A Friendsgiving invitation needs four things: the date, the time, the address, and who's bringing what. My pick for the format is a short video card of your friends already at the party, their faces cut out of one photo, dancing around a table of food and singing about it, with the date typed across the top. You make it on Tangy Limes, preview it free, and paste the link in the group chat.
Here's the card, what to write on it, and who to put where.
The card: Friendsgiving
Friendsgiving fits four faces. It opens in a cozy apartment dining room, a long table of food and candles, everyone in autumn sweaters doing a turkey-strut shuffle. Then a kitchen with pies cooling on the counter and four people in aprons waving oven mitts. Then a backyard full of orange leaves with a football toss and a touchdown celebration. It ends in the living room after dinner, coffee out, fireplace going, everyone patting their stomachs like they regret nothing.
There's an intro with the names, then those four dance scenes, about 40 seconds in all. Every card has an original song, and your friends' mouths move to the words, so the friend who has never cooked anything sings about pie like he means it. Only the mouths move; the faces aren't changed.
If your Friendsgiving is really a family thing with a few strays, Gobble Gobble is the Thanksgiving card: orange and brown sweaters, a turkey dance with flapping elbows, a pumpkin patch, and a food coma in stretchy sweatpants.
What to put in the headline
The big headline says HAPPY FRIENDSGIVING, and you can type over it. It's the biggest text on screen, so make it carry the date. Some that work:
- FRIENDSGIVING, SAT THE 21ST, 6PM
- YOU'RE INVITED. BRING A CHAIR.
- MARCUS IS BRINGING THE TURKEY. PRAY.
- FRIENDSGIVING AT OURS. NO KIDS, ONE DOG.
- RSVP OR WE GIVE YOUR PIE TO SOMEONE ELSE
Then send the boring details as a text right under it: the address, the time, and who's bringing what. Here's a message to copy:
"Friendsgiving at ours, Saturday at 6. Jess has sides, Dev has drinks, Sam has pie, and Marcus has the turkey, God help us. Reply with a yes or a dish."
Who goes on which dancer
You tap to choose who dances where, which is where the fun is. Some casting notes:
- The host gets the opening table scene, front and center.
- The one who always brings store-bought pie goes in the kitchen, holding oven mitts. Let them have this.
- The competitive one gets the touchdown celebration. They will watch it more than once.
- The one who falls asleep on your couch every year gets the food-coma scene. At this point it's a documentary.
One group photo from last year covers it. If someone's face is turned or blurry, use a different photo of them. Faces are real cutouts with no AI changes, and only the mouths move. If a head looks too big, shrink it. If someone's hair got clipped, paint it back.
Sending it
Make a share link on the card page and paste it in the chat. It's a plain web page that plays the video, so nobody needs an app or an account to watch it. You can also download the MP4, or email it to up to five people from the card page, which covers the friend who muted the group chat.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, so send the invite a couple of weeks out, before everyone's weekends fill up. Watching the preview with your friends in it costs nothing. Keeping it is $1.99, and there's nothing to subscribe to or cancel afterward.
And the day after, make the thank-you version with the same photo and a new headline: THANKS FOR COMING. THE TURKEY WAS FINE, MARCUS. He'll know.