Hosting parties in your outdoor living spaces doesn’t have to end with summer. Whether you want a formal dinner or a casual cocktail hour, Thanksgiving can actually happen outside of your home – saving you clean up time and giving you more space to celebrate! Here’s how you can throw the ultimate Thanksgiving on your covered patio or deck!
Harvest goodness
Thanksgiving consists of a bounty of delicious foods! After a patient, hard worked summer, the food is finally ready to be eaten with friends and family! If you’re interested in this type of party, then your menu should center on fall favorites. For example, squash, beets, carrots, apples, eggplant, cranberries and much, much more are perfect for a fall-infused dinner. Buy local, seasonal produce or pull it straight from your garden! Farmers markets are sure to hold unique and inspiring produce perfect your party.
Beverage
Apple cider is a classic beverage for fall. Serve it hot, chilled or both with the option of adding a cinnamon stick. You can also serve it in a mason jar to keep with a rustic design scheme. To fit wine bottles in with the decor, wrap them with burlap or adorn with twine bows. However, if you’re going more for a harvest cocktail party, find drink recipes that embrace fall flavors. A pumpkin spice martini or apple daiquiri could do the trick!
Décor
Bring the harvest into your design with the use of natural elements such as pine cones and twigs. Centerpieces can feature pumpkins and corn of all shapes and colors. Use burlap as a table runner or chair adornment. This rustic fabric is the perfect color and feel for a harvest celebration.
If you want to combine food with ornaments, find a good-sized branch to place in the center of a long table. Carve out holes down the length of it in equal spacing. Next, place an apple in each divot. Surround the log with either real or silk fall leaves and place tall candles next to it. You’ll have a centerpiece that is autumnal and one that displays the food you’ve come to eat. Guests can each take an apple home or eat after dinner.
Indoor outdoor
Have some of your decoration spill from the confines of the covered portion of your patio or deck. As harvest is all about the earth, sharing the celebration space with your yard will be entirely appropriate. You can hang lanterns or rope lights from the ceiling and drape them off decorative poles into the garden area. Late at night, this will make your outdoor living area an inviting, intimate space that guests can disperse into.
Because you’ll have a wide array of delectable foods at your harvest party, you’ll probably want to display your spread on a buffet table. However, even during the autumn months, bugs and pests are known for their attraction to food. Place your buffet table in a space enclosed by Phantom’s retractable screens.
Goodbye, bugs!
Retractable screens provide the bug protection you need without disrupting the flow of your party. If you place your buffet indoors, guests will have to maneuver through doorways in order to fill up their plates. By keeping your spread on an enclosed porch, you’ll minimize congestion while keeping your goods safe from critters.
When all the work is done, the food is eaten and the night dies down, you and your guests are sure to have had a great Thanksgiving!