For Friendsgiving 2025, we wanted to have a fun theme and landed on Lord of The Rings~ Feastgiving was born. With the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings trilogy coming up Jan 16-19th 2026, I had the perfect excuse to share more about our Middle Earth experience!

So I wanted to share everything that made it come together including:

• Invites
• Creating the perfect ambiance
• The Menu
• BONUS: 5 recipes below!

I hope this inspires you to host a fun themed dinner party with your friends. You can absolutely turn this into a potluck-style event, I’d recommend having a list of dishes your friends can volunteer to bring that way you can stay on theme & prep place cards in advance.

Disclaimer: This was our first time hosting a big group in our home, I originally wanted everything done shortly before guests arrived with a few things finishing up cooking… That absolutely did .. not happen, but we still got everything on the table for the Feast to begin only 30min later than planned. While I didn’t capture all the visuals I hoped to, our friends snapped some photos throughout the night & I’m so thankful they did.

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LOTR Inspired Dinner Party Invites

To really set the scene, we started off with invites, of course! I used Canva to create this fun animated invitation and sent them out to our friends via text. Since it was around the holidays, and we encouraged everyone to dress up we wanted to give plenty notice and sent these out almost 2 months in advance, with RSVP requested 14 days before the dinner.

The Canva fonts used are: Kingred Modern, Dreaming outland sans, and Mr Dafoe.

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Creating a Middle Earth Inspired Ambiance

Guests arrived to a “No admittance except on party business” sign (obviously), from there everything I’ve listed & went into detail with below created the perfect ambiance for our feast. I created a list here with everything we purchased and previous prop purchases used for this dinner. (affiliate links, thank you for supporting my business!)

Signage

The “no admittance sign” was purchased online (linked above). I designed signs for all the “stations” in Canva, printed them at Walgreens (5×7), and we got the frames from the Dollar tree! I tried to find fun frames that would match each sign.

Music

This will really help you create the perfect ambiance and full-round experience! We discussed potentially having one of the movies playing at low volume in the background but opted for Shire- inspired instrumental music at low volume instead. Upon reflecting, this was definitely the move for our crowd as it allowed for great conversations and less distraction!

Fragrance

We sprayed our favorite room spray (Pear Cider from Grow Fragrances) about 15m before arrival time, turned on our candle warmers (Sea salt & Coconut candles), and let the aroma of food cooking do the rest!

Costumes

Our friends understood the assignment! Everyone came dressed with renaissance outfits, capes, elf ears, swords and even a service dog dragon! It was pretty awesome!

Decor

• Tinsel streamers hanging past the entry way to shift from reality -> Middle Earth
• Streamers draped around corners of our apartment to add to the ambiance
• Hobbit peel & stick above the couch, a fun extra little touch/ addition
• Resin Mushrooms, creatures, fairy garden door and paper butterflies around the displays.
• Florals. We purchased 1 assorted bouquet and a bundle of Eucalyptus, cut them down and assembled bouquets in little vases the night before
• Chocolate gold coins, perfect decor addition and a fun extra treat at the end of the night!
• Green & gold plates & silverware. Would have used our plates & silverware if we had enough, we did wish we went with a recyclable option but these did add to the decor/ vibe.
• Goblet glasses, added to the decor and theme. We found the perfect glasses at Dollar Tree!
• LED candles perfect to add to the ambiance and balance out the displays
• Moss runner added a pop of green and more nature elements
• Decor books Perfect to add height and balance
• Wood crates to add more natural elements, height, balance
• Props/ dishes & gold serve ware hand picked everything through my prop collection to create consistency and bring all the decor together.

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A LOTR Inspired Dinner Party Menu

Another way to create an all-around experience, come up with a menu inspired by your theme then add fun titles that compliment the theme as well! Sharing our full menu with titles we used below.

Appetizers

• “Rings of Power”- Onion Rings (we used our favorite- Alexia and they were a huge hit!)
• “Farmer- Foraged Mushroom Pies”- Cheesy Mushroom hand pies (Regular + Gluten Free versions)
• “Bilbo’s Blanketed Boarlets”– Pigs in a blanket (Regular + Gluten Free Versions)

Sides

• “Autumn Meadow Slaw”- Homemade Fall Slaw
• “Samwise’s Second Spuds”- Twice Baked Potatoes
• “Bread of the Westfold”- Wheat Dinner Rolls
• “Ember Brine Pickles”- Kimchi Pickles from Cleveland Kitchen!
• “Elven Garden Gherkins”- Cornichons
• “Radagast’s Root Cellar Medley”- Mild Giardiniera
• “Grove Harvest Roast”- Roasted Veggies with Vanilla honey Glaze
• “Hobbit Hole Mac”- Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Sauces & Dips

• “Dwarf Foraged Mustard”– Yellow Mustard
• “Elf-Spun Honey Butter”- Whipped Honey Butter (Salted)
• “Elven Sun Spread”- Sundried Tomato Dip (homemade-ish)
• “Beekeeper’s Gold”- Honey Mustard (homemade)
• “Elven Valley Cream” Ranch (homemade)
• “Smaug’s Fire Sauce”- BBQ Sauce (homemade)
• “Gondor Red Relish”- Ketchup

Drinks

• “Shire Zest”– Lemonade (storebought)
• “Breezy Leaf Brew”– Sweet tea (storebought)
• “Sauron’s Kiss” – My version of whiskey sour (this was a big hit!) batch cocktail
• “Mirkwood Mist”– Pomegranate & cherry limeade batch mocktail

Main Dishes

• “Orc- Slayer Stew”- Braised Beef Stew
• “Disassembled Garden Herb Hen”- Lemon Herb Chicken Drumsticks & Thighs

Desserts

• “The Preciousss”- Tiramisu, topped with a hand-piped chocolate ring covered in luster dust
• “Eye of Sauron”- Gluten Free Mango-Orange & Raspberry Cheesecake, topped with a hand- piped chocolaye “eye”

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LOTR Inspired Dinner Party Menu- Recipes!

For the appetizers I used puff pastry for the cheesy mushroom hand pies, and store-bought crescent rolls for the pigs in a blanket, for the Gluten Free version of both I used Sweet Loren’s GF puff pastry and even our non-GF friends loved those!

Autumn Slaw

A refreshing slaw with seasonal ingredients and a light, flavorful dressing.

You can prep this up to a day ahead.

Cheesy Mushroom Filling

You can prep these up to 2 days ahead; fill and seal your hand pies and store air-tight until ready to bake. Don’t egg wash & top until just before baking!

Sauron’s Kiss

(My version of a Whiskey Sour)

You can prep this up to 2 days ahead!

Yield: 35oz batch cocktail

• In a large bowl, or pitcher whisk all ingredients together
• Adjust as needed to your preferred taste
• Carefully pour into a pitcher or swing top bottle
• Refrigerate at least 4 hours
• Serve over ice with garnish
• Garnish options: Amarena cherry, Orange slice, Lemon slices.

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What I’ll Remember Most

Our friends were genuinely shocked at how much detail went into everything, I held back from posting anything on my instagram stories before because we wanted their reactions to be a surprise, watching everyone take it all in was so worth it!

Though I was seconds away from an anxiety spiral moments before our first guests arrived, and we definitely learned some lessons about hosting and planning ahead, the night was still so much fun! The music, the outfits, the people and the food all came together beautifully and not even that much later than planned.

When you’re hosting it’s easy to get caught up in how you wanted everything to go but at the end of the day everyone that shows up is there for good food, good drinks, and a good time!

At the end of the night everyone packed leftovers into the tupperware they brought, and desserts were sent home in little to-go cups for anyone who was already full.

This is your reminder that it’s okay to go overboard with things that bring you joy & for the people you care for.

Nights like this are worth all the love and effort that goes into them!

My friend Sophia and I in our costumes