The 3 Basics of Hosting a Block Party

What’s a great way to get to know your neighbors? Host a block party!

Do you remember the 4th of July Block Party scene from the 90s movie Sandlot? Epic! The atmosphere of an entire community celebrating together, AWWWW.

We may not have been able to create the same magical scene, but as part of our attempt to minister to our new community, we have been hosting block parties.

These block parties were fairly inexpensive yet tons of fun! Most importantly, they were easy to host. These parties obviously were held in the summer but fall, back-to-school, and football season are some great excuses to hang outdoors with your community!

Block parties are very important to us because PEOPLE are very important to us. We strongly believe that relationships are what Jesus was all about even more than providing needs to people. Community and relational living are the essentials to life.

There are some simple things that help people feel more relaxed and therefore more open to building relationships. Of course, there are some natural things to block parties like choosing a place/neighborhood/street to host the event.

Then there’s getting the correct permissions from those the party will effect: homes which will be blocked by the shindig as well as the authorities in your town/community. After that, we narrowed our block parties down to 3 basic things that will help make your guest feel welcome AND make the idea of a block party less overwhelming:

Fun

Providing simple activities for {mainly} kids to do while parents/adults are talking will allow those attending to be more at ease and help them feel comfortable to stay as long as they’d like. We all know when kids are done, mommies and daddies need to be done as well.

We were blessed enough to know that our local church association had a “block party” trailer that is available to anyone who asked to borrow it; for FREE! The trailer has several blow-up games in it: 2 bouncy houses, giant wet or dry slide, and a long obstacle course. All of these are big enough for adults as well. At our largest block party, we had all of them set up in our parking lot but at the others, we just set up a couple for the kids.

Other ideas for simple games would be basketball, ping pong, four square, ladder golf, and bean bag games. If you wanted to make it wet for hotter weather, throw in a baby pool, sprinkler, or slip-n-slide.

Providing some sort of energetic music in the background also helps put people at ease. Pumping it out through a karaoke machine, iPod dock, or good old fashioned boom box is all you need.

Food

At every block party, we offered hot dogs and drinks. That’s it. We didn’t try to do anything fancy. We bought hot dogs, mustard, ketchup, relish, and canned/box drinks in bulk, freezing leftover dogs after each party and storing condiments and drinks for the next block party.

Hot dog buns were the only thing we bought right before the party. If you are planning just one block party this summer, you can buy just enough for those in your community you believe will come.

We used a friend’s hot dog cart {SUPER COOL} to boil our hot dogs in but an easily movable grill works marvelously. A table of condiments and napkins, a couple of cheap baby pools full of iced down canned sodas for the adults and Capri Suns or juice boxes for the kids, and you’re ready to rock!

Don’t forget to let others in on the fun of helping set up and tear down for the event. Ask for help! I know it sounds almost selfish but really, its a fact that you get to know someone deeper faster by working along side them.

Fellowship

I used the word fellowship because I already had 2 other “F”s & couldn’t bring myself to use “hanging out.” 😉

This simply means providing a safe space where people are comfortable meeting, greeting, eating, sitting, chatting, and hanging out with others.

At our block parties, we encouraged people to bring their lawn chairs, blankets, and even a tent if they wanted. Sometimes we would break out a few classy folding chairs but they were rarely needed.

We also used vehicles, chairs, orange cones, and caution tape to mark where the “boundaries” were. Not necessarily for those at the block party but more for those approaching it so they would not endanger little ones & others who may be unaware of the moving danger.

I challenge you to get out there and meet your neighbors. Let your home ooze out into the streets of your community!