Owensboro Friends Celebrate Thanksgiving With Clever Party Theme

My friend Jacqueline Russell is the best party planner I know especially when it comes to theme parties. Now, planning a theme party is more than sending out invites, cleaning the house, and making food. It requires coming up with a creative idea that can inspire the decor, the menu, the activities, and even what guests wear to the shindig.

Friends are the Family You Get to Choose Yourself

Folks always say that friends are the family you get to choose yourself, so celebrating holidays with them just makes sense. Jacqueline has a group of friends that get together every year for a friends-giving dinner. They're always doing fun things together like game nights, movie nights, or going to escape rooms and other events around town.

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Friendsgiving Fun

This year, Jacqueline, the hostess with the mostest, finally got to host a special themed Thanksgiving party that she had been working on for a while. Well, it wasn't "Thanks"giving for her and her friends, it was "Hanks" giving.

Jacqueline explained, "For Hanksgiving, which I've been planning since I hosted Friendsgiving last year, everyone dressed as a Tom Hanks character.

Tom Hanks Character Party

We had:

• Mr. White from That Thing You Do
• David Pumpkins from SNL
• Forrest Gump
• Jimmy from A League of Their Own
• Josh from Big
• Paul Edgecomb from The Green Mile
• Woody from Toy Story
• Victor from The Terminal
• Chuck Noland from Cast Away
• Mr. Rogers from A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Jacqueline and her husband Joseph, have a precious pup named Sully. After the airplane pilot that Tom Hanks played in the movie Sully: Miracle on the Hudson. So, of course, he participated as well by wearing his airplane collar.

Hanksgiving: A Tom Hanks-Inspired Thanksgiving

Jacqueline made a ham, turkey, and dressing and everyone brought sides, along with something that was related to their movie.  "I turned an empty gumball machine into a Zoltar fortune machine from Big,"

"We had Tom Hanks activity placemats, different areas of the house were decorated for different movies,"

and there were lots of little touches of Tom Hanks around the house - like pictures of him eating in the kitchen," Jacqueline said.

Then, the group played a Da Vinci Code-inspired scavenger hunt inside and outside the house with clues based on his most popular movies and his career.

I just LOVE this party theme. Such a creative way to jazz up a good time with great people. The good thing is, Tom Hanks has been in SO MANY good movies there are so many fun and memorable characters to choose from. My favorite of his is You've Got Mail, so I'd have to go as Joe Fox. I'd carry a "Shop Around the Corner" bag, a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils, and bring my golden retriever.

Which iconic Tom Hanks character would you dress up as?