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?
