海角大神

One of my readers recently wrote to me, telling me about the 鈥渇amily dinner night鈥� they host. Here鈥檚 how it works.

Once a month, on a set day that everyone knows about (they do it on the second Friday of each month), they have a 鈥渇amily dinner night.鈥� Once you鈥檙e invited to this event, you鈥檙e always invited. 鈥淔amily,鈥� to them, includes everyone important to them, regardless of whether they鈥檙e

About a week beforehand, they send out an email to everyone who is invited and whose address they have, announcing the theme and asking for help in preparation. Attendance is not required; it鈥檚 just something available for those who want to attend.

Those who can help will show up about an hour before the meal to assist in dealing with the meal prep and often bring an item or two to pitch in.

The meals themselves are 鈥渁ssembly line鈥� meals 鈥� tacos, grilling, salad night, soup night, finger food night 鈥� which means that as people arrive, they can go through the 鈥渂uffet line鈥� and fill up their plate.

They usually put extra effort into a few specific elements of the meal, like making fresh salsa for the taco night or carefully marinating a pork loin on grilling night or making a great from-scratch dressing on salad night or from-scratch breadsticks for soup night. You get the idea.

This provides a social evening for the hosts without an incredible cost (yes, there鈥檚 the food cost, but it鈥檚 often reduced by people showing up early and bringing stuff). Even better, a few of their friends have started hosting their own 鈥渇amily dinner night鈥� on different nights during the month.

I think this is a spectacular idea in many, many ways.

It鈥檚 a great way to add a low-intensity regular social event to your calendar. These are the kinds of things that build bonds long-term with your friends and acquaintances.

It allows you to mix social circles. You likely have valued friends and family from different 鈥渃ircles鈥� who have never met each other and interacted. Having them meet in a very casual environment like this is a very good thing, as you can often bring about new connections, friendships, and even (sometimes) deeper relationships.

It鈥檚 inexpensive. Such buffet-style meals are usually fairly inexpensive on their own and they get cheaper if you have friends that bring pieces of the buffet, too.

It鈥檚 replicable. It often spawns similar events from other friends and family members on other nights during the week. Obviously, you have a very high likelihood of being invited.

In fact, my wife and I are considering starting our own 鈥渇amily dinner night鈥� in June or July, once our child has arrived. We have hosted dinner parties before, but this moves the whole thing into a more casual domain.

------------------------------

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.