I like this question. My favorite meal is, well, snacking, so I love the idea of turning a huge meal into lots of bite-sized portions :)

DEFINITELY make stuffed mushrooms and baked brie with cranberries on top. To me, these both scream Thanksgiving

Turkey pinwheels with cranberry mayo

Sweet potato oven fries with dipping sauces

Apple tartlets

Spiced and toasted nuts or pumpkins seeds

Boozy cider

Presentation is always an easy way to up the autumnal feel: scoop out some mini pumpkins and serve dip in them.

I'm so glad you asked this, Megan. I live abroad, too, and am hosting my reading group on Thanksgiving - and I know my fellow readers are expecting me to come up with some Thanksgiving-themed food!

I liked the look of these pumpkin and pecan tarts:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article6844149.ece

mini pumpkin or pecan pies, turkey fingers? toasted/spiced nuts, potato cakes (like latkes), oysters, baked brie stuffed with cranberry relish.....

Gotta love Bakerella's ideas for mini desserts.

Her pumpkin pie bites: http://www.bakerella.com/pumpkin-pie-bites/

And her turkey cake pops: http://www.bakerella.com/youll-want-to-gobble-these-right-up/

Pumpernickle bread with spinach dip

At a catered party I tried little butternut squash and cheese tarts (savory, not sweet). They were delicious! And very simple. To make it less work to prepare, maybe use frozen dough and make little empanadas with a cheese-squash filling? I'd also suggest mini corn muffins. You can make some sweet by adding cranberries or cranberry sauce, and others savory with corn kernals and mustard.

Oooh, I love akay's idea of scooping out mini pumpkins to use as dip bowls! Might have to steal that one for a holiday party.

For me, a holiday meal is incomplete without the potatoes. To make them finger friendly, you could do potato pancakes or twice-baked potatoes made out of really small potatoes. Homefries are an easy option that can be eaten with toothpicks! Also, what about mac and cheese baked into cupcake liners?

I go easy:

Mixed nuts (or look online for easy spiced nut recipes)
Terra Chips (Sweet Potato)

Cubed/toasted pumpkin bread (from Starbuck's!) and pear slices with caramel fondue

And I know you were asking about food, but I love the idea of themed signature cocktails for parties, so...

Cranberry Martinis (use the tinted Cranberry Vodka-- 2 parts-- to one part Vanilla vodka)

"Nor'easters" (my take on the Cape Cod: use clear cranberry vodka and white cranberry juice)

For the martinis, skewer and freeze cranberries for swizzle sticks

Pie on a stick!
There were some awesome little pie options featured on this site a while ago, you should definitely look them up.

Some other options:
turkey drumsticks instead of whole turkeys
fried mac and cheese squares

What about green beans, blanched, with an onion dip? A take on the green bean casserole, but as Crudites instead!!

Mini turkey sandwiches - tiny buttermilk biscuits flavored with sage and and spread with cranberry dressing.

definitely do the brie w/ cranberry sauce. so delicious.

this may not be the most high-brow choice, but a friend makes "thanksgiving in a roll" for holiday potlucks. i forget the exact steps, but he'd get a can of pillsbury rolls, assemble little rolls full of stuffing, turkey, and a bit of cranberry sauce, then bake. not super-fancy, but people were always big fans.

As an English girl, can I suggest mini yorkshire puddings? You can put anything inside them - some sweet potato or maybe some stuffing, a bit of turkey, and some cranberry sauce on top would make a mini Thanksgiving feast in one easy go!

Since mashed potatoes aren't in here, I have to suggest making mashed potato croquettes (I was just thinking about this since I have leftover mashed taters from last night's dinner). The beauty of this is that you can add in whatever else you want, like bits of turkey, or just leave them plain and season them with your fav herbs, like sage and thyme.

Also, these baked apple wedges sound right up your alley (via yesterday's Delicious links). Happy cooking!

I think these butternut squash-goat cheese turnovers sound good.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/butternut-squash-turnovers

Also, what about room temperature pizzas topped with roasted butternut squash, sage and prosciutto?

My mom always serves bacon-wrapped grissini breadsticks for Christmas that are incredible. You buy good Italian grissini, wrap the top half with a piece of bacon and roll the bacon part in brown sugar laced with cayenne. Then you microwave them on paper towels and let cool. Yum.

A friend last week made mini pumpkin cheesecakes that were in individual cupcake papers that were surprisingly tasty.

We did a cocktail party like this last year. I found a recipe for turkey breast that was pounded, layered with stuffing, rolled and baked. I did this in miniature rolls and they were delicious! I think the original recipe was on Martha Stewart's website. So good! My friend made little green bean casseroles in phyllo, too. Cutest cocktail food ever!

Whole wheat rolls with sliced turkey, cream cheese and cranberry sauce (which is usually what I eat the day after Thanksgiving).

Be careful carving out those mini pumpkins - those suckers are HARD, as my cousin found out the year she decided to do that and ended up cutting herself quite badly. Hazards aside, they do look great!

make a basic dough out of cornmeal, all purpose flour (more cornmeal than apf), 1 egg, baking powder, black pepper, and water. add enough water so that when you roll the dough flat, it doesn't splinter so much at the edges.

now roll flat, cut rounds out, and fold them over the back of mini or normal sized muffin cups (oiled). bake at 400 for 8 - 10 minutes.

now you have little corncups to fill with stuff! succotash. chipotle-spiked black beans and tomatoes. spiced pumpkin or butternut squash puree. the possibilities, they are endless.

Nantucket Cranberry Pie made in muffin cups. With whipped cream on top, of course.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kathleen-daelemans/nantucket-cranberry-pie-recipe/index.html

Spiced pecans, candied almonds, hot dips (like spinach-artichoke or hot onion, not really Thanksgiving-y, but definitely autumnal!), bacon-wrapped figs, and I heartily second (or seventh?) the mini-tartlets, both savory and sweet! I made mini apples pies once in muffin tins with refrigerated pie dough and just chopped, sweetened, and spiced apples. Delicious and so pretty! You could use puff pastry squares, too, particularly for savory ones.

Anyway, sounds like you're going to have a great party. Good luck with all the planning!

If you want to lighten the mood, may I recommend toast and popcorn, a la Snoopy in "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving?"

Love the other suggestions, too. I wish my family would do a Thanksgiving cocktail party instead of the traditional gut-stuffing menu.

And I just made Autumn Sangria-- with molasses, figs, dried apricots, and plums. Recipe was courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens, a magazine that I am liking more and more with each issue, btw.

jeffzelli--
Ohmygod I love that idea. That Charlie Brown special is soooo sweet when the little guys make their own meal. Plus, how can ANYONE go wrong with toast and popcorn??? Damn you, low carb diet, damn you!!! :)

Low Carb? I would -die-.

Don't forget the relish tray! Itty bits of veg and pickle are great finger food and they make for a good palate-cleanser in between rich bites of everything else.

How about "shots" of butternut squash soup?
You could also bake stuffing in muffin cups.
(See yesterday's NY times food section).

I have a recipe for stuffed tomatoes. You take roma tomatoes, cut them in half, seed them, sprinkle them with salt, turn them upside down and drain them overnight on a paper towel lined plate in the refrigerator. The next day, you make a "pasta salad" out of cooked acini de pepe pasta or orzo, olive oil, golden raisins, marinated artichoke hearts, scallions, orange bell peppers, feta cheese and pine nuts. Then stuff the tomatoes with the salad You can make all of this in advance, assemble the day of the party, and leave it out to come to room temperature.