The art of hosting a thing!

The holiday season is coming up again. That means more get togethers for me to fumble thru! I am not a experienced host and have decided to intentionally work on that this year. Until the last few years I had always been a guest and never understood the point of a party besides a free meal. Now Iv learned hiding in the corner shoveling food into my mouth with minimal talking and running out after a hour without helping clean up or brining anything is considered a bad guest. Who would have thought it! Not me apparently! XD With age comes wisdom I suppose and now I value getting my community together and host pretty often. Its hard as someone who values there peace and quiet to purposely bring folks in. But I appreciate my peace even more now and it strengthen bonds and build new ones not just with me but within the group. I never thought I would find so much joy in setting the moment for folks that never knew each other become fast friends! But a party really is for more then just free food.

Our community of family and friends seems to grow every year and so the parties have gotten harder to just wing it a few hours before hand. It used to be only 4 of us and now Im hosting a party of 17 for Halloween tonight. So in the calm before the storm I took a moment for me with my hot tea and permies. Remembering that a party is not a sprint but a multiday marathon that I need to take breaks for. The invite are sent out weeks ago, The groceries brought in Monday. Food prepped yesterday and the games set out in the clean house today. I almost feel like Im starting to get the hang of things. So I thought Id make a list of stuff I did to hopefully repeat this smoothly in the future. Feel free to add/fix  this as Im sure there are folks with way more experience under there belts then me!


Party prep list

Float a date before sending invites to make sure there are no conflicts

Send invites with clear expectations a month or so before hand

Make food plans. Is there a them, maybe a potluck style, check for allergies and provide safe foods

Buy pantry nonperishables long before you need them, that way you can catch them on sale or before things run out on big holidays

Plan games and activities. Dinner counts as a activity, and provide small prizes for the games. We do like ax throwing and whoever wins get a free blade sharpening ticket

Make the food that you can the day before the party

CLEAN!!! you cannot relax in a messy house and yes your guest will notice

Set everything up a couple hours before hand so your not doing it last moment and you can take a moment to breath

Heres a video I found helpful that breaks it down better then I can