For some people, Thanksgiving means congregating around the television set to watch the annual Macy’s Parade or Thursday Night Live pre-game shows. Dad or Mom’s preparing the turkey. Completely sloshed relatives are loudly talking.
For others, it means misery. It means not going back home — the out-of-state or international students who can’t pay their plane ticket home. The retail employees working on Thanksgiving without turkey waiting for them after their shift. Thanksgiving feels like the worst for those without family to celebrate it with.
Luckily, people like Brenna Callahan don’t let that get in the way.
“My one friend works at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving for Black Friday, but we’re just kind of going to go grocery shopping together before making a Thanksgiving lunch,” Callahan says. Callahan’s gathering her friends and roommates who are working for open stores like Best Buy or Target during the holidays.
“It’s actually kind of nice,” said Callhan. “We all feel like we’re getting to that age where it’s better to start creating our own traditions.. so we don’t mind spending it away from family.”
And that’s how Friendsgiving, a Thanksgiving with friends, works.
No one addressed this tradition better than the TV sitcom, Friends. After a series of Thanksgiving episodes, the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving with friends escalated to the tradition of Friendsgiving.
Roberto Cruz may be going back home to Kissimmee but he has other reasons for celebrating Thanksgiving with friends.
“All of us live in different towns so we thought we’d have a celebration before we went on break,” said Cruz.
Like a majority of Americans, Cruz wasn’t even aware Friendsgiving was a real tradition until his friend Ginny proposed the idea.
Before heading back home, ten of his friends will gather Monday afternoon around the Reflecting Pond with paper plates, plastic utensils and the rule: microwavable food. Because each friend lives on-campus in their shared suite at apartment residences Hercules and Nike, none of them have access to a kitchen.
“We decided to bring what we’ve been living on,” said Cruz. What they’ve been living on since the start of the semester has been microwavable perishables and plastic utensils. Each of them are responsible for microwaving a dish in their suites before huddling on picnic blankets.
Cruz says he’s bringing canned cranberry sauce and Publix packaged turkey slices with gravy packets.
“Someone’s bringing carving board turkey,” he said. “We’re doing instant mashed potatoes, instant stuffing, and the like.”
The freshman mechanical engineer never believed he’d meet so many new people at UCF.
“I had a hard first couple months making friends so I’m grateful to have made them,” he said. “It’s a nice way to celebrate making friends.”
Sean Daniel Valdivieso, a digital media sophomore, says the best thing about having thanksgiving with his friends is seeing them back home.
“It’ll be fun to see them again, get food, talk about what we’ve been doing and what we want to do for next year,” Valdivieso said. “And maybe get a game of soccer going at Central Park.”
How to Host a Friendsgiving
1. Plan, plan, plan, says Timanni Walker, a junior Ad/Pr major who’s hosting her own Friendsgiving on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Make a Facebook event with time and location. Send a GroupMe invite. It doesn’t matter where the Friendsgiving. Cruz and his friends chose the Reflecting Pond because they spend the majority of the time there. Instead of using social media, Cruz texted everyone the planned event; each of them sent him what food item they were bringing.
2. Organize who’s cooking or bringing what. Whether it’s stuffing, potatoes or veggies, contributing a dish is very important. Amanda Marcusky, a senior biology major, has celebrated Friendsgiving twice. While her close friends came over with a packaged dish, Marcusky and her roommates prepared the most important food item, the turkey.
“If you’re going to go big and make the turkey, make sure you know what you’re doing before you serve it to a bunch of people,” Marcusky laughs.
If you don’t have access to a kitchen, consider buying a premade dish from a supermarket or changing the rules of your hosted Friendsgiving by requiring only microwavable dishes like Cruz did.
“Also important to remember, non-edible, like napkins and paper plates, is just as important as edible things,” Walker said.
3. Thanksgiving Games and Good Music. Walker recommends adding games or good music to the mix. One of the games Walker will play with her friends includes a person blindfolded in the middle of a circle.
“If this person improved your life since meeting them, you go up to them, tap them and tell them what they did,” she said. “The blindfolded person has to guess who it is. During the game, most people will change their voice.”
Since they won’t see each other after break, Walker and her friends are incorporating Thanksgiving with Christmas by doing a Secret Santa. It’s up to the host in planning what is fun for the group but Cruz advises not to take planning Friendsgiving too serious.
“You don’t have to stick to any rules,” he says. “Feel free to make your own tradition.”
