advice for hosting holiday open house

[Anonymous]

Oddly enough, I don't think I've ever attended a holiday open house as an adult. Aside from vague memories as a kid, I don't really remember how these work!

Now that holidays are upon us, I like the idea of having a lot of people over in a casual way so would love to know more about the open house concept. Have you ever hosted one?

Do you basically put out drinks and appetizers and then refresh the appetizers as the day goes on? What do you do with the people, do you have to have games or entertainment? Is there a lull? How long do you set it for?

Any tips or stories?

[Anonymous]

We host one most years. I have it catered (heavy appetizers) and hire a bartender. Things just kind of flow on their own.

[Anonymous]

My friend does this. She preps a lot beforehand and then hires help to refresh the food and clear the dishes and trash.

No entertainment, people just talk to each other.

[Anonymous]

We’ve done it. I think ours was the Sunday after the thanksgiving weekend and was from
1-4 or 2-5pm. We hired a babysitter to hang with kids in the basement- we put a movie on and got some simple crafts for the kids.
Upstairs we had food and drinks for adults but no entertainment. We got much of the food from Costco.
The lull was right at the start- ask your closest friends to come right at the beginning. Then it was pretty busy the rest of the time. We talked about hiring a bartender/helper but didn’t- that would have been nice to have someone else helping manage the food replenishment. But friends helped. And no one really cares of something is running low, they’ll just eat something else.
I say do it- everyone appreciates having a party to go to and won’t be judging you ok the specifics.
Our house isn’t huge and we kept some people off the guest list but I wish we hadn’t. An open house can handle a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

We've done it. You need to be very specific on the invitation that it is open house format. Be specific on start and end times.

Start and end should determine if it's apps or desserts but sounds like yours will be apps OP. It's good to hire a bartender and have a theme holiday drink.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you for these responses. Very helpful!