American in Europe’s Intricate Plan for Hosting ‘Friendsgiving’ Goes Viral

A video detailing a woman’s meticulous process for hosting a Thanksgiving dinner in Europe has left viewers on TikTok in awe.

The video was shared by Cecilia Tolone (@cecilia.tolone), who is an American living in Sweden, and has garnered over 229,000 views since it was shared on November 2.

A caption shared with the post notes “Friendsgiving = Thanksgiving with your friends btw [by the way]. I say both interchangeably and i know that can be a bit confusing lol.”

Tolone says in the video “We are 3 weeks out from Friendsgiving, let’s talk about the prep schedule.” Noting that she hosts a Thanksgiving dinner every year, she says “This year’s going to be my biggest party yet,” accommodating a total of 24 people.

This year’s preparations will be “a little different,” she says, as she no longer has the luxury of spending the entire week before Thanksgiving preparing due to now having a 9 to 5 office job, which has “completely changed” her prep schedule.

The viral post comes as nearly 80 million people in the U.S. are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, setting “records across the board, from driving to flying and cruising,” said Stacey Barber, the vice president of AAA Travel, said in a report Monday. The figure marks an increase of 1.7 million people on last year and two million more than in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tolone says in the viral clip “I like to keep the menu pretty straight up and classic because I always have one or two Swedes who have never experienced Thanksgiving before.” So, she aims to keep the menu as “real and traditional as possible.”

The screen showcases what appears to be a section of a spreadsheet with various dishes split across two categories—savory (such as the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese) and sweet (such as pumpkin tart and apple crumble tart).

The next screen shows a listing of every dish broken down according to their individual steps for making it. “So, for example, for the turkey, you gotta buy the turkey, salt the turkey, and then bake the turkey.”

She then plugs the different dishes into various slots on her calendar, which is known as “back timing” and “it is the key to hosting a great party.” She explains “you just write a list of everything you wanna do and then work backwards in time.”

“Friendsgiving is on a Saturday, so I don’t wanna overwork myself,” she says, noting that she does “really small tasks” during the Monday to Friday before.

There will be “so so much to do” on the actual Friendsgiving day, she notes, “but I am gonna be able to get a lot done the two weekends before Friendsgiving.”

During the first of the two weekends before it, she’s focused on thinking about “What can I get ahead? What is dry? What can be put in the freezer? What is a small task I can get done now and not have to think about?”

In the weekend just before Friendsgiving, “we are going to be pushing the freezer super hard,” she notes.

Tolone likes to prep some dishes the day before, leave them in the fridge and bake them on the day. However, even if some items have been sitting in the freezer for a week, “it doesn’t matter, you will not be able to tell–work ahead,” she notes, adding that “you do not have to do absolutely everything the day of [Friendsgiving].”

‘My Organizational Dream’

Viewers on TikTok were impressed by the woman’s intricate planning.

One, @aamm1nnaa, said: “You are my organizational dream” and another, @drea.elle.gee, said: “I need a tutorial on being this organized.”

User @mollysmilesreads said: “As a project manager, this makes my heart so happy.”

Raven_Bones said: “Not only is the cooking amazing, but your spreadsheet style and planning is so satisfying to my brain. Loving this!!”

Yoshin K said: “let’s goooo!! the breath I took when I saw the color coded schedule, I’m so excited you don’t even know I love these.”

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

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