksgiving, consider buying precooked turkey. You can easily get it ahead of time at your local supermarket, grocery store, or delicatessen. Then you can put it in your refrigerator and reheat it on the day of. This saves you time on Thanksgiving, as many people spend hours on the day trying to make sure their turkey comes out right. This also may allow you to taste test the turkey ahead of time, as some delis will slice off a small slice for you to taste.

Tip 2: Make Your Sides the Day Before

If you’re going to have tons of sides, like homemade creamed corn, baked beans, stuffing, and the like, then you are going to have to either spend a lot of time on Thanksgiving making those sides, or you can make them ahead of time, and then warm them up on the day of. This not only ensures quality, it prevents you from feeling rushed on Thanksgiving. If you simply refrigerate it and reheat it on the big day, no one will know the difference.

Tip 3: Assign Someone Entertainment Duty

If you are going to have a lot of guests, put someone in charge of entertaining them (and keeping them out of the kitchen). You can have them create a whole schedule of what they will do before dinner starts. This schedule shouldn’t be long, and it should be flexible. An example might be 9am: watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and 11am: watch football game.

It could also involve things that are more active, such as playing board/video games, playing sports outside, reading thanksgiving day stories, starting a fire and having pre-food smores, etc. Whatever you want. You could also have traditions that you do before the Thanksgiving meal. One good one to have is to make a list of Bible verses that encourage thankfulness! Some people also tell the story of the Pilgrims, Squanto, Samoset, and Massasoit (the traditional Thanksgiving story), and how they had to persevere through the cold winter.

Most of all, make sure it doesn’t depend on any one person arriving exactly on time. People may be early, and they may be late, so don’t sweat it.

Tip 4: Have a Plan for After the Meal

Plan for what you are going to do after the big meal. If you like to go shopping after the meal, make that clear to your guests, so that they will either pack up and leave, or so that they can accompany you. If you prefer to tell stories, watch Thanksgiving movies, and have fun with family, then make that clear to your invited family, so that they can know whether or not to leave early.

Tip 5: Check Allergies

Call up all of your family members, and triple check to know all of their allergies. Create a master list of all of the allergies in your family, their severity, and how you need to work around it. If someone is deathly allergic to pecans, no matter how big of a tradition it is to have a pecan pie on Thanksgiving, don’t buy or cook one out of consideration. If something just must be done, consider having that food the day before or the day after Thanksgiving.

Many people will underestimate the severity of their allergies so as to not be too rude or need too much accommodation. To be on the safe side, reduce the number of allergens in your foods, and have an epinephrine pen on hand. Also, seat them away from people you know will eat foods they’re allergic to.

If you liked this article, be sure to check out more at planandorganize.com. Have a happy Thanksgiving!