What Is a Potluck Party?

A potluck is a dinner party where everyone brings something to eat. At other parties, the host may stand in the kitchen all day, but everyone only has to do a little work at this party, so it’s a great way to relax. It is also lovely to have a wide variety of food. Here are some tips to help you organize a potluck!

Make a Guest List and Invite Everyone

It would be a shame to forget to invite everyone you love, so making a list is helpful. You can do this by phone or email, but you can also create a private Facebook event and invite everyone to it. That way, everyone knows who can and cannot come.

Choose the Location

Where will you hold your potluck? At your house? At someone else’s place? In a rented room, in a park, in the woods?

If you have a fixed location, you will have all the facilities. If you are going to a park or forest, it is a good idea to check first if there are bathrooms nearby and if you will need water or electricity.

Decide on a Theme?

One of the best things about potlucks is that you can work on a theme. For instance, you can plan a barbecue, or it could be anything else such as:

• Lunch
• Picnic
• Italian
• Condiments
• Tapas
• Cocktails/mocktails
• Multicultural (when getting together with people from different cultures, someone can prepare something from their own country)
• Desserts

Who Will Bring What?

Decide in advance who will bring what. This way, you won’t have to eat potato salad 10 times. It will probably all be delicious, but a little variety would be nice; you can create a topic on the Facebook event page about who is bringing what and let the array happen naturally. People can already see what someone is bringing and can make up for what they are still missing.

If you are a control freak, you can list everything you want in advance and include it on this page, or you can create a shared document in Google Docs where everyone writes their name behind the food.

Make sure each type of food is available. For example, for a barbecue, you obviously want what will be cooked on the barbecue, but you also wish for a buffet of cold dishes, salads, etc., and even a delicious dessert to finish the meal. Do you want aperitifs as snacks or not?

Please be sure to check if anyone has any allergies.

What About Drinks?

Either the host/hostess will take care of the drinks, or it can also be part of the guests instead of bringing food. For example, you may want to provide tap water or a pitcher with mint or lemon.

Drinks should be grouped together in a refrigerator or bucket with water and ice blocks so everyone can get their own. Nothing is more annoying than having the host or hostess check your glass throughout the night to see if there is still something in it. It is much nicer to be able to chat with them.

Who Provides the Cutlery?

The host provides the cutlery, plates, and glasses. Depending on the number of people arriving, someone else may bring them because if you invite 30 people, you may also not have 30 forks. The downside is that the person has to wash the dishes unless they can put them all in the dishwasher. Either someone can help with the dishes, or everyone can bring their own plates, glasses, and cutlery. Then everyone washes their own dishes at home.

Have you ever hosted a potluck party? Share your experience with us in the comments below!