I love this, and as the resident cook of my household I would love a guest post from your husband talking about the menu design process!! Some beautiful ideas from your spreadsheet I may be tempted to steal in the new year…
Funny enough, I was just rereading the original post a few days ago! Love the recap.
Our family is hosting a few “winter blues jazz clubs” in the winter aka an open house style dinner where we’re inviting friends and asking them all to invite a friend or two. Hoping it helps us beat the winter blues and also meet more people.
I've been doing this on Fridays for a few years now. Not as a resolution, and not obsessively. I probably host about 35 to 40 Fridays each year. Still, it's a good way to build community and friendship.
LOVE this, the concept spoke so deeply to me that as soon as I saw the instagram post about it, I told my husband this is what we are doing in 2026!! We are booked up until March and successfully hosted our first dinner last Saturday night - Jan 3rd none the less, and it was such a hit!!
It also helps fulfill one part of my marriage vows where I said I would learn to cook (my husband is also the chef of the family), so it's been exciting for me to lean into that.
This is absolutely incredible, and something I'd love to do in my own home! We started a cookbook club with 2 other families with small kids this year. We met every other month, and it was so much fun and so life giving. I love the idea of expanding my social circle and building community with something like what you all did though.
I really love this and want to do this. I had “host dinner once a quarter” as my goal and I came close. The hold up for me with the weekly dinner is that I live alone and it’s a lot to cook and clean and also clean up after.
I love this. I actually had a similar promise. We'd host people the first Sunday if the month. We did this for about three years, with only one time no one could come. And it was back when the kiddos were babies.
COVID actually liked it, and we never got back into the groove after. The first one we had post COVID had 30 people and we couldn't handle the size easily.
I'm inspired by your post to reenergize the tradition! I think a key is inviting just a few people to keep the size manageable like you did. I so agree that having people over and chilling about perfection is the best. Thanks for writing about this!
About 12(?) years ago, we decided we’d like to host Sunday suppers for our local family. At the time, my brother and SIL lived about 30 minutes away and my parents lived about an hour away. I was kind of surprised that they said yes and committed to every weekend, but they did.
I hosted a Sunday dinner almost every week since then. My niece was born a year or so into the experiment and her parents loved coming for a meal someone else handled, lots of leftovers and people to attend to the baby. We lost my father and my grandfather throughout that time, and started celebrating dia de los muertos and sharing special meals in honor of them at key moments (NJ tomato BLTs and peach cobbler in august!) My mother actually had a stroke during one of the Sunday suppers, which was fortuitous since we live near a top stroke hospital. She’s fine now and lives down the street.
Our relationships are so much closer than they might have been and we are a big part of my niece’s life. She’s spent every holiday here, along with some neighbors that have gradually added to the mix. It is hands down the greatest thing we’ve ever done.
You get good at making things ahead, managing what people like and sometimes pushing them outside of their comfort zone. You get confident as a cook, because people aren’t showing up for hundreds of meals if you’re that bad at it. But mostly, we just keep up with each other, it’s always chaos, but it’s always worth it.
I loved your post announcing this it inspired me to do something similar. Mine is monthly. We had our third one last night and it was great! Ours is a potluck though. I choose to invite a large list each time, knowing many won’t be available. Same list each time because it’s much simpler than deciding who. I don’t want the pressure to feed that many people in the event that a lot do show up. In general cooking for a group and not knowing exactly how many it will be is too stressful for me, and as we know many are not great with RSVP’s. I love seeing what people bring and trying different dishes! It’s been great with good turnout I invite 10+ families.
This is so incredible and the way you describe it makes me feel more capable of expanding our community by inviting folks over. Connecting and community building is my 2026 focus, and a metric like this might just be the ticket!
I love this idea and have thought about doing something similar but never quite took the plunge. Reading your account is very inspiring. We like to host and I completely agree that it's not for everyone, so you can't keep a tally of reciprocity. If ours is the place that people enjoy coming to hang out, then that's enough to keep the good vibes going. I am nervous about inviting outside of our comfort zone and going beyond the usual suspects though! Did you have any dinners that were a bit awkward?
I love this idea, but I’m also afraid to even try where I live. That plus we’re both really introverted and it sounds exhausting lol.
We are not politically or culturally aligned well with where we live and the thought of inviting neighbors over and the fear of politics entering the discussion terrifies me.
Maybe that’s my problem because I have isolated myself so much, and maybe they aren’t that bad.
But kudos to you and your family for doing that. It’s really inspiring to see that communities can still be built and nourished today with effort, some love, and plenty of food!
You might be surprised. There are universal values, that are really more important than party affiliation. I encourage you to try. Some of my most meaningful conversations have come with neighbors who don't have the exact same politics or religious beliefs as we do, and we're in red Ohio...
I love this! I love that you kept track of the number of people you connected with. I joined a mutual aid group in 2025 and it was probably the single best thing I did all year. Breaking bread IS political, and so is caring for neighbors more broadly. I'm inspired to invite people over more often in 2026.
I think about this experiment more than I’d like to admit (to you anyway, it might be seen as creepy!). Anyway, I’m a regular-ish host, but always want to make it A Weekly Thing, so this has definitely given me the inspo / arse kick to do it in 2026. I’m going to experiment with Monday’s. Because what day needs more fun in it than Monday?!
I love this, and as the resident cook of my household I would love a guest post from your husband talking about the menu design process!! Some beautiful ideas from your spreadsheet I may be tempted to steal in the new year…
Funny enough, I was just rereading the original post a few days ago! Love the recap.
Our family is hosting a few “winter blues jazz clubs” in the winter aka an open house style dinner where we’re inviting friends and asking them all to invite a friend or two. Hoping it helps us beat the winter blues and also meet more people.
I've been doing this on Fridays for a few years now. Not as a resolution, and not obsessively. I probably host about 35 to 40 Fridays each year. Still, it's a good way to build community and friendship.
LOVE this, the concept spoke so deeply to me that as soon as I saw the instagram post about it, I told my husband this is what we are doing in 2026!! We are booked up until March and successfully hosted our first dinner last Saturday night - Jan 3rd none the less, and it was such a hit!!
It also helps fulfill one part of my marriage vows where I said I would learn to cook (my husband is also the chef of the family), so it's been exciting for me to lean into that.
Love from Brisbane, Australia.
This is absolutely incredible, and something I'd love to do in my own home! We started a cookbook club with 2 other families with small kids this year. We met every other month, and it was so much fun and so life giving. I love the idea of expanding my social circle and building community with something like what you all did though.
I really love this and want to do this. I had “host dinner once a quarter” as my goal and I came close. The hold up for me with the weekly dinner is that I live alone and it’s a lot to cook and clean and also clean up after.
I love this. I actually had a similar promise. We'd host people the first Sunday if the month. We did this for about three years, with only one time no one could come. And it was back when the kiddos were babies.
COVID actually liked it, and we never got back into the groove after. The first one we had post COVID had 30 people and we couldn't handle the size easily.
I'm inspired by your post to reenergize the tradition! I think a key is inviting just a few people to keep the size manageable like you did. I so agree that having people over and chilling about perfection is the best. Thanks for writing about this!
I love this so,so much.
About 12(?) years ago, we decided we’d like to host Sunday suppers for our local family. At the time, my brother and SIL lived about 30 minutes away and my parents lived about an hour away. I was kind of surprised that they said yes and committed to every weekend, but they did.
I hosted a Sunday dinner almost every week since then. My niece was born a year or so into the experiment and her parents loved coming for a meal someone else handled, lots of leftovers and people to attend to the baby. We lost my father and my grandfather throughout that time, and started celebrating dia de los muertos and sharing special meals in honor of them at key moments (NJ tomato BLTs and peach cobbler in august!) My mother actually had a stroke during one of the Sunday suppers, which was fortuitous since we live near a top stroke hospital. She’s fine now and lives down the street.
Our relationships are so much closer than they might have been and we are a big part of my niece’s life. She’s spent every holiday here, along with some neighbors that have gradually added to the mix. It is hands down the greatest thing we’ve ever done.
You get good at making things ahead, managing what people like and sometimes pushing them outside of their comfort zone. You get confident as a cook, because people aren’t showing up for hundreds of meals if you’re that bad at it. But mostly, we just keep up with each other, it’s always chaos, but it’s always worth it.
I loved your post announcing this it inspired me to do something similar. Mine is monthly. We had our third one last night and it was great! Ours is a potluck though. I choose to invite a large list each time, knowing many won’t be available. Same list each time because it’s much simpler than deciding who. I don’t want the pressure to feed that many people in the event that a lot do show up. In general cooking for a group and not knowing exactly how many it will be is too stressful for me, and as we know many are not great with RSVP’s. I love seeing what people bring and trying different dishes! It’s been great with good turnout I invite 10+ families.
This is so incredible and the way you describe it makes me feel more capable of expanding our community by inviting folks over. Connecting and community building is my 2026 focus, and a metric like this might just be the ticket!
The kindest compliment. Thank you!!
I love this idea and have thought about doing something similar but never quite took the plunge. Reading your account is very inspiring. We like to host and I completely agree that it's not for everyone, so you can't keep a tally of reciprocity. If ours is the place that people enjoy coming to hang out, then that's enough to keep the good vibes going. I am nervous about inviting outside of our comfort zone and going beyond the usual suspects though! Did you have any dinners that were a bit awkward?
I love this idea, but I’m also afraid to even try where I live. That plus we’re both really introverted and it sounds exhausting lol.
We are not politically or culturally aligned well with where we live and the thought of inviting neighbors over and the fear of politics entering the discussion terrifies me.
Maybe that’s my problem because I have isolated myself so much, and maybe they aren’t that bad.
But kudos to you and your family for doing that. It’s really inspiring to see that communities can still be built and nourished today with effort, some love, and plenty of food!
You could start small and have people over for coffee/tea and dessert, and you could even buy the cake/cookies/ice cream, so less pressure!
You might be surprised. There are universal values, that are really more important than party affiliation. I encourage you to try. Some of my most meaningful conversations have come with neighbors who don't have the exact same politics or religious beliefs as we do, and we're in red Ohio...
I love this! I love that you kept track of the number of people you connected with. I joined a mutual aid group in 2025 and it was probably the single best thing I did all year. Breaking bread IS political, and so is caring for neighbors more broadly. I'm inspired to invite people over more often in 2026.
I think about this experiment more than I’d like to admit (to you anyway, it might be seen as creepy!). Anyway, I’m a regular-ish host, but always want to make it A Weekly Thing, so this has definitely given me the inspo / arse kick to do it in 2026. I’m going to experiment with Monday’s. Because what day needs more fun in it than Monday?!
I appreciate that!! Good luck
BIG fan of the formula pitchers being used as water pitchers. Seriously, thank you for keeping it real.
They come in handy!!
What a wonderful idea, and incredible resource!