While Thanksgiving is not an Australian tradition, it’s as good a reason as any to have a cocktail party this weekend.
And the best thing about it not being one of our traditions is that it can be celebrated anyway way we want. So with no real rules, we say …
- Gone are the sentiments that we need to spend it with family – close friends are generally more fun anyway
- Gone is the need for it to be a sit-down dinner – standing around with a drink in your hand is generally a better use of your time.
- Gone is the need for pumpkin everything – we’ll take the Cranberries though, ‘cause who doesn’t love a Cranberry Cocktail.
- Gone is the need to sacrifice a turkey – although a bottle of Wild Turkey will never last long at one of our events.
- Gone is the need for yams – even though the guys over at foodandwine.com will try to convince you that Sweet potato Cocktail made with Sweet potato syrup is a actually a thing.
- Gone are the arguments and the “what are you really doing with your life’ questions – we’ll leave those for Christmas …
So what’s left? Well, the Cranberries obviously … but also the desire to be thankful for good friends, good booze, good stories and a good time (hopefully had by all).
It’s a time to reflect on the year that has been and start to hatch plans for the year to come. ‘Cause no matter what your family think, your friends know that you’re living your best life (and you have the home bar and cocktail tools to prove it).
Approach
If this cocktail party is all about being thankful for your friends and your booze, then it’s definitely the time to be playing a nice but dysfunctional version of thanksgiving bingo.
If you get a decent enough crowd of people all standing around, then even if they have been warned, you’ll always get a fair few boxes that can easily be crossed off or at least come very close to it.
While everyone’s cards will be a little different, the trick is to think of things that always get mentioned but really never should be.
Everyone has a friend who solely wants to talk about the environment and wants to explain why they are #blessed Or someone who talks about how much they love kids and asks if they can touch your hair.
Alternatively, there’s the person who manages to bring the conversation around to sex (even if that conversation has been about politics or their work).
Keep it lighthearted and fun, after all these are your friends and you love them for their dysfunction …
Cocktails
As we might have mentioned, this is all going to be about Cranberries … you can usually find cranberry sauce, frozen cranberries or Cranberry Juice in most supermarkets, but the joy of Cranberry cocktails is that they are all generally relatively simple.
So let’s start off with Cranberry Mimosas
And then we can move on to feeling like we’re living in the ’90s with the even simpler Vodka Cranberry
Food
Why is there a need for food when we have Cranberries you ask? We don’t know … but we’re all about responsible service, so here we go …
Therefore we have Baked Turkey Meatballs (’cause basically, they just go with everything …)
And (just because we wanted more Cranberries) we also include a little Cranberry Sorbet.
Music
Now at this point, you probably think we’re going to play the best of the Cranberries (and for the Millennials in the audience, they would be an early ’90s’ Irish Rock brand) but no, we’re keeping to the actual theme and giving you thanksgiving tunes (look … something else you can be thankful for …)
Ice Breakers
If you are unsure what you’ll talk about, then we have a few articles that can provide some fun facts for you and your guests.
What Bartenders Drink On Thanksgiving
World’s Most Expensive Thanksgiving Dinner
13 Easy Tips for Politicizing Your Thanksgiving Dinner
The Thanksgiving Story You’ve Probably Never Heard
The Real Reason Why Thanksgiving Is Always on a Thursday
