Hosting a Neighborhood Ice Cream Social
We love our neighborhood, but more than that, we love the street we live on. For the past couple of years, especially, we have greatly enjoyed getting to know our neighbors a little bit.
But, as we all know, people are busy. Getting to know one another is difficult and takes effort. It requires us to be intentional.
Leah and I have been kicking around the idea for some time about hosting some informal, simple events to get to know our neighbors–especially those on our street–better. Last week, we held our first, and it was fantastic!
We decided to have a simple ice cream social, and make it a come-and-go, informal evening. There was nothing fancy about the night, and I think that helped it be a success. The expectations were low, so people didn’t feel like they had to “put on” for others. In all, about 30 people were present.
Here’s how we did it, and you can, too.
1. Simple promotion. We made super simple flyers (see below) that gave our neighbors the date and time, and asked them to let us know if they were attending. With school getting ready to start back, we called it a “Back to School” night, but we told folks that was just an excuse to get together. We took one evening, and walked up to each house. If they were home, we invited them personally. If not, we just left the flyer on their door. Nothing more was done by way of promotion.
2. Simple night. Ice cream, a couple of toppings, some cookies, and lemonade on a very small table. That was it. That’s all we had to set up and get ready (and the ice cream wasn’t even homemade). We figured the simplicity of the food would help people just enjoy the conversation. A couple of our neighbors agreed to help with the cookies, so the whole night only cost us about $40. Again, this was not about putting on some kind of “show.” It was about keeping things laid back and inviting.
3. No agenda. We just let people talk, and did they ever talk! We had said the evening would be from 7:00-8:00 PM, but we had folks stay until about 8:30. There were people who had never met, though they live just a couple of houses apart, who talked for nearly the entire time! This was not meant to be a Bible study or an invitation to purchase something. We wanted people to just enjoy getting to know each other better.
On our street, there are 16 houses, and about 30 people came. That’s not bad! As you can see, all this happened even though there was almost no preparation required. When all was done, we think the night went as well as we could have expected.
We also saw two “outcomes” that made us feel gratitude for having held such a night. First, people wanted to get a list of emails and phone numbers to pass around, so we could more easily keep up with one another. We were glad to gather these and I sent them out via email later that night.
Second, and best of all, people were already coming up with ideas for future get-togethers! It was a joy to hear ideas of cookouts and more “socials” like this first one. While I don’t expect these to happen all the time, I do think we’ll see a handful of these events in the coming months.
In a time when people complain because they don’t know their neighbors and so few people seem to want to be friendly, this night was a breath of fresh air. It may take some initiative, but I think neighbors want to know one another. So, do something simple and hold an evening to allow your neighbors to interact. You might just be surprised at how well it goes.
The best compliment we got all night was by a fellow sister in Christ who lives down the street. After thanking us for having this event, she said, “This is a very Christian thing to do.” We hope so, and we hope this encourages you to do something similar in your neighborhood!
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
Photo background credit: Paul Wilkinson on Creative Commons
