A Simple Trick for Better Parties

New York Times

04-07-2025

My editor, Patia Braithwaite, is close with her family members. I've noticed that when she's telling me about their quality time together, she'll throw out names for their gatherings, like Sangria Sundays and Money Club. After a while, I asked her to explain.
'It's just branding,' she said with a shrug.
Giving a social function a fun name, Patia told me, seems to amuse her family. And when the name sticks, so does the event. That's how a pitcher of sangria on a random summer weekend became a tradition. And how a group chat about personal finance turned into a quarterly meeting to discuss milestones and goals.
Why do these activities seem so tempting? All Patia did was give them a name. I asked Priya Parker, the author of 'The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,' and she said that she wasn't surprised.
Gatherings flourish when structure is baked into them, she explained. And framing time together in an intentional way, she added, helps people understand what they're walking into, how to show up and why it matters.
Branding a family activity can also increase buy-in, which Parker has called 'the quiet force behind gatherings that stick.' So I asked experts how to get creative with everyday get-togethers to make them more enticing, fun and easier to initiate.
Finding more excuses to convene, even if they're small or offbeat, can give us 'a portfolio of ways to engage each other,' said Brent Smith, a professor of marketing and associate vice president for executive education at Emerson College.
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