If you're hosting a housewarming for a newcomer to the neighborhood or for an old friend relocating to the area, have your guests bring a favorite dish (perhaps from their native area) for a potluck. A surprise party works well for a housewarming, too.

Invitations:

• Have an artist or friend draw a sketch of the guest of honor's new house. Photocopy it, fold it into a card, and write your party details inside.
• Cut out a mailbox shape from colored tagboard (folded in half so the invitation will open up along the fold line), and write the guest of honor's new address on it. Open the invitation, and write your party details inside. Or make single-thickness mailboxes, cut a slit where the door would be, and stick in a small "letter" (with party details) that can be pulled out.
• Find a picture of a tumbledown shack and photocopy it, telling your guests (for fun) that it's the guest of honor's new home. Write your party details on the back of the picture.
• Using a map, photocopy the route taken when the guest of honor moved. Write your party details on the back.
• Tie a yellow ribbon around your invitation to symbolize a welcome home.
• If your housewarming party is going to be a surprise, mention this on the invitations.

Decorations:

• Tie yellow ribbons of welcome on the doors, chairs, tables, and other items inside the house, and even on the trees, mailbox and lamp post outside.
• Photocopy sections of a map of the community, town, city, or state to use as place mats.
• If your guest of honor is new to the area, hang a map on the wall with useful points of interest, the best grocery store, the cheapest gas station, the most popular restaurant, it's decorative and helpful. If the guest of honor is just relocating within the community, you can use the map to point out the most unusual spots of interest, use your imagination.
• For a newcomer to the area, pick up some samples from various local stores, and use them as a centerpiece. Buy croissants from your favorite bakery, coffee from a gourmet store, or meats from a good deli.

Games and Activities:

• Give your guest of honor a "guided tour" of the area. To do this, take slide shots or make a videotape of various local "highlights" beforehand. Jot down a few humorous notes so you can narrate while giving the "tour" during your party. At party time, delight your guests with local sites like the city dump (while boasting about the "luxurious and prestigious neighborhood") and the local biker bar (while promising a "great night life").
• Introduce everyone at the party, giving a brief description of each person's occupation, family, and so on, and then give the guest of honor a quiz on all the new information. Or give the guest of honor a list with each guest's name, occupation, hobby, and other personal details, and have them guess who's who.
• Write up some funny true or false questions about the area, and quiz the guest of honor. Appropriate questions might include these "true or false" items:
  1. The name of the local high school is Elvis Presley High.
  2. The population of the town is 408 (unless there's a baseball game in the city).
  3. The festival queen is called "Miss Zucchini."
  Make sure some of the questions are true and some false, but have fun with it, the more ridiculous the true answers, the better.

Refreshments:

• Have a potluck, and request that each guest bring a specific dish. If it's a brunch, you'll need drinks (orange juice, Bloody Marys, champagne and coffee), bread (rolls, croissants, pastries and bagels), meat (bacon strips, ham slices, and sausage links or patties), and perhaps a fruit dish or salad. You might also want to serve a dessert.
• Ask your guests to bring a recipe along with the food item, or to bring the food item in a nice basket, plate, or dish to give the new homeowner.
• Have your guests bring food from the newcomer's former area for a potluck. For example, if the guest of honor moved from Texas, people can bring items for a barbecue; or for a newcomer from Florida, Southern fried chicken and lots of oranges. This gesture will make the guest of honor feel at home.

Prizes, Gifts and Favors:

• Housewarming gifts and other mementos come in many shapes and sizes. Here are a few suggestions:
• Items fitting for a "household tree", a hammer, screwdriver, bolts, and a tape measure. Make a wooden tree from scrap lumber, and then tie on much, needed tools for the new comers.
• Housewarming plant.
• Sample item from a favorite store. For example, a salad from the grocery store deli or flowers from a favorite greenhouse or flower shop.
• Frozen meals, if each guest brings one to the party, the guest of honor will have a stock of dinners to last for a while.