Logistics of Hosting A Dinner at Home for 60 people in January

[Anonymous]

We have a family milestone event coming up in January. About 60 family members, (50 adults/10 kids?) most who are traveling here from out of town. Can someone walk me through the logistics of what it would take, who I would contact to potentially host this at our house (Mclean, 5,000sq ft house, small back yard, small deck)? Our house has a fairly open main floor but I’m imagining we would need to have a company clear out the furniture and put it in storage and then bring in rental tables/chairs etc.

Is this a crazy idea? I *think* we might have room for a heated tent in the yard? This is not my wheelhouse of skills or experience. Trying to keep control of it being low key, nice food, lots of time to hang out with family.

If you think instead we should just do this at a restaurant with a nice ambiance please say that too, and recommend a place.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you should do it at a restaurant. 5000 square feet will be tight for 60 people. And what if the weather is horrible?

However, if you don’t want to, you must hire a party planner. They will have the contacts with the rental/ catering/ tent people and will be there with a team day of to direct traffic. You want to enjoy the day, not be answering questions from bar tenders and caterers.

Don’t do this on your own for your sanity.

[Anonymous]

Don't do it at your house. Such a pain and will be very expensive with rental everything. Just do it at a restaurant. Or, if not everyone is old, then you don't need seating for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Do not do this at your house. Renting the tables and chairs and plates and chafing dishes and table cloths and moving your furniture and serving the food will be just as expensive as going elsewhere and so much more work.time consuming. Also you don't have enough bathrooms.

Maggiano's in Tyson's could work for this and is pretty affordable. Other restaurants or hotels could also manage a group of this size...I have heard good things about 2941, Clyde's, and Lebanese Taverna for groups that size.

[Anonymous]

Doing it at a hotel is good since people are coming from out of town. You can get a room block so people can stay at the same place you are having the event. Easier than driving somewhere else (especially if people will drink and/or there's bad weather).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doing it at a hotel is good since people are coming from out of town. You can get a room block so people can stay at the same place you are having the event. Easier than driving somewhere else (especially if people will drink and/or there's bad weather).

Plus this allows people to hang out beyond the party time. I would pick something along the silver line (so people can fly into Dulles and take metro if they want). With 10 kids, get something with an indoor pool. And ideally a place that offers breakfast so people can spend time together in the morning too.

[Anonymous]

We host a Christmas party for about 80 people every year in a much smaller house and without any help of staff. I take tge day before off to start the cooking. I don’t know why everyone is pretending that this is so difficult!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We host a Christmas party for about 80 people every year in a much smaller house and without any help of staff. I take tge day before off to start the cooking. I don’t know why everyone is pretending that this is so difficult!

+1 60 people will easily fit, especially if not all having to sit down in the same room at once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doing it at a hotel is good since people are coming from out of town. You can get a room block so people can stay at the same place you are having the event. Easier than driving somewhere else (especially if people will drink and/or there's bad weather).

Plus this allows people to hang out beyond the party time. I would pick something along the silver line (so people can fly into Dulles and take metro if they want). With 10 kids, get something with an indoor pool. And ideally a place that offers breakfast so people can spend time together in the morning too.

That seems even more expensive.

I think OP can do this at home, but she needs to do her research and look online at blogs and videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We host a Christmas party for about 80 people every year in a much smaller house and without any help of staff. I take tge day before off to start the cooking. I don’t know why everyone is pretending that this is so difficult!

Are all 80 people there simultaneously? Are they all driving or do some live nearby? Is it a stand around and snack event or a seated meal? And was it 60+ people the first year you hosted or did it grow over time? These details matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We host a Christmas party for about 80 people every year in a much smaller house and without any help of staff. I take tge day before off to start the cooking. I don’t know why everyone is pretending that this is so difficult!

This is DCUM, anything is hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We host a Christmas party for about 80 people every year in a much smaller house and without any help of staff. I take tge day before off to start the cooking. I don’t know why everyone is pretending that this is so difficult!

+1 60 people will easily fit, especially if not all having to sit down in the same room at once.

Most dinners are seated. Please don't make your guests stand to eat dinner. Just do it at a restaurant. So much easier and less stress for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doing it at a hotel is good since people are coming from out of town. You can get a room block so people can stay at the same place you are having the event. Easier than driving somewhere else (especially if people will drink and/or there's bad weather).

Plus this allows people to hang out beyond the party time. I would pick something along the silver line (so people can fly into Dulles and take metro if they want). With 10 kids, get something with an indoor pool. And ideally a place that offers breakfast so people can spend time together in the morning too.

That seems even more expensive.

I think OP can do this at home, but she needs to do her research and look online at blogs and videos.

If people are coming from out of town as op said, they will need to stay somewhere anyway. Getting a room block so they all have the option of staying in the same place is courteous. And if many of them are staying in one place, hosting there is easy. The hotel has the equipment appropriate for that size group and staff used to working there. Yes it's possible to have dinner for 60 in a 5000 square foot house. It's just not necessarily cheaper or easier than having it elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

If relatives are traveling from out of town, at least one college kid ends up crashing on our couch. Then other relatives stop by to see the college kid, or use some other excuse. There ends up being these spontaneous pre-party gatherings. It was always stressful hosting the main event while also playing free hotel hostess.

I vote do it offsite.

If everybody was in town already then doing it at the house is much easier.

[Anonymous]

Agree with prior poster that OP could probably do this at home. We have hosted a holiday party with real food (brisket and latkes) of around 60 people (I think one year we hit over 70) of adults and kids and our house was smaller than that. I bet if you thought about it, there is already a lot of seating in this house. The things we did do to maximize seating areas was: moved formal dining table and filled dining room with smaller round tables so that it sat roughly 21 rather than just 10; added chairs wherever they would fit (for example, folding chairs next to sectional couch in family room, extra chairs in living room near couch, etc.); if you have a finished basement, let kids hang out down there to reduce crowding upstairs. We served food buffet style in kitchen from island and then people distributed themselves around the house to eat and mingle. Put bar in living room. We were always fine with the 4 bathrooms in the house for that size crowd. Since we do this every year, we got a lot of party supplies like tables, plates, silverware, etc., but you can either rent or use disposable for all of that. If you use a caterer, they can help plan for lots of this stuff.