Housewarming party ideas for a new home

The easiest housewarming party is an open house: a window of three or four hours when friends drop in, see the home, eat and leave, rather than a dinner where everyone arrives at once. Keep the food simple enough for a kitchen you've barely used, give a short house tour, add one or two small touches such as a blessing jar or a plant for each guest, and if your family holds a griha pravesh puja, keep the puja in the morning and the party in the evening.

For the religious ceremony itself, see the griha pravesh guide. This guide is about the party.

Choosing the format

Food that works in a new kitchen

A new kitchen is rarely fully set up. Plan food that doesn't depend on it:

• A caterer or a home chef who brings food ready to serve.
• Chaat, sandwiches and finger food, which suit guests drifting in and out.
• One hot dish that keeps well, such as pav bhaji, biryani or chole, rather than a full spread.
• Sweets from a favourite local shop, which guests always like.
• Disposable but sensible plates: leaf or areca plates rather than plastic.

Many families boil milk on the new stove as part of the griha pravesh. If yours does, that milk becomes tea or kheer for the first guests, a lovely way to use the kitchen for the first time.

The house tour

Guests want to see the home; that's half the reason they came. A short tour works best when it's informal: show the main rooms, the view, the puja corner, and anything you're proud of. Close the doors of rooms that aren't ready. For a big open house, put small handwritten labels on doors, such as “Aarav's room”, so guests can wander on their own.

Small touches guests remember

• A blessing jar: guests write a wish for the home on a card and drop it in; open it on your first anniversary there.
• A guest book or a signed canvas for the wall.
• A photo corner at the door, with the house number or a nameplate.
• A family recipe printed on a card for each guest, the dish you'll make most often in the new kitchen.

Games, if you want them

• Guess the price: guests guess what you paid for an odd item in the house. Keep it light.
• Antakshari for a family crowd.
• A treasure hunt for children, with clues hidden around the home, which doubles as a house tour.

Return gifts

• A small potted plant, such as tulsi, money plant or a succulent.
• A brass or clay diya.
• A jar of homemade pickle or sweets.
• Seed packets with a card: “Grow something in your home too.”

Housewarming invitation wording

The names, dates and places below are examples.

Gifts, and saying no to them

Guests usually bring something for a new home: a plant, a show-piece, something for the kitchen or the puja room. If you'd rather they didn't, a line such as “Your company is the only housewarming gift we need” is clear and kind. For the design, the vastu and puja templates suit puja invitations, and the vastu shanti guide covers the puja many families hold. More guides are under housewarming and puja.