OP - I can get overwhelmed by small sit down dinner parties but somehow the hosting part of Thanksgiving is the easiest thing that we do. We host over 35 each year.

1. Be organized. I never am but the size of the event makes me plan in advance for one time out of the year. Lists are your friends.
2. Work ahead, preparation is 99.9% of the work. Have the house cleaned a few days in advance. Plan out the and finish the shopping days in advance.
3. Try not to cook anything on Thanksgiving. I know that this sounds weird but with a large group it is so much easier to cook almost everything in advance. I have the kitchen completely cleaned and the only thing cooking is the turkey in an electric roaster.
4. I set the oven at 350 degrees on Thanksgiving and tell people in advance. It is only used for heating up already cooked food. Add in the microwave for reheating some things. I didn't think this would work but you can actually heat up mashed potatoes in boiling water.

5. Best hacks:

- One year we ran out of oven space on the reheating. We put the masked potatoes in zip lock gallon bags and then place the bags in a big pot of boiling water. Add some extra butter and a little cream once they are done reheating. This tasted so much better.

- Turkey -cook a turkey breast the day before and slice up for extra meat. Put the slices meat and a cup or two of reserved juices in a Tupperware container. Reheat it in reserved turkey juices.

- Serve buffet style. Use the disposable aluminum pans that you get in the grocery store for several dishes.

- Stick to the basics. Try not to overdo it on making more than one variation or creative dishes.

-Everything does not need to be from scratch. People tend to think its either cranberry sauce from a can or homemade from berries you fought off a bear to collect. Costco has very good cranberry sauce in the refrigerator section. You can buy bagged dried stuffing (Boudin has a good version) and make it with good quality chicken broth add your own sautéed onions, celery, fresh parsley, etc.

6. If people want to bring things assign things that are easier for travel. Pies, appetizers like cheeses and crackers,, extra desserts. You should have the whipped cream and any ice cream on hand.

7. Don't rely on someone else to bring drinks. If they are late people will get thirsty.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, DCUM will scream and clutch their pearls but PAPER PLATES AND NAPKINS!

Also hope the number falls before then...

It sounds like a lot of people frequently host large crowds without paper plates. I mean, use what you want, but clearly a few folks have this down to a science. I'm impressed!

Definitely rent folding tables and chairs. Think about what you like to cook and what you don't, and how far away people are coming from before assigning things to bring: wine and soda and such are easy with even a long drive, but if someone is flying in it's not a good option.

Make a spreadsheet ahead of time and make notes for the following year as soon as possible afterwards. Consider where things will go in your fridge, freezer, oven, and stovetop; think about if anything can be made in another way (I've done queso as an appetizer in the rice cooker, and baked brie in the toaster oven a different year). If you have a crockpot or can borrow one, that helps--you can also cook things on the stove and use crockpots to keep things warm. Also think about what baking and serving dishes (including serving spoons and spatulas and such, plus trivets and other heat-protection items) you'll need for each food. It would suck to have 3 things you were planning to cook in the same pyrex casserole dish!

I've never done 28, but have had as many as 16 in what is likely a smaller house. My spreadsheet columns are:

* Food (divided into "appetizer" "main meal" "dessert" and "beverages")
* Do ahead tasks (I try to do a lot of the chopping and prep work the day before--my inlaws usually come over and help with this. Note that onions should be sliced the day of or else they smell up the fridge.)
*Needs oven on Thanksgiving?
*Needs stovetop on Thanksgiving?
*Other way to warm on Thanksgiving (toaster oven, rice cooker, crockpot, served room temp, etc.)
*Who is bringing?

I then use this list to generate a grocery shopping list (which I try to put in order by section of the store, with separate lists for items I'm not buying at the usual store).

Try to get your fridge as empty as possible before you start shopping and cooking. Eat up what you can. Throw out the stuff you'll never use again.

Have a plan for cleanup. My plan is that people carry their things to the kitchen and then my spouse or a sibling takes anyone who's interested on a walk around the neighborhood before dessert. That gets them out of the house, which actually makes cleanup easier with fewer people around. A few of us stay back to package leftovers and load the dishwasher (I always start it before dinner so I can empty it and re-load after) and set up for dessert. I am super lucky that my mother in law is very eager to do dishes so the kitchen is usually pretty clean by the time we sit down for dinner, making cleanup not so bad. If you have relatives who are willing to station themselves at the sink, TAKE THEM UP ON THAT.

Here was my menu from last year, in case it helps:
APPETIZERS [my father in law likes preparing all of this and laying it out ...it keeps him busy and then he and his brother go watch football and eat it with other guests who prefer not to hang out in the kitchen. We put the newspaper there as well for those who like to look at Black Friday circulars]
* Cheese board with crackers
* Cut veggies & dip
* Pickles, olives, and chili lime almonds from Trader Joe's
[I also listed popcorn in case we ran out of snacks--we have a popper--but we didn't need it]

MAIN MEAL
* Salad (brought by mom)
* Turkey [we did a smaller turkey plus a spare breast]
* field roast "vegan celebration roast" (bought at whole foods for 2 vegetarian guests...it was pretty good though)
* Gravy--meat & mushroom [we buy it jarred]
* Crockpot yams (brought by uncle in his own crockpot)
* Canned jellied cranberry sauce
* Fresh cranberry sauce (made several days ahead)
* Potato-cauliflower mash
* dressing
* roasted carrots and parsnips and other root vegetables with mustard and rosemary (note: another thing we've made in the past is the Smitten Kitchen butternut squash and chickpea salad, which is great to make ahead and can be served cold or room temp).
* red cabbage and apples (made on stovetop 1-2 days in advance and reheated in crockpot)
* rolls and butter (brought by parents)
* green bean casserole (brought by sister in law)
* corn (sibling's bf is from the south and requested this...I think we just bought a can and heated it up or maybe he did? I'd forgotten about this until I looked back at the spreadsheet and am glad it's written down because I never would have remembered for this year)

DESSERT
* chocolate cake (made & brought by brother)
* sweet potato pie (brought by sister)
* cherry jello salad (made by mother in law)
* apple dump cake
* reddi whip

BEVERAGES
* wine, hard cider, beer (sister brought beer)
* fizzy & still water, diet ginger ale
* hibiscus-cranberry punch (made at home...this was a big success and it was super easy, and less caloric than the apple cider we usually buy)
* tea, coffee, cocoa
* milk

Good luck OP--it's a lot of work but I really like hosting (definitely prefer it to traveling).

Anonymous wrote:Don't hesitate to call people the day of or the day before and ask them to stop by the store for the "oops, we forgot to pick up XX" stuff.
I always feel bad when we show up to someone's house for an event and it turns out the husband got sent to the store for the "oops, we forgot" stuff, when we passed stores on the way to their house and could have easily picked up the sour cream or the plastic forks or ice or whatever.

Or, if you have someone without an assigned thing to bring, ask them to call when they're on the way over to pick up whatever you still need.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get overwhelmed at trying to do the last minute stuff for thanksgiving, while 6 people are all trying to visit with me. Not help, just talk and be in the way. So here are my suggestions:

Ask 3 or 4 people to come over three or four hours before dinner time to help with the last minute stuff.

Ask someone to be in charge of steering visitors out of the kitchen during that last hour or so before dinner is ready.

Ask your guests (a month or so before thanksgiving) if they have folding chairs and /or folding tables. If yes, ask them to bring them to your house and set them up the day before.

Set up drink stations / coffee stations / snack stations somewhere out of the kitchen area.

Make it easy for people to find the trash cans. Put extra trash bags in the bottom of the trash cans so that volunteers can take out the trash and replace the trash bags as needed.

Cook and cut up one of your two turkeys the day before. Or have someone else bring an already cooked and cut up turkey.

I realized that making the mashed potatoes is one of those things that "hogs" the kitchen at the last minute. So now I finish the mashed potatoes a couple hours before the turkey will be done, then put it in a crockpot to stay warm until it is mealtime.

Great tips! How do you keep the potatoes from drying out or "densing up" in the crock pot?

I'm not the pp but we put our mashed potatoes in the crockpot to keep warm as well. Every hour we add some more butter and a little cream and give them a good stir. They end up being delicious because of the extra butter.

Yes, DCUM will scream and clutch their pearls but PAPER PLATES AND NAPKINS!

Also hope the number falls before then...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a reasonable-sized turkey (18 pounds) and pinch-hit with a full Honeybaked ham. Very few people eat the "plan for a pound of turkey per guest" proportion, especially with kids around. Most people would take a bit of turkey and a bit of ham as their meat serving, then would dig into the sides.

Supplement with a pre-cooked turkey breast if you're worried/want a bit of leftover turkey.

Op absolutely will need more than one turkey even with a large ham. We will be reading about you in the post thanksgiving day gripes if you don't provide adequate protein.

Oh please. An 18-20 pound turkey, a full Honeybaked ham and (as suggested) a supplemental turkey breast is fine for 28 people. OP didn't say if there were kids in that count, but there probably are.

DP. I don't think it is.

NP who has cooked for a crowd this size many times, and I do think it is enough: 18 pound turkey or so, Honeybaked ham (they feed up to 40 people, depending on size, for crying out loud), turkey breast...throw in a container of drumsticks if you like, but you don't have to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a reasonable-sized turkey (18 pounds) and pinch-hit with a full Honeybaked ham. Very few people eat the "plan for a pound of turkey per guest" proportion, especially with kids around. Most people would take a bit of turkey and a bit of ham as their meat serving, then would dig into the sides.

Supplement with a pre-cooked turkey breast if you're worried/want a bit of leftover turkey.

Op absolutely will need more than one turkey even with a large ham. We will be reading about you in the post thanksgiving day gripes if you don't provide adequate protein.

Hahaha, I cannot believe PP suggested one 18lb turkey! Get TWO 18lb turkeys, plus a ham. Hope you have several ovens, OP. It is an enormous undertaking, but if you have the right set up, you can do it! Things will go wrong, that’s ok. Have fun with it. Don’t cater. If need be, ask for people to bring side dishes over catering. Also ask them to bring wine.

You will have to have 2x or 3x the amount of food you typically would have for hosting. Instead of one big Pyrex dish of sweet potatoes you will need three, for example. Get a second fridge and start making the dishes a few days in advance.

+1
Half th fun of Thanksgiving is leftover Turkey the next day.

OP - what time are people coming over? Is this like an all day affair of entertaining 28 people or is it just dinner?

Did I miss it? Appetizer suggestions and tips? Wine? Dessert?

NP. I personally don't like turkey that much, and neither does my husband. We're happy to host a large group (and have), but don't want to generate tons of leftovers. We've done the big turkey/big ham/extra turkey breast thing for about OP's side, and it totally worked; yes, there were a few leftovers that we gladly pawned off on others. But not everyone wants tons of turkey hanging around! It's up to OP. There's no need to take on yet more effort and expense if leftovers aren't desirable for her.

People suggested that OTHERS be delegated things like apps and desserts! I really hope others are pitching in after inviting themselves to OP's house...

Also, make it clear to people who are bringing things that they need to bring them ready to go; your kitchen won't have prep or cooking space available (except maybe reheating).

Have a couple of coolers with chilling packs outside for drinks or refrigerator overflow.

If you have a full-size freezer, start working your way through the contents now. A month before Thanksgiving, start filling it up with things that can be prepped and frozen: dressing, cranberry sauce, mac and cheese, stock for gravy (or the gravy itself).

If this is going to be an extended event, try to front-load the actual meal so you don't have people puttering around and getting in your way and filling up on apps. After everyone has eaten, people can hang out and snack, run dishwasher loads, have seconds of pie, watch football with a turkey sandwich, whatever. Friday you can wake up to a clean kitchen and pie for breakfast.

One word: Costco.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a reasonable-sized turkey (18 pounds) and pinch-hit with a full Honeybaked ham. Very few people eat the "plan for a pound of turkey per guest" proportion, especially with kids around. Most people would take a bit of turkey and a bit of ham as their meat serving, then would dig into the sides.

Supplement with a pre-cooked turkey breast if you're worried/want a bit of leftover turkey.

Op absolutely will need more than one turkey even with a large ham. We will be reading about you in the post thanksgiving day gripes if you don't provide adequate protein.

Hahaha, I cannot believe PP suggested one 18lb turkey! Get TWO 18lb turkeys, plus a ham. Hope you have several ovens, OP. It is an enormous undertaking, but if you have the right set up, you can do it! Things will go wrong, that’s ok. Have fun with it. Don’t cater. If need be, ask for people to bring side dishes over catering. Also ask them to bring wine.

You will have to have 2x or 3x the amount of food you typically would have for hosting. Instead of one big Pyrex dish of sweet potatoes you will need three, for example. Get a second fridge and start making the dishes a few days in advance.

+1
Half th fun of Thanksgiving is leftover Turkey the next day.

OP - what time are people coming over? Is this like an all day affair of entertaining 28 people or is it just dinner?

Did I miss it? Appetizer suggestions and tips? Wine? Dessert?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a reasonable-sized turkey (18 pounds) and pinch-hit with a full Honeybaked ham. Very few people eat the "plan for a pound of turkey per guest" proportion, especially with kids around. Most people would take a bit of turkey and a bit of ham as their meat serving, then would dig into the sides.

Supplement with a pre-cooked turkey breast if you're worried/want a bit of leftover turkey.

Op absolutely will need more than one turkey even with a large ham. We will be reading about you in the post thanksgiving day gripes if you don't provide adequate protein.

Oh please. An 18-20 pound turkey, a full Honeybaked ham and (as suggested) a supplemental turkey breast is fine for 28 people. OP didn't say if there were kids in that count, but there probably are.

DP. I don't think it is.

I have 20 to 25 every year for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I have posted some of these before but here it goes.

- Make ahead gravy. I would get so stressed out waiting for the gravy to thicken right before the meal. This is from the NYTimes so you might need a subscription, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015197-make-ahead-gravy

- Use coolers to keep things hot. Just line with towels.

- Make a spreadsheet with the times things have to be done. When things need to go in the oven, what temperature. When to take things out to get to room temp etc. This way you're not trying to remember all of these details. Put it on your fridge and it makes it easier for others to help.

- Remember that turkey stays hot for about 45 minutes loosely tented in foil.

Anonymous wrote:I get overwhelmed at trying to do the last minute stuff for thanksgiving, while 6 people are all trying to visit with me. Not help, just talk and be in the way. So here are my suggestions:

Ask 3 or 4 people to come over three or four hours before dinner time to help with the last minute stuff.

Ask someone to be in charge of steering visitors out of the kitchen during that last hour or so before dinner is ready.

Ask your guests (a month or so before thanksgiving) if they have folding chairs and /or folding tables. If yes, ask them to bring them to your house and set them up the day before.

Set up drink stations / coffee stations / snack stations somewhere out of the kitchen area.

Make it easy for people to find the trash cans. Put extra trash bags in the bottom of the trash cans so that volunteers can take out the trash and replace the trash bags as needed.

Cook and cut up one of your two turkeys the day before. Or have someone else bring an already cooked and cut up turkey.

I realized that making the mashed potatoes is one of those things that "hogs" the kitchen at the last minute. So now I finish the mashed potatoes a couple hours before the turkey will be done, then put it in a crockpot to stay warm until it is mealtime.

Great tips! How do you keep the potatoes from drying out or "densing up" in the crock pot?

Don't hesitate to call people the day of or the day before and ask them to stop by the store for the "oops, we forgot to pick up XX" stuff.
I always feel bad when we show up to someone's house for an event and it turns out the husband got sent to the store for the "oops, we forgot" stuff, when we passed stores on the way to their house and could have easily picked up the sour cream or the plastic forks or ice or whatever.