Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner Party

While regular Thanksgiving can be pressure-filled and stressful, why not plan a fun, light-hearted Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner Party for your friends to ease everyone into the holiday season?

Decor

Keep your decorations festive, but tasteful. Your place shouldn't look like your channeling a Kindergarten class room . We love these great touches:

A Cranberry Wreath: The design say holidays while the berries say modern. Try this version from Crate & Barrell.

White Pumpkin Candles: Besides being completely chic and original, the smallest candles will make great place settings for each guest.
o Just choose your table linens in complimentary colors (like brown and berry, to match the wreath), then fold each guest's napkin and place the pumpkin over the napkin. Instant place setting!

Dried Cranberry Accents: Pick up a package of dried these dried berries from the local grocery store and pour it out over your dinner table. There's no need to arrange them a certain way, just make sure that they're evenly distributed from one end to the other. Besides having a wonderfully festive fragrance, the color will pop against the white pumpkins.

Food

This is what Thanksgiving is really about: lots and lots of food! But, forgo the traditional Thanksgiving menu since you'll all be having a traditional Thanksgiving meal just days later. To make this one unique, try soup, fried turkey wings and cranberry slaw instead.

Orange You Glad It's Thanksgiving Soup, the Food Network.Pardon the wacky name, but the light, yet filling soup is the perfect first course.

Spicy Southern-Fried Turkey Wings, the Food Network. Everyone will be having turkey back home, so give them something familiar yet unexpected in these spicy wings.

Smashed Sweet Potatoes, All Recipes. The best of both worlds, smashed sweet potatoes are easy to make and fun to eat.

Cranberry Slaw, Vegetarian Kitchen. Who needs the sauce when you can have the slaw? This great recipe combines traditional flavors in an unexpected dish.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies, EatingWell.com. A great alternative to pumpkin pie, your party will get all of the great flavors in fun, little cookies.

Drinks

Pinot Noir. Try Etude 2005 Temblor Estate Pinot Noir from Ambrosia. It's strong and aromatic, with fruity hints that will satisfy even your non-wine drinking friends.

Activity

Gift Giving. Everyone loves to give (and receive) gifts, so have all of your guest bring an inexpensive gift (under $20), and mark each gift with a number. Write the numbers on pieces of scrap paper, put them in a jar and let everyone choose a number. The number that you pick is the gift that you get. Wacky gifts are great fodder for lively conversation, while nicer gifts will get lots of ooohs and ahhhs.