Get your family together at Thanksgiving dinner with a custom invitation. Spending time with your loved ones at a family Thanksgiving or a casual Friendsgiving provides the perfect opportunity to share your gratitude. Even before your dinner party, you want your loved ones to feel appreciated and wanted. Mailing Thanksgiving dinner invitations makes the event more special than a typical family dinner. Plus, fall has plenty of rich colors, cute animals, and fun designs to include in your Thanksgiving invitation design. Use our guide to design a postcard invitation that prepares everyone for a great meal and a memorable evening.
How to Write a Thanksgiving Invitation
Your invitation message should fit the tone of your event. A fine dining, five-course meal requires formal phrasing, while a laid-back family get-together can be more relaxed. Here’s everything to include on Thanksgiving invitations.
- Dinner Party Date: As with any custom invitation, your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving invitation needs to highlight the date, time, and location. These key details ensure that no one misses your cooking. Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday of November, so make sure to include the exact date. If you’re celebrating a belated Thanksgiving or sneaking in a quick Friendsgiving before everyone leaves town, then specifying the date is important.
- Arrival Time: You don’t want people to show up when you’re still busy cleaning. Including a general start time lets them know when your venue, whether it’s your home or a restaurant, will be ready.
- Meal Time: People have different Thanksgiving traditions. Some people plan their meal for early afternoon, while others eat later in the day. Establishing a specific mealtime gives the people who are always fashionably late time to arrive before dinner is served. If you want to get even more detailed, you can add the time for a cocktail hour, appetizers, and the main course.
- Thanksgiving Dinner Menu: Most people stick with the classic Thanksgiving dishes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Whatever you’re serving, including a short menu list tells guests what they can expect. Anyone with allergies or other dietary restrictions can plan accordingly. If you’re hosting a potluck, then you can share what the host is providing and set up a shared document where people can add their contributions.
- RSVP Information: Give people a way to confirm their attendance, whether it’s by text, email, or an online reservation form. Include an RSVP-by date on your invites so you can get a final headcount before you go grocery shopping. Tell your friends to share any allergies when they RSVP.
Thanksgiving Invite Wording Examples
Simple phrases like “give thanks” and “join us for an evening of thanksgiving” remind people of the holiday’s meaning. Others go for funny Thanksgiving invitations that lean into the holiday indulgence. Phrases like “food coma” and “eating machine” get people excited for the extravagant meal you’re preparing. Phrasing like “kindly join us for” is good for formal invites, while casual invites can say “dinner at my place.”
Thanksgiving Invitation Design Elements
Fall features fun colors and cozy imagery. Use red, orange, brown, and yellow to capture the classic fall vibes. Your design style should reflect your dinner aesthetic. Use cute cartoons for a family-friendly party, professional illustrations for a formal dinner party, or fun designs for a chill Friendsgiving dinner. There are plenty of design styles you can incorporate into your custom Thanksgiving invitations.
- Pumpkins: A fall staple, pumpkins and gourds are classic festive decor. Pair them with a pumpkin pie or a pumpkin spice latte to lean into the most basic fall treats.
- Leaves: Bright autumnal leaves are a great way to showcase the season’s vivid colors.
- Thanksgiving Feast: More than any other holiday, Thanksgiving is defined by the food. A cornucopia with apples, gourds, grapes, and corn is a traditional Thanksgiving symbol. You can also include photos or graphics of potatoes, a roast turkey, macaroni and cheese, and pie.
- Turkey: The star of Thanksgiving, turkeys are a staple of holiday prints. Go hyper realistic with a fowl photo or use a cute cartoon.
With the leaves changing colors and pumpkin patches growing, fall offers a rich color palette. Use the bright, bold colors for a laid-back gathering. Use the deeper, darker shades of these colors for an elegant, formal Thanksgiving dinner party. Red, orange, and yellow are the most popular. For added depth, some people will contrast the brighter shades with dark brown or purple. Gold tones, forest green, and burgundy are also common autumnal colors.
All of your visual elements should highlight your event information. Use large text in a clear, easy-to-read font. The text colors should contrast with the designs. A yellow font on a yellow background will be hard to read; instead, use a red or dark orange text over the yellow design for a legible message.
Free Thanksgiving Invitation Templates
You’re busy preparing your feast, so we cooked up some invitation designs. Browse our customizable templates to find a design that matches your theme. These 4×6 invitations are double-sided and easy to customize with GotPrint’s online invitation maker.
Simple and elegant, this Thanksgiving invite template features an illustrated turkey on a plate. Beautiful script fonts and delicate borders elevate the design. The other side has a cute pumpkin and prepares people to “eat, drink, and be thankful.”
An extravagant pumpkin design surrounded by leaves, berries, and branches is the centerpiece of this design template. Customize the text to share your event location, date, and time.
A bright orange background pairs well with a cute cartoon pumpkin. Big text wishes people a happy Thanksgiving on this custom Thanksgiving card. Cartoon leaves and pumpkins add autumnal vibes. Add a text box to make this into a dinner invite.
Prepare your guests for a feast with this Thanksgiving party invitation. The light brown background highlights the colorful pumpkin, apples, and grapes above the text. Leaves and fruit make a multicolored border on the back.
Gather your friends and found family with a Friendsgiving invitation template. Cartoon woodland creatures like deer, squirrels, bunnies, and bears fit the cozy autumn theme. The vibrant fall leaves stand out against the dark gray background.
Vibrant fall leaves pair with bold orange text for an elaborate, eye-catching template. A light brown leaf pattern adds depth to the design. A cartoon turkey holds a wine glass.
Invite people to your Thanksgiving celebration with this simple design. The front of the postcard presents the invitation with a cute leaf design, and the back has autumn florals encircling the dinner details.
Remind people to give thanks with this Thanksgiving card. Crisp fall leaves in a variety of bright colors make a border on the postcard template, drawing attention to your custom message in the center.
Classic Thanksgiving images add fun details to this cute template. A light leaf pattern in the background matches the colorful leaves along the bottom.
A geometric turkey design is a fun visual element on this Friendsgiving dinner invite. Cute pumpkins with bows hang on the back of the Thanksgiving potluck invite, where you can ask people to bring a unique dish.
When you’re printing Thanksgiving cards, you want to know the colors and designs will appear clear and vibrant. Print invitations with GotPrint for high-quality paper stocks, full color printing, and fast shipping. Then, prepare the rest of your Thanksgiving prints—invitation envelopes, table place cards, and menu cards.