Hosting people

[PinkSquash]

The art of hosting people for lunch, dinner, or whatever has completely passed me by, we never hosted people growing up so I find myself absolutely panicked about hosting people at all, there's always a drink of whatever kind but beyond that, what do you do and serve?

Tell them in advance what you are inviting them to. Dinner? Drinks and snacks? So they can arrive appropriately hungry. Ask about food preferences intolerances.
Make it clear whether children are invited.
Cook something you have made before so you aren't stressed. Pie and mash? Curry? Pizza? Have a range of drinks available although they will probably bring some.
Enjoy!
Drinks an

Thank you, that's really helpful, I think I've built it up to being something a lot more complex than it should be.

I've also been wondering about unexpected visitors as well, I get it on a fairly frequent basis and rarely have food or snacks in to offer something and I feel bad, are there any tips here?

I suspect reading MN is likely to have contributed to your overthinking around ‘hosting’ people. In real life, people come over to visit friends and family and don’t expect anything special.

Visitors dropping in should have manners to bring something to have with a cuppa. Only best friends and parents are exempt from this rule -but should anyway- .

See, on MN there are gazillions if rules about ‘hosting’ and visiting. It makes it all sound like a minefield. If you’re passing a friend’s house, see they’re in and decide to say hi for a few minutes, you’d better have a just in case packet of biscuits in your bag or you’ll be considered ‘rude’. Much better to just not say ‘hi’ at all.

In real life, people come round without expectations and are quite happy if you offer them a cup of tea. Or even if you’re out of tea and can only offer water or milk for that matter. They came to see you, not for the catering. And they don’t act like someone knocking on their door without having filed the required paperwork in advance is a dreadful nightmare.

People who’ve just knocked on the off chance are generally totally happy if you say that you’re doing something and don’t have time to chat too.

If you get unexpected visitors regularly I would keep a selection of savoury things (crackers, crisps, cheese, dips) and biscuits around. I always have tea/coffee and wine but may not have soft drinks If planned I agree with pup - make it clear what the invite is. I am in Oz and if you are invited for a meal the polite response is "what can I bring?" The host may respond asking for a salad or dessert or bread or nothing but that is not the norm in the UK. You would always bring a bottle of wine to a lunch/dinner invite unless specifically told not to.

Yes, tell people what the invitation is for.

I would like to keep biscuits and soft drinks for unexpected visitors, but my teenaged DC demolish everything remotely sugary before it’s through the door

I sometimes take cordial or fruit to daytime meets at folk’s houses as we are all sick of biscuits

we are all sick of biscuits

Just for the record, @fascinated , we are not, yet, sick of biscuits. 😀

Make sure you offer drinks etc, keep an eye on glasses. Oh, and RE the kids eating everything in the house deal, things like frozen cinnamon buns from ikea are good because they only take 20 mins in the oven but this is, of course, way too much effort for a teenager and you can hide them under the frozen peas.