Design and Print Thanksgiving & Friendsgiving Invitations

By the end of September, everyone is eyeing the 4th Thursday of November for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, or Friendsgiving, is one of the most important celebratory events of the year. You invite your closest friends and family for dinner and other fun activities. In this article we are going to explain how to level up your holiday party by creating cool Thanksgiving invitations in Swift Publisher.

Thanksgiving family dinner.

Breaking Down the Components of Friendsgiving Invitations

If you want to have an attractive and informative Thanksgiving invitation card, you must find a suitable invitation maker and know the components that shape the perfect design.

Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving invitation created in Swift Publisher for Mac.

When and How to Send the Invitation?

All of us have relatives, family members, or friends from all around the country. Therefore, you must be proactive in sending out the dinner invitation beforehand so that no one misses the annual get-together.

We know that Thanksgiving is on the 4th Thursday of November. Therefore, you should inform the far-flung relatives and friends beforehand so they can commit to the required date and time of the Thanksgiving party.

It is not necessary to send paper invitations too early. Instead, you can call, text, or email them. Afterward, you can send the formal paper invitation. This practice is helpful to ensure the attendance of relatives who are living in other states.

For those nearby, you can send the paper invites whenever you deem fit. Generally, sending these formal cards out at the start of November is best.

Party Date and Time

The most important invitation part includes the date and time of the party or dinner. You must ensure this information gets the best readability and view on the message. Specify the information about the date and time of the event on top of the invitation and keep the font size of this valuable information larger and bolder than the other design parts

Specify If You Want Guests to Bring Something

One of the best things about holiday gatherings is that the guests can also be involved in the dinner preparation. It solely depends on the host about how they want to go through with it, for example some hosts prefer to cook and prepare everything themselves.

However, very often the host asks the guests to bring a dish or a dessert of their own. In some cases, hosts may request to bring bouquets of flowers instead of food.

Therefore, as a host, you should be clear and transparent with the guests about their involvement in the preparations process within the invitation text. For instance, you can include the bring-along dish message in the footer of your layout.

Friendsgiving potluck invitation created in Swift Publisher for Mac.
Designed using materials from Freepik.

Specifying Dress Code

Since Thanksgiving is a friends and family event, there’s usually no dress code. However, if you do have some requirements concerning guests’ attire, you may specify this on your invitation card. In addition, you may use a few power words, such as formal, casual, or semi-casual, within the invitation message.

How to Accept or Decline an Invitation?

A host needs to communicate the invite in a timely and precise manner. It is also a good practice for guests to inform the hosts of accepting or declining an invitation. For example, if some of the guests may not be able to attend the Thanksgiving party on the 4th Thursday of November, they need to inform the hosts beforehand. Providing some details about their reasons for declining the invitation would also be a form of good manners. Doing this will leave a good impression on the host, and they will not have to wait for you on the day. So be sure to always respond with an accepting or declining invitation message.

For the hosts, it is mandatory to use RSVP (“Répondez s’il vous plaît”, “Respond, if you please”) at the end of the message. RSVP will prompt the recipients to respond to the invitation (accepting or declining) in a suitable time frame. The RSVP section is ideally placed at the bottom of the invitation message.

Revised: May 2023

Invitation is integral to organizing and managing Thanksgiving parties.

Swift Publisher app for Mac will help make one-of-a kind invitations easily.