Canadian Thanksgiving came and went on October 12, and for many of us the turkey leftovers are a distant memory. But there is a second Thanksgiving season right behind it. Plenty of Canadians host American relatives, celebrate US Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26 with friends or family south of the border, or throw a Friendsgiving in the weeks around it. If you are hosting one of those dinners, this checklist is for you.

Hosting a big dinner takes a plan, not heroics. Here is a Thanksgiving hosting checklist in two versions, a simple dinner that a calm person can run and a full feast for the person who loves the whole production, plus a countdown that works for either.

Choose your size first

Everything on the list follows the answer to one question: how many people are coming, and how big do you want the meal to feel?

	Simple dinner	Full feast
Guests	4 to 6	8 to 14
Main	Turkey breast, small bird or roast chicken	Whole turkey, sometimes plus a ham or second dish
Sides	3 to 4, all made ahead or simple	6 to 8, with a few bought or assigned
Dessert	One pie or crumble	Two or three, plus whipped cream and sauces
Prep time	A day and a half	Three to four days
Host energy	Moderate	High, and worth planning for

Be honest about which you want. A simple dinner with everyone relaxed is better than a feast where the host is stressed and the food comes out late.

The countdown

Three weeks before (around November 5)

• Set the date, the time and the guest list. Send the invitation with a clear start time and an end time. Ask about allergies and diets while you are at it.
• Decide the menu and write it down. A one-page list of dishes, who is making each one and how it will be cooked is more useful than a recipe folder.
• Check your equipment. Do you have a roasting pan, enough serving dishes, a meat thermometer, a gravy boat and enough chairs? Borrow what you are missing now, not on Wednesday night.
• Order the turkey if you need a fresh one, or buy a frozen bird and clear freezer space.

Two weeks before (around November 12)

• Buy the non-perishables: flour, sugar, canned goods, stock, wine, napkins and candles.
• Plan your refrigerator. A big dinner needs room for a turkey, side dishes and sauces. Clear space in the fridge and the freezer. A cooler on the porch works in a Canadian November for drinks only. Keep the food in the fridge.
• Make a plan for the bathroom, the coat closet and the entry, since these are what guests see first. Our guest bathroom essentials checklist shows a minimal and a full approach.

One week before (around November 19)

• Shop for the rest of the groceries, except the freshest items.
• If your turkey is frozen, check the package for thawing time. As a rough guide, allow about 24 hours in the fridge for every 2.5 kilograms (5 pounds), and start early.
• Make anything that freezes: pie dough, cranberry sauce, soup, rolls.
• Set the table, or at least decide on place settings and the centrepiece. See our Thanksgiving table ideas for a simple and a layered setup.

Two or three days before

• Buy fresh produce and bread.
• Make the make-ahead dishes: cranberry sauce, stuffing base, mashed potatoes you will reheat, pies.
• Clean the house in short passes. Tackle the bathroom, the entry and the kitchen only.

The day before

• Set out serving dishes with sticky notes naming what goes in each. This saves an astonishing amount of last-minute thinking.
• Prep vegetables, chop onions and celery, and measure out seasonings.
• Set the table completely, and put out drinks and glasses on a side table.
• Write the day-of schedule on a piece of paper and tape it inside a cupboard door.

The day of

• Follow the cooking time and the internal temperature on the package or from Health Canada guidance, and rely on a meat thermometer rather than a timer.
• Let the bird rest for 20 to 30 minutes while you finish the sides and the gravy. This is your best window to bake rolls and reheat things.
• Put a friend on drinks, one on the door and one on dishes. People want to help, so let them.

A sample oven schedule for a simple dinner

The oven is the real bottleneck at any Thanksgiving, and most hosts do not notice until the day. For a dinner of six with a turkey breast, a casserole and two baked sides, a schedule like this keeps everything hot:

• 12:00: Peel and chop the root vegetables, and set out the roasting pan and thermometer.
• 1:45: Turkey in the oven.
• 3:15: Prep the stuffing or casserole so it is ready to go in as soon as the turkey comes out.
• 4:15: Turkey out to rest, covered loosely. Casserole and baked sides in.
• 4:20: Make the gravy on the stovetop with the pan juices, and warm the rolls at the end.
• 4:45: Carve the turkey and set the dishes on the table.
• 5:00: Sit down.

Adjust the times to your bird and your oven, but the shape holds: the turkey rests while everything else uses the oven. The same idea scales up to a full feast, with one more oven, a slow cooker or a grill taking the overflow.

Plan the leftovers before they happen

Leftovers are part of the meal, and they need their own plan. Buy a stack of containers, and set aside a half hour after dinner to pack them up while the food is still safe to store, since cooked food should not sit out for long. Send guests home with plates, and keep a short list on the fridge of what is in there and when it should be eaten. A simple plan, like turkey sandwiches the next day, soup the day after, and anything left frozen by day three, means nothing gets forgotten at the back of the shelf.

A printable beats a mental list

If you like keeping the whole plan on paper, the Thanksgiving Host Countdown and Table Plan from Green Velvet is a printable that puts the guest list, the menu, the oven schedule and the shopping run on paper instead of in your head.

Friendsgiving tips

A Friendsgiving is a good way to host a big meal without carrying it alone. Some rules that work:

• Assign categories, not recipes. “Can you bring a side?” gets better results than a long list.
• Provide the main and the drinks. Everything else is a contribution.
• Plan the oven. A potluck can fail because three people need the oven at 4:30. Ask what each dish needs and create a time map.
• Have containers ready. Send people home with leftovers in tubs you do not need back.

The stop rule and the payoff

For the simple dinner, stop adding dishes when every guest can name at least one thing they are looking forward to. Four sides is plenty. If you catch yourself writing a fifth, ask if you are making it because people want it or because someone’s grandmother once did.

For the full feast, stop when your timeline has all dishes done an hour before serving. If it does not, you have too many dishes for your oven. Cut or outsource.

The payoff for the simple dinner is a host who sits down and enjoys the meal. The payoff for the full feast is a table groaning with food, a long afternoon and a story people retell in January. Both are good. The mistake is trying to host the second while planning for the first.

For more ideas on keeping a home calm while you host, visit the Less or More? hub. If you are planning the rest of the season too, see our post on early Christmas decor ideas and the Halloween to fall decor swap.