Sometimes I allow excuses to keep me from showing hospitality. Things like:
-my house is not clean enough
-our schedule is too crazy
-our budget doesn’t allow it
-etc.!
Maybe these thoughts deter you from having people in your home as well. Enter… the porch party! A great way to show southern hospitality in a way that is doable!
Porch parties are laid back and fun, plus they don’t require you to clean your whole house, you can have them any time (morning, afternoon, evening… over a meal or not!), and you can spend time talking with friends and catching up on life!
We had a fall porch party recently and it was so much fun! I drug all of our furniture (not quite) outside and set up a “living room” on the front porch. If you don’t have a porch, you can have a patio party or a lawn party!
I took these pictures in the afternoon, but the party was actually after the kids were in bed. Many of my friends who came are moms, so it works better for us to schedule stuff post-bedtime so we can talk and actually finish a complete sentence!
The weather was cool, so I told everyone to dress warmly and I had blankets ready for some added warmth.
We had coffee, of course, as well as some snacks. (Easy stuff: a cheese board, apples & dip, a no-bake pumpkin cheesecake, etc.)
I wasn’t sure if we would have enough light, but with the cafe lights, the porch light, and a lamp I brought out, we were fine.
Sweet friends!
Hoping to have another porch party before it gets too cold! They’re so much fun!
I would like to point out that while I thoroughly enjoy decorating my porch for parties like this, it’s not necessary to decorate in order to show hospitality on your porch. I had the time this week to do it (and my girls loved helping me with it), but there may be other times I host porch parties that look much simpler! Hospitality is about loving others through the ministry of your home, not about appearances. We all have varying gifts and speak love differently!
For more posts I’ve previously written on hospitality, click here.
