The Return of the Dinner Party: Why We’re Gathering Around the Table Again
Dinner parties are back, although perhaps not as we remember them. The formal place settings, elaborate menus and carefully choreographed evenings of the past are giving way to something smaller, more relaxed and more personal: friends gathered around a table, food made to share and an evening designed around conversation rather than ceremony.
Today’s dinner party might be a Friday night supper for four, a spontaneous gathering with friends or a Sunday meal that stretches well into the afternoon. There may be no complicated menu, no strict dress code and certainly no expectation that everything should match (unless you want it to)! What remains is the part that has always made gathering around a table worthwhile - being together.
As entertaining at home becomes an increasingly appealing way to spend time with friends and family, the dinner party is finding a new place in modern life. Research from M&S Food in 2025 found that 36% of Brits were hosting a dinner party at least monthly, rising to 56% among under-24s. The same research also found that 46% of Brits consciously put their phones away at dinner parties, suggesting that sitting down to eat can create a rare opportunity to give one another our full attention.
So, the dinner party may be changing, but its purpose remains remarkably familiar.
Why Are Dinner Parties Back?
There isn’t one reason behind the return of the dinner party. Instead, several shifts in the way we socialise are making the home feel like an increasingly natural place to gather:
We’re Looking for More Meaningful Ways to Spend Time Together
There is something different about sitting around a table with a small group of people. Conversation has room to develop, food becomes something to share, and an evening can unfold without the need to move from one place to another. A dinner at home creates a natural pause. Rather than squeezing conversation between other plans, the meal itself becomes the occasion.
That might help explain why putting phones away has become part of the modern dinner-party ritual. According to M&S Food's 2025 research, almost half of Brits consciously put their phones away at dinner parties, rising to more than half among Gen Z respondents. People are prioritising making space and time for the those sitting across the table from them, favouring real-life connection.
Staying In Has Become an Occasion in Itself
Staying in is no longer necessarily the fallback option. For many, an evening at home can be the event. Hosting at home gives you the freedom to choose who comes, what’s on the menu and how the evening feels. You can put on your favourite music, serve food when you’re ready and let dinner continue for as long as conversation does.
There’s also something appealing about the informality of it. A dinner party can sit comfortably somewhere between an ordinary meal and a major celebration. You don’t need a birthday, anniversary or other milestone to justify bringing people together.
We Want Smaller, More Intimate Gatherings
The modern dinner party doesn’t need a long guest list. A table for four, six or eight can offer something that larger gatherings sometimes can’t - the chance for everyone to be part of the same conversation.
This has helped make smaller dinners feel like an occasion in their own right. A midweek supper, spontaneous meal or Sunday lunch can all become opportunities to gather, without the preparation and formality traditionally associated with entertaining. The emphasis is shifting from how many people you can host to how you want to spend the time together.
Hosting Has Become a Form of Creative Expression
The dinner party also offers an opportunity to be creative. From tablescaping and menus to flowers, candles and tableware, there are countless ways to make a gathering feel personal. Pinterest's 2025 trend reporting recorded a 55% increase in searches for "dinner party tablescapes", reflecting the growing interest in the table as part of the experience.
But a beautiful table doesn’t have to be about creating something perfectly styled for a photograph. It can be as simple as choosing a favourite pattern, bringing flowers in from the garden or using the serving platter that always makes an appearance when friends come over. We believe the best tables tell you something about the person who set them.
The New Rules of the Dinner Party
If the dinner party is back, it’s also worth asking what happened to the rules. The answer, increasingly, is that there aren’t as many to follow...
1. There Doesn’t Need to Be an Occasion: A Friday evening, Sunday supper or midweek meal is reason enough. The dinner party doesn’t need a milestone attached to it.
2. Smaller Can Be Better: A handful of guests can make hosting feel more manageable while leaving plenty of space for conversation.
3. The Food Doesn’t Need to be Elaborate: Sharing dishes, one-pot meals and food placed in the middle of the table can be just as effective as a formal three-course menu. The aim is to feed your guests, not spend the entire evening in the kitchen.
4. The Table Doesn’t Have to Match: Mix patterns, colours and collections. Bring together pieces you've accumulated over time or combine contemporary tableware with inherited favourites.
5. Personal Beats Perfect: Flowers from the garden, a favourite serving bowl or handwritten place cards can mean more than a perfectly coordinated setting.
6. The Host Should Enjoy the Evening Too: Choose food and serving styles that allow you to sit down with everyone else. After all, the whole point of hosting is to spend time together.
These aren’t rules in the traditional sense, they’re more like permission to make the dinner party your own.
Creating a Table That Invites Connection
The table is the physical centre of the dinner party, so how it’s arranged can have a surprisingly big impact on the atmosphere. But creating an inviting table doesn’t mean filling every available space or collecting a cupboard full of specialist pieces. It’s about making the setting work for the people sitting around it.
Start with Tableware: Your core dinnerware provides the foundation. Choose pieces that suit the way you eat and entertain, then introduce colour, pattern or contrast through other elements. There’s no need for everything to match if you don’t want it to. Layering different pieces can add character, while a recognisable pattern can provide a visual thread across the table.
Put Food in the Middle: Serving bowls and platters can turn food into part of the setting while encouraging everyone to share. Rather than hiding dishes away in the kitchen, bring them to the table - a generous platter of roast vegetables, a bowl of salad or a dessert ready to be passed around all contribute to the feeling of a meal being shared.
Keep Centrepieces Sociable: Flowers and candles can help set the mood, but they shouldn’t get in the way of conversation. Lower arrangements, smaller vases and clusters of candles can add atmosphere while keeping sightlines clear.
Use Lighting to Change the Mood: Lighting can transform the same table as the evening progresses. Start with natural light or softer lamps, then introduce candlelight as dinner continues into the evening. It’s one of the simplest ways to make an ordinary meal feel like an occasion.
Leave Some Space: A table doesn’t need to be filled to feel considered. Leave enough room for guests to eat comfortably, serving dishes to be passed around and glasses to be topped up.
A Dinner Table Should Look Like the Person Who Set It
There is no single look for a modern dinner party. The same tableware can be interpreted in completely different ways depending on the person setting the table, the season and the occasion. For example, a heritage-inspired table might include Spode Blue Italian tableware, natural or crisp linens, simple flowers and traditional serving pieces to create a timeless setting without feeling overly formal.
For those who love colour and print, mix patterns with a collection such as Morris & Co., layer plates and bowls, introduce coloured glassware and use bold flowers or candles to create a more expressive table. If you’re looking for a relaxed table, keep things simple with family-style serving, large bowls, everyday glassware and a few candles once the evening gets darker.
There’s not an approach that’s more correct than the other. The renewed dinner party is personal because there is no single formula to follow.
The Tableware That Becomes Part of the Story
The pieces we bring to the table can become part of the ritual itself. A favourite platter can become the one that always appears when friends come for dinner. A familiar pattern can become associated with Sunday lunches. A teapot can signal the transition from dinner to a longer evening around the table.
This is one of the pleasures of building a tableware collection over time. Pieces begin to carry associations with the meals, conversations and people gathered around them. A dinner plate might be used for an ordinary Tuesday night and a birthday celebration. A serving bowl might hold a weekday salad one evening and become part of Christmas lunch another.
The more often we use these pieces, the more meaning they can gather. That’s why a hosting collection doesn’t need to be bought all at once. It can evolve naturally, with each addition finding its place alongside the pieces already in your home. And serving pieces can play an especially important role. Platters and bowls bring food to the centre of the table, creating the shared, generous feeling that sits at the heart of modern entertaining.
Make a Tradition of It
Perhaps the best way to embrace the return of the dinner party is to make it part of your routine rather than waiting for the perfect occasion. Traditions don’t always begin as traditions, sometimes they’re simply things we decide to do again. Some of our favourite ideas include:
The Monthly Supper: Choose one evening each month and take turns hosting. Keep the format simple and let each host put their own spin on the evening.
The Sunday Table: Turn an occasional Sunday lunch or dinner into a regular gathering. Keep the menu familiar and let the table change with the seasons.
The Seasonal Dinner: Host once each season and let the food, flowers and tableware reflect the time of year.
The Rotating Dinner Party: Take it in turns to host, giving everyone the opportunity to create their own version of the evening.
The Same Dish, Every Year: Choose a favourite recipe and make it part of an annual gathering. Over time, the meal can become associated with the people and memories that surround it.
The No-Occasion Dinner: Perhaps the simplest tradition of all: invite people over simply because it has been too long since everyone sat around the same table.
The beauty of these gatherings is that they don’t need to be elaborate to become memorable. Repetition is often what turns an evening into a tradition.
The Dinner Party Is Back – Just Not as We Knew It
The return of the dinner party isn’t a return to rigid place settings, complicated menus or formal entertaining. It’s something much more relaxed.
It’s smaller groups, shared food and tables that reflect the people sitting around them. It’s bringing out favourite pieces because friends are coming over, rather than saving them "for best”. It’s lighting a few candles, putting the food in the middle of the table and giving an evening enough time to unfold. And, most of all, it’s about making space for connection.
Setting the table is part of that ritual. It marks the moment as something worth pausing for, creating a setting for conversation, laughter and the stories that inevitably continue long after the plates have been cleared. The modern dinner party doesn’t ask for perfection. It simply asks us to gather.