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Categories: thanksgiving

Hosting a delicious Thanksgiving feast can be intimidating: Cooking the turkey, preparing the sides, fixing the desserts. Truthfully, it’s a lot harder than it looks. That’s why C&H® Sugar put together these hosting tips to help you ace your first Thanksgiving with less stress.

Follow A Timeline

There’s a reason why some people make hosting Thanksgiving look so easy – years of trial and error. Chances are, these people suffered their fair share of Thanksgiving mishaps before getting it down to a science. Luckily for you, we also prepared a handy Thanksgiving Timing Guide that you can print out and follow step by step to prepare your feast without a fuss.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

As you plan your event, don’t be afraid to ask your guests to help you prepare. Discuss any dishes they will bring, as well as any set-up tasks they are willing to help tackle ahead of time. Just make sure these guests are dependable as well as eager to help. The last thing anybody wants to have to explain is why their “always late” uncle is arriving with the stuffing an hour after dinner has been served.

Make A Simple Menu

Don’t stress yourself out creating an overly complicated menu. Stick to dishes that you already know how to prepare, or that you can test out ahead of time.

Once you’ve selected all your menu items, start cooking as many dishes as you can prior to your event. Mash your potatoes, cook your greens, prepare your stuffing, and make your pie fillings. Then, stash them in your fridge or freezer in the days leading up to your event. This ensures that the bulk of your cooking is done in the weeks leading up your celebration, and not in front of hungry guests.

Prepare Your Home

As you draw closer to Thanksgiving Day, you can start preparing your home to receive guests. Consider making things easy on yourself by hiring a cleaning service to “deep” clean your house. With the cleaning service taking care of the heavy scrubbing, you can spend your time fluffing pillows and making sure there’s plenty of soaps and towels in the bathrooms. Then you can go ahead and start setting your table with holiday décor. Setting your table a week or so ahead of your celebration will leave you with plenty of time to come up with some cool ideas and achieve your desired aesthetic.

Remember To Relax & Enjoy

On the day of your event, relax and remind yourself that the most important part of the holiday is enjoying quality time with your friends and family. If you follow a plan and prepare ahead of time you have a great shot at hosting a successful holiday event that will lead to many more successful holiday celebrations in the future.