My older D has participated in a pre thanksgiving friends meal for years. They started calling it Friendsgiving about 5 years ago. One person makes a turkey and the other bring sides ( My kids specialty is A gourmet Mac and cheese). My younger also has had a Friendsgiving for years before she goes home for the holiday. Anyone else’s kids engage in this “new tradition”?
My D and her friends do this every year the Sunday after thanksgiving. It has been their tradition for about 4 years. They also call it Friendsgiving.
DD’s university just had Friendsgiving in the dining halls Thursday night. My daughter loved it!
Also been hearing about the prank going around about kids texting their moms asking how long to microwave a 25 pound turkey ; )
^ I got that text. My reply was “I have failed as a mother if you are even thinking of trying to cram a 25 lb turkey into a microwave!”
D and her friends do this every year - I know they all really enjoy it. It sounds really fun!
I have not spent a Thanksgiving with my parents, siblings or other extended family in 22 years, they’ve all been Friendsgivings since.
My kid did the Friendsgiving this Thursday at his house with roommates and friends. I asked him kinda early that day if he’d picked up his free turkey (local store near his campus that gives you a free turkey if you buy enough groceries). He had, and it was frozen. So of course I got the “how do you cook a frozen turkey” text, but he was perfectly serious.
We used to do a Friendsgiving before we had kids. It was fun. I’m glad to see at least one of my kids doing this too!
D and her bf are going to one of her married friends for the orphan’s Thanksgiving on Friday. That was the name my friends and I picked 30 years ago and we passed it down. We have gone to a friend’s for leftovers on Friday for several years. We just call it leftovers day.
D has done it most years in college up until this one. Undergrad a bunch of them lived in same dorm (apts) and had about 20 kids the week before break. In grad school, D’s friend group of about 15 did this. She’s having to find a new group now that she is starting phd program - friends are a little more scattered and no one took the lead. But she loved the tradition in the past.
They don’t plan ahead well, so mostly did the butterball cook from frozen turkeys in the bag. Said she thought it was always good. Someone on a FB group I follow talked about cooking any turkey from frozen, just cooks it a really long time and is fine. Haven’t tried it myself.
"Also been hearing about the prank going around about kids texting their moms asking how long to microwave a 25 pound turkey "
Hahaha. Our younger legal assistants has fun t’ rollin’ their parents with those “turkey in the MW” texts during lunch yesterday. I sat a nearby table and had a good chuckle. 
They thought one dad’s reply was hilarious - “never.”
I’ve done Friendsgivings myself, the weekend before or the weekend of. Any excuse for a dinner party, as far as I’m concerned.
S has been doing Friendsgiving since graduating college. The first year they weren’t quite sure how to cook a turkey and didn’t realize how long it takes. I think they ate after midnight.
I had to look up the frozen ready to cook turkey in a bag. I’ve never heard of it or seen it before! Must have been the genius idea of those employees working the Butterball hotline and fielding too many questions about frozen turkeys and how to cook them.
https://www.butterball.com/products/whole-turkeys/ready-to-roast-classic-whole-young-turkey
My daughter has done this with her friends for several years now (basically once they lived in dorm rooms with real ovens.) They just pick a weekend around the holidays and split up the cooking (some years it ends up happening in early December). She actually has two different groups of friends who she has done this with (one year both groups did it so she had 3 thanksgiving meals). This year her Friendsgiving a few weeks ago had 25 people who participated. They had 1 whole turkey and 2 turkey breasts to feed the crowd. I think it is a great tradition. She and many of her friends enjoy cooking.
My younger D is on the other coast, and last year they had a Thanksgiving with friends. Yesterday she had the Friendsgiving. I thought she coined the phrase, but apparently not,
Our older D has just spent her 5th Thanksgiving in Denmark, and today she cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for 12 of her friends. She has to special order a turkey to the tune of $100, and then made squash soup, mashed potatoes, filling (a.k.a. Stuffing) gravy, salad, and pumpkin pie. She has done this each of the five years she has been there. Her friends enjoy participating in this American holiday that they would otherwise not experience.
My youngest did at college on Thursdsy night before coming home and I don’t like it,
I’m happy they have fun.
But, I really look forward to this time and cooking and having the thanksgiving dinner once a year. It’s a lot of work, money and time. And I don’t like that they feast on this same special meal a week before, so, now my meal isn’t so special.
And that’s how I feel.
Even if they eat another Thanksgiving dinner, it’s not the same as Mom’s.
Re: spending money, I’ve always thought of traditional Thanksgiving food as a pretty inexpensive holiday meal. A lot of work, yes, but not much money to feed so many people and have leftovers.
The Friendsgivings my daughter has been to are not at all like a real Thanksgiving dinner at home. Every family has their own way of making their Thanksgiving food which makes their meal special. Yes, they eat turkey and potatoes with their friends, but not made they way they have been eating it their whole lives with their family.
Last year, the turkey we bought and thawed smelled “off” so H and D decided to throw it away and we ended up buying a fresh turkey from Whole Foods @$4/lb.
It was fine but the most expensive turkey we had ever smoked!
Perhaps you are thawing that turkey too long. B-)
Whole Foods has organic turkey for $2.99 which is on the higher end for turkeys. But even at that price, it is a very cheap source of protein.