Housewarming party: how to host one your friends will enjoy

A housewarming party is a get-together you host soon after moving into a new home, so friends can see the place and wish you well in it. It can be an open house where people drop in over a few hours, or a small dinner for six. The best ones stay simple, with food that can wait on the table and a quick look around the rooms. A playlist or one easy game does the rest.

An example: Jude had lived in her new apartment for seven weeks when she finally sent the message to the group chat. Three boxes were still stacked by the living room window, full of books with no shelf yet, and she decided they could stay there. On Saturday she made a big tray of baked pasta at noon so it would be ready whenever people turned up, and she put on the playlist Teo had made her as a moving present. Nell arrived first with a small potted fig tree and set it down beside the boxes. "For the empty corner," she said. Jude showed her the three rooms in about two minutes, laughing at the state of her own closet. By four o'clock Teo was on the sofa telling the story of the moving van, the pasta was half gone, and nobody had looked twice at the boxes.

When to have a housewarming party

Many hosts pick a date between two weeks and three months after the move. Any earlier and you're still hunting for the can opener. Later is fine too, since there's no deadline, though after half a year it starts to feel like an ordinary party. A weekend afternoon suits most friends and leaves their evening free.

If you've moved in with a partner, a joint party is a good way to mix two friend groups in your new place. The bigger questions about sharing a home are in moving in together.

Open house or small dinner?

Decide the shape first, because almost everything else follows from it.

• Open house. Guests drop in any time within a three or four hour window and stay as long as they like. It suits a big friend group, neighbors you'd like to meet and a host who'd rather not cook a full meal.
• Small dinner. Six or eight people around one table for an evening. It suits a smaller place and a host who prefers long talks to many short ones.

Some hosts do both, with an afternoon open house and a few close friends staying on to eat together afterward.

A simple plan for the day

You don't need much. A short list keeps the day calm.

1. Invite two or three weeks ahead. A message in the group chat is plenty. For an open house, give a start time and an end time.
2. Clear one surface for food and one spot for coats. That's most of the tidying you need.
3. Cook ahead. Choose dishes that still taste good an hour after they're ready.
4. Plan a short tour. A few minutes, room by room.
5. Have one easy thing to do. A playlist or a light game gives quiet guests a way in.
6. Set out drinks people can pour themselves. Lemonade, iced tea, sparkling water and a pot of coffee cover most tastes.
7. Ask one friend to stay late. Twenty minutes of help stacking plates makes the end of the day easy.

Food that can wait on the table

At a housewarming, people arrive at different times, so the food has to be happy sitting out for a while. A few ideas that work:

• a big tray of baked pasta or enchiladas, kept warm in a low oven
• a slow cooker of chili with small bowls of toppings
• a sandwich board with bread, cheeses, cold cuts and pickles
• dips with vegetables, pita and chips
• a sheet cake or a tray of brownies, cut before anyone arrives

Make at least one dish without meat, and put a little card by anything with nuts. If friends offer to bring food, say yes and tell them what's still missing.

The tour, kept short

Everyone wants to see the place, and the tour is partly what they came for. Show each room once, say one thing you love about it, and skip the apology about the bathroom tiles. Doors can stay shut, too. Nobody needs to see the closet you threw everything into. At an open house, give the tour in small groups as people arrive, then let guests wander on their own.

Easy games and a playlist

A housewarming doesn't need a program, but one light activity helps people mix.

• A shared playlist. Ask each guest to add one song when they reply to the invite, and play the list all afternoon.
• A map of where everyone lives. Pin a city map to the wall and let guests mark their homes with a sticker. It shows how close your new place really is.
• Guess the object. Put a few odd things from the move on a tray, like the mystery key and the cable nobody can name, and let guests guess what they're for.
• A notebook for the house. Leave it by the door so friends can write a wish for the home or a tip about the neighborhood.

For a dinner instead of an open house, the ideas in what to do with friends at home work well once the plates are cleared. And if you'd like the evening to have a theme, party themes for adults has ideas for every kind of guest list.

What to bring to a housewarming party

A small gift is usual, though many hosts don't expect one. Good choices:

• A plant. A pothos or a pot of herbs is easy to keep alive and fills an empty corner.
• A dish. Check with the host first, then bring something ready to serve.
• Something for the kitchen. Good salt, a wooden spoon, nice dish towels or a jar of local honey.
• A local touch. A voucher for the bakery down the street, or a list of your favorite spots nearby.
• Help. An offer to hang pictures or build a shelf next weekend can be the best gift of all.

Skip the bottle of wine as an automatic choice. Plenty of hosts don't drink, and a plant or something for the kitchen lasts longer. When everyone brings a dish, the Friendsgiving guide has a neat way to share out who cooks what. A card makes any gift warmer, and congratulations messages has lines for a new home.

Which types want an open house and which a small dinner

Some people want every friend they've ever had in the new place at once. Others would rather have four people and a long meal. Personality explains a lot of this. Here are eight of the 16 types:

• Harmonizer wants every guest comfortable, with soft light and good food. A small dinner lets them look after each person.
• Vitalizer loves a full house and would invite the whole building. An open house with music is their kind of afternoon.
• Inspector likes a clear start and end time and a short guest list. The coat spot will be sorted before the first knock.
• Commander hosts with energy and a firm plan, and enjoys a big crowd as long as they're running it.
• Diplomat gets strangers chatting within minutes. An open house with a game suits them.
• Strategist would rather have four friends over for a long dinner than forty for an afternoon.
• Counselor wants real conversation, so a small table of close friends feels better than a busy room.
• Craftsman is proud of the work put into the home and enjoys showing a few people the shelf they built.

Jude is a Vitalizer, so an open house was never in doubt.

See why one friend loves a full house and another a small table

One friend enjoys twelve people in three small rooms, while another needs a quiet break after half an hour, and type is often behind that. Start with the free friendship compatibility test. Send a friend from your housewarming the link from your result. Once they have answered, you share a relationship type page, on why you two get along and where you might pull in different directions.

Questions people ask

How soon after moving should you have a housewarming party?

Many hosts pick a date two weeks to three months after the move, once the boxes are mostly unpacked. There's no deadline.

Do you bring a gift to a housewarming?

It's usual, and it can be small. A plant, a dish you've cleared with the host or something for the kitchen is plenty.

How long does a housewarming party last?

An open house usually runs three or four hours, and many guests stay for one or two. A dinner lasts an evening.

Do you have to give a tour at a housewarming party?

Guests will ask, so a short one helps. A few minutes is enough, and any door can stay closed.

What games do you play at a housewarming party?

Keep them light and about the new place. Guess the object, where guests work out what the odd things from the move are for, is an easy start. You can also hide five small things around the rooms and let guests find them on the tour. At an open house people come and go, so skip any game that runs longer than fifteen minutes.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.