Quote:
Originally posted by ThrashersFan
Wait a minute. Am I the only person on the face of the earth who believes that guests should not bring anything? I must be the only one who goes out and stocks the bar, gets beer, makes all of the appetizers and cooks all of the food when I have a party.
|
Bringing a perishable food item to someone else's party is absolutely insulting, unless you are asked to do so, in which case the party is pot-luck (i.e., appropriate for church suppers, but you can't really claim to have "hosted" the party or expect hospitality in return). If someone other than an immediate family member showed up on my doorstep holding so much as a bag of chips, I'd be mortified. Mortified!
However, your guests are not supposed to arrive empty-handed. They're supposed to bring a hostess gift. Often, this takes the form of a bottle of wine or liquor. Unfortunately, some have taken this tradition to mean that the host is supposed to pour that bottle during the course of the evening --- not so.
To avoid the whole "shall we open their nice bottle of red when halibut is on the menu?" discussion, the Grinch family's preferred hostess gift is a bouquet of flowers. It's both traditional and slightly out-of-the-ordinary (for California, at least). It smacks of thoughtfulness, which is what a gift is supposed to do. The trick is not to make any comments about where it should be placed --- you can't expect your hosts to change their centerpiece just because you blew $14 at Safeway's floral section.
