Blog Post

How to Host Friendsgiving in Your Rental Home

Kristina Brewer • Nov 26, 2019

6 EXPERT TIPS FOR HOSTING FRIENDSGIVING

house on the beach with bushes in the front
Do you celebrate Friendsgiving? Writer and cook Emily Stephenson has been hosting a Friendsgiving in one form or another for more than a decade. Over the years, the gathering has subtly morphed from a night of mixing-bowl serveware and a crowded-around-one-table vibe into something a bit more organized, a little more uniform, and a lot more comfortable.

Stephenson loves the occasion so much, she wrote a book about it—The Friendsgiving Handbook (Chronicle Books, 2019)—which is packed with hosting strategies, recipes, and other friendly tips to make the night go smoothly, especially if you don’t do this kind of thing regularly.

“I started entertaining first with just the desire to have people over, and now it’s more about making them feel as at home as possible,” Stephenson says, noting that in her previous studio apartment it was more about squeezing people in where she could. “It’s exciting now that people have a comfortable place to sit when they come over.”

To celebrate the festive season, Stephenson is sharing her thoughts and tips on how to pull off a Friendsgiving of your own:

1) Make a guest list and stick to it
The fun of Friendsgiving comes from a packed table of people who either aren’t able or don’t want to go home for the holiday. And who wouldn’t want to party at the beach in Ventura County? But a good rule of thumb to keep collective conversation going is to limit the guest list to just those you choose. Stephenson has tried the alternative and sticks to this rule after one Friendsgiving when she allowed friends to invite friends, which resulted in siloed conversation for one loud majority with specific interests. “They all knew each other, and it dominated the evening,” she explains. “I spent a lot of the night just sitting at the end of the table, not really part of this conversation.”

2) Don’t be afraid to rearrange your furniture
You’ve probably decorated your rental home for everyday life, not for an event where you’ll host a dozen or more guests at once. So, it’s fitting that furnishings wouldn’t be arranged to suit those occasions on a regular basis. This might mean pushing together a table and a desk to create a larger dining surface or scooting a sofa over to squeeze in extra room for a cocktail station. Stephenson pulls out an armchair that’s usually in her bedroom to create more cozy seating for before and after dinner.

Mismatched plates will always look chic if they have a similar theme (like vintage diner dishes—which Stephenson regularly uses—or china, all the same make but in different colors), but some matching items help in tying the table setting together. 

3) Invest in simple seating that can hide the rest of the year
Extra seating is a must for big dinners. While items like piano benches and amps can get the job done, there’s something attractive about a table with mostly uniform seating. Affordable and more upscale options abound, some stacking and some folding.

4) Offer a signature beverage to welcome guests
Stephenson says that while people will often show up with a bottle of wine or other beverage along with their dish, it’s always possible that the first few guests might not. In that case, it’s nice to have something to offer as soon as people arrive.

Accommodate non-drinkers fashionably with a bar of fancy mix-ins that work with the rosemary syrup—tonic, root beer, or sparkling grapefruit juice—and have slices of oranges and sprigs out for everyone to choose their garnish.

5) Use matching glasses or linens
Mismatched plates will always look chic if they have a similar theme (like vintage diner dishes—which Stephenson regularly uses—or china, all the same make but in different colors), but some matching items help in tying the table setting together. Stephenson recently invested in matching wine and water glasses and buys linens by the bulk from a restaurant supply store.

6) Last-minute stress relief
Stephenson makes time for three things before guests start arriving: a mostly set table, as many dishes washed as possible, and a little time to get ready herself, which can easily go by the wayside.

Do you have any Friendsgiving tips to add? As the area’s full-service Property Management firm, RE/MAX Gold Coast believes you’ll love living at one of our long term rental houses like the gorgeous Hollywood Beach oceanfront 4 bedroom plus 3 bathroom home pictured at the top of this blog. We represent homes and condos in Hollywood Beach, Silverstrand, Mandalay Shores, Port Hueneme, Oxnard Shores, Seabridge, Westport, Mandalay Bay, Oxnard, Ventura Keys, Pier Pont, Faria, Solimar & Rincon BeachPark, Ventura and Camarillo. Please call us at +1 (805) 832-4075 and Happy Friendsgiving.  

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