How to Put Together a Welcome Home Party

Planning the Event

Keep the guest of honor in mind as you plan the gathering. Plan a party you know they will enjoy, whether that’s a large or small gathering, an informal shindig or a formal sit-down dinner. Also consider how long they’ve been gone, and why they were traveling: someone who has been away for months or years, or was away for military service, may need more time to rest and adjust before they’re ready to celebrate.

Select a date about a week after the guest of honor gets back. This will give them time to rest and unpack. Consider what day of the week and time of day will be good for all your guests, but be particularly sure it is convenient for your guest of honor.

Choose a location that will be right for your party. An informal get-together will probably work best at a home, whether yours or the guest of honor’s. For a larger or more formal affair, you may want to reserve space at a restaurant or rental hall. Weigh the cost involved in reserving space elsewhere with the work involved in preparing for a party in one’s home. You must first create your guests list so that you know how many guests to plan for. Once you have determined your guests list, it will be easier to start looking for a venue that can accommodate your guests count.

Invite the guests 1-3 weeks before the party. The method you use to invite guests should be determined by the formality of the party: a larger affair or a sit-down dinner suggests printed invitations or perhaps an evite. A call, text, or social media message is fine for more casual gatherings.

Preparing the Location

Choose a theme for your party based on your guest’s travels. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with simple balloons or flowers to make a space feel festive, a welcome-home party is a great opportunity to plan and decorate according to a theme. You can use your party’s food, drinks, and decorations to commemorate where your guest of honor has been, or the hometown or state to which they’ve returned.

Decorate with your guest’s travels in mind. Photographs and mementos or their trip make great decorations, but don’t ask the honoree to go to too much trouble for a party in their honor. Check out travel magazines and search the internet for ideas and inspiration about the culture, famous destinations, and natural features of the places they’ve been visiting. Look for old maps, postcards, or other materials you can re-purpose. For returning college students, look for pennants or flags, as well as and other decorations, in the school colors of their new university. Incorporate the college’s mascot or motto into invitations or banners. If the university has a fight song, play it as your guest arrives. If your guest of honor is a military service member returning home from deployment, patriotic decorations are an easy and impactful choice. Red, white, and blue balloons, banners, and tableware, American flags, and patriotic music can all help express your pride and appreciation for their service.

Let your hometown inspire your decorations. Celebrate the home to which your guest is returning in a way that will be meaningful to them. The skyline of your city, or the outline of your home state, can make a great visual motif to welcome anyone home. Think about a map of the Bay Area on the invitations, a Texas-shaped cake, or a Chicago skyline in washi tape along a wall or fence. Incorporate your guest’s favorite things about your hometown or state into your decorations. You might wish to include local sports teams’ colors or logos, nearby attractions, or regional features like beaches, mountains, forests, or lakes.

Serve a variety of drinks. Offer a choice of non-alcoholic drinks, such as water, soda, coffee, and lemonade. If you are also serving alcohol, have at least three or four choices of beer, wine, or cocktails. Offer local beers or regional wines from your hometown or state to welcome your guest back home. Or, provide drinks that commemorate the places they’ve visited: tea from Japan or England, wine from France or South America, beer from Australia. Consider mixing up a festive bowl of punch (alcoholic or non-alcoholic), especially if your guest has been visiting a tropical locale.

Serve a selection of finger foods. A great party “spread” has something for everyone to enjoy, so offer a variety of snacks. Solid standby choices include chips and dip, small sandwiches or “sliders,” or a fruit and vegetable or cheese and cracker tray. Or, you can personalize the refreshments to your guest of honor and their travels. To commemorate your guest of honor’s return home, serve local or regional specialties, whether that’s New York-style pizza or Cincinnati chili, Tex-Mex or crab cakes. Offer a few dishes from the locations your guest has been visiting, if you can. Don’t try to prepare new-to-you dishes that are complex or challenging: keep it simple, or have it catered.

Enjoying the Party

Welcome the guest of honor home. You may want to say a few words when they arrive, invite your guests to welcome them with applause, or simply provide time for everyone to greet the honoree individually.

Create a “selfie wall.” Get the fun of a photobooth with a fraction of the effort. Concentrate some of your decorations (balloons, signs, maps, pictures, you name it) in one space, such as a blank wall or fence. Invite guests to take photos: of themselves and each other, and especially with the guest of honor. Encourage them to share their selfies and other party pictures by creating a hashtag for the party on social media, or create a group or shareable photo album online.

Make a book of “welcome home” messages. Buy a blank book, or provide paper and pens for your guests to write messages welcoming back your guest of honor. These messages can be collected in an album with photos, or incorporated into a number of DIY projects to make a keepsake, similar to a wedding guest book. Maps, globes, and printed photographs with messages would all make appropriate mementos for the honoree's return home.

Wrap the party up after two or three hours. Ideally, everyone present should have a chance to welcome and catch up with the guest of honor, but be sure the event doesn’t last so long that he or she is tired out. This is especially true if the honoree has just arrived home a few days ago, or was gone for a long time.

Make sure the honoree doesn’t have to clean up at the end. If the party is held at the guest of honor’s home, arrange for family or friends to clean up after the event. A line of empty cans and a stack of dirty dishes in the sink would be a poor way to welcome back your friend or loved one.