I’ve been getting lots of questions about this topic so today I’ll share with you how we usually organize block parties. Our process isn’t necessarily the way it works best for others, but this is our groove and it works for us. I hope you’ll glean some inspiration and possibly feel more motivated to organize a block party in your own neighborhood.
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WHAT: We have hosted a block party just about every year since we moved here 5 years ago.
WHY: We love a sense of community, we have great neighbors, and we seek opportunities to get to know them better, and have everyone become better acquainted with one another as well. It’s hard to build friendships without face time. Isn’t it amazing how you can live next door to someone and hardly ever see them?
WHEN: We’ve done every time of year – Spring, Fall, Winter. Usually we avoid the Summer time because it’s so hot in Arizona but we were just early enough this time that it wasn’t quite dreadful yet. Because of Summer time, we opted for a weekday evening (cooler temps, kids aren’t in school, and weekends are usually full or less-consistent in general).
HOW: Higgins style = simple. Simple = No decorations, no cutesy party favors, no making the food all by myself … not even planned games. I’m not really elaborate when it comes to parties. If I were elaborate, I probably wouldn’t have many parties ever, because I don’t have that kind of time.
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Step 1: A few weeks before the party, we sent a save-the-date email to all neighbors whose addresses we had.
Step 2: I made flyers.
Don’t be confused by the graphic. I used a map of our little neighborhood but distorted the image in this picture for privacy reasons. Here is how I set up the document in Pages (word processing on Mac computers):
Step 3: A couple weeks before the party, my good friend & neighbor Sarica and I took our kids on a walk one morning and the kids taped a flyer to every single door in our neighborhood. **Definitely involve your kids in the planning and preparations! This will help instill in them a sense of community.
Step 4: On the flyer, we requested that everyone tell us what they were going to bring (main dish or salad or side dish or dessert …). I kept a running list of these things, just to ensure we had a good balance of food items.
Step 5: On the evening of the party, we put a sign on the door, inviting all our neighbors to just walk in.
We set out plenty of these, accompanied with a couple of markers. (We have plenty of new neighbors so these name tags are instrumental in helping us learn and remember everyone’s names.)
Many neighbors came. Some were out of town. I love that all the kids knew to kick their shoes off by the front door.
And we spent the evening enjoying great conversation and catching up over plenty of food.
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{ BLOCK PARTY TIPS }
- Be sure to invite every neighbor. It’s not cool to leave people out. You probably don’t have everybody’s email address or phone number. Hence the flyers.
- Don’t expect 100% attendance. That’s just too many schedules to coordinate. Just pick a date and hope for the best.
- Collaborate with another neighbor and share party-planning duties.
- Child-proof your home if you’re not used to having children over. We have kids over all the time, so this was a non-issue.
- If your home isn’t conducive to large crowds (or you simply don’t want to have everyone in your home), consider a nearby park or even a cul de sac in your neighborhood that you could block off. Just choose a time of year that is ideal and comfortable to be outside.
- Have one, central place for all the food. Seems obvious, but plan ahead for this as you might need to gather a couple extra tables to set up.
- Name tags. Super helpful. See above.
- Welcome sign on the door. See above. This is especially helpful to new neighbors, to ensure them they’re at the right house when they show up.
- We don’t plan games because the kids are content to run around in the backyard, jump on the trampoline, etc. but you certainly could plan for a couple games. I do think it’s a fun idea. In fact, this is a perfect assignment for other neighbors or even have a couple teenagers take charge in the game department.
- Put a couple Sharpie markers by the cups so everyone can label their own cup. I like my neighbors but I try to keep my germs to myself.
- Speaking of drinks, this is a more personal preference. We don’t drink alcohol and we don’t prefer alcohol to be in our home. So we always provide drinks. A big water jug or water bottles or soda and juice or make a punch. There are plenty of options. For this recent party, we stuck with water because it was a hot day and we knew there would be a lot of congregating inside. Any spills would be water spills and I can handle that.
- Remember: This party isn’t about your house, if you’re hosting the party in your home. Don’t worry if there’s still laundry on your bed or dust on your blinds. This party is about building friendships within your community.
- If you have little ones, I recommend seeing if they could play at a neighbor’s for that hour or so before the party. That’s when you’re usually tidying up, pulling together last-minute food prep, etc. This will save you some stress if you have a hard time multi-tasking. My friend/neighbor Sarica had our kids over before this recent block party and boy, it was sure helpful to pull everything together without distractions.
- Need party food recipe ideas? Check out my collection of favorite Recipes (see categories on the right).
- Just do it. If you don’t, who will?
Tags: community, neighborhood
GREAT tips, Becky. We are having our neighborhood block party planning meeting next week and I am going to print this off and take it with me. Thanks so much! You da bestest in the westest.
Perfect timing with the 4th of July festivities coming up! We are hosting this year; your tips are SUPER helpful! Kids in our neighborhood also know to take their shoes off in our home as well; not very common I’ve noticed, glad I’m not the only one! Thanks again for sharing your tips!!
I think this is wonderful- we just moved in Oct. to a neighborhood that doesn’t have an HOA and isn’t a covenant neighborhood, so we rarely get to see other neighbors other than setting out the garbage cans!
I think this would be a fun way to introduce ourselves and to get to know others better!
just wondering what you meant by “HOA” ?
“Home Owner’s Association”
Wondering what program you used to create your invitiations. Wonderful ideas; thanks for sharing!
Becky said she used the Pages programme with her Mac. Word for windows. Create a text box, click on it to change colours, line thickness and you can round the corners too (with the 2011 version anyway!)
Hope that helps!
Hi Becky,
. Today’s post on my blog talks about Project Life and directs traffic to your site – as well as highlights the contest. I just wanted to let you know. Thanks again! Can’t wait for the 2012 version to come out!
I’ve recently answered your call for entries in your Project Life contest (LOVE that product) and am new to blogging myself! Thank you for all the inspiration
Awesome ideas as usual. Any chance you are going to put the block party invite in the free downloads?????
Thanks,
Denise
Just one extra idea to share–before a block party, I go around and take pictures of everyone’s house. I make two copies of each house photo (assuming a married couple live there) and then adhere them to the name tags. People pick their actual house for a name tag then. That way people associate a name with a face with a house. Everyone always loves it!
Love this… thank you!
I have done this at Christmas time, so a lot fuller w/ everyone in the house, but we provided the Honey Baked Ham and then it was potluck! The kids played and everyone had lots of fun! I want to be your neighbor!
Thank you for the SIMPLE party idea. I’ve stopped looking at a lot of blogs because they just make me feel bad about what I’m not doing… cute food – cute decorations – cute party favors – I can’t compete! Thanks for remembering what the effort is actually about – time with friends and family.
This is great Becky! I dont like alcohol in my home either, but unfortunately most of my family enjoys a few cocktails. How can I be polite by saying this is not really a place for drinking without offending everyone? I attended a Christmas Eve party at a relatives house that, in my opinion, was completely ruined by the lack of responsible adults and too much drinking. I wish I lived on your block!
Thanks so much for this post!! We are hosting a community party in a couple of weeks and we are excited and a little nervous. We moved into this neighborhood 2 years ago and we hardly know anyone in the community (we live in a subdivision). I just printed invitations and taped to everyone’s door, we asked if anyone wanted to help with this event to let us know. There are about 45 homes in our subdivision and many have large families so we are looking forward to meeting everyone. Thank you for reminding me that the decor does not matter and community and getting to know our neighbors is what matters most. The last few days I have been thinking about my “theme, colors, etc” and it began to feel like we have bitten off more that we can chew. If this goes well, this is something that we plan to do next year! Thanks so much for the tips! Oh, would you please make that invite one we can download??Please?? That would be awesome to use next time!!
Just curious if you address the no alcohol issue or if you are just lucky and no one has ever shown up with any? Just looking for a polite friendly way to still make people feel welcome but let them know that we don’t prefer alcohol in our home.
Thanks for the tips. I love your invite, this for the sheer simplicity of the design. I was wondering… would you be willing to share your design in the form of a template? I would use it for the neighbourhood barbecue we are planning. Think about it. Have yourself a fantastic day.
I love this post Becky! It’s so great to see that neighborhood friendliness hasn’t gone away completely
As much as I love living in the country, in the middle of nowhere, I worry about what it will be like to raise children (when we have them) in that kind of environment because our closest neighbor is about a mile and a half away. Some of my best memories as a child are riding bikes with our friends or jumping in piles of leaves of building a snowman with my next door neighbor. My best friend for several years was a girl from down the block.
Great job on what you’re doing to build community in your neighborhood. You’re such an inspiration!
Hi Becky!
I don´t even know how I ended up here… (everythin started with me cheking at Valerie Koop´s blog – be in the moment… that led me to pinterest.. that led me to another blog… that comment about yours…) but I LOVE IT HERE!!!
Congrats! So much fun! So much inspiration!!!
Just love it!
Kisses and blessings.
Mirys
http://www.diariodos3mosqueteiros.blogspot.com
from Brazil
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[...] Organize a block party, and get to know your neighbors. Use your creativity to plan a simple potluck and some fun games and enjoy the company of those in your community. [...]
[...] How to Organize a Block Party Read about how to throw together a no frills block party and use her template for a flyer to give to your neighbors. [...]