7 Super Simple Party Hosting Tips and Tricks

We hosted a party last Sunday afternoon.

No drama, no mess, no hangovers, super simple, super fun.

We’ve lived here 14 years and we’ve hosted an Advent Gathering in December and a Burns Night Supper for our neighbours in January, most years. Usually 10-15 people, sometimes more. It takes a bit of planning ahead, but we’ve now found our groove and it’s a rinse and repeat formula!

My partner cooks and I set up the house and MC. We know it works well for us and we’ve now simplified these events, so it’s honestly minimal effort, maximum fun and great connection!

Here’s my 3 top tips for keeping it simple

1 FOOD. Make it bring and share. We make one (admittedly humongous) dish but we keep it really simple. Chilli and rice. Curry and rice. Haggis neeps and tatties. Just the main. Then we ask everyone else to either bring side dishes (chutneys and poppadams for curry, salsa and sour cream for chilli) salads, bread, pudding or drinks (Irn Bru and Tunnocks tea cakes for burns night obvs). Guests get to choose what they bring and those who love baking can do their thing those who are time or resource poor can still contribute and no one feels like it’s too much.

2.             DECOR. Advent is candles and fairy lights. New Year is bit more glitter and sparkle. Burns Night is everyone wear some tartan. Summer Solstice is just the natural light. For this year’s Advent gathering I’ve put fairy lights inside jars and bottles, it’s a low effort, high impact thing of beauty.

3.             TIMINGS. Have a finish time. For our recent advent party we said arrive by 4, we’ll eat by 5, finish by 7. Everyone was out by 7.15 and washing up was already done. Kids could get back to homework (TikTok) we could sit and decompress by the fire and get ready for the week ahead. This one is honestly a game changer.

Here’s a few extras if you’ve got a bit more capacity.

 

4.             MUSIC. We’ve a couple of play lists that we’ve created or I ask Spotify eg ‘songs for advent’ or ask your teenagers or one of your guests to supply. If the gathering’s a PARTY and there’s drinking and dancing I ask each guest to queue a song they love onto the playlist, means everyone’s on their feet!

5.             QUIET SPACE. We have one room set aside for space/ quiet/ film (rarely used) but it’s an option for kids/ teens/ anyone who needs a breather to go and chill.

6.             ENTERTAINMENT. Ask your guests to each bring a poem, reading, game, piece of music, song to sing together. In our experience, people do! Burns Niight everyone knows it’s poetry and it works really well. Christmas or New Year we mostly have games, but if each family/ group is bringing one, it’s not all on you.

7.             CONVERSATION. I’ve created conversation prompts which I use for events where new folks are invited and we want to build connection across the group. Even with groups of friends or neighbours who know each other well, these conversation starters can bring deeper levels of conversation and connection.. Everyone picks one out of a hat as they arrive and I invite people to use the prompts if they like as they mingle to get chatting. The prompts are quite light and easy to chat about, and of course each one can go much deeper if people want to share more.

What are YOUR top tips for keeping it super simple when you’re hosting? I’d love to hear!

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