The holidays are upon us: guests are ringing door bells, hostesses are clicking their heels and before we know it, the merriment will turn into hibernation and the memories of those festive nights will fade….unless you had a guest book. Call me a traditionalist, but I adore reading guest books and leaving guest comments. However the tradition of having a guest book in your home disappeared with the milkman. The timeless guest book is a catalogue of your guests name, address, date and comment…however there are many ways to update this classic memory journal. We keep a few variations of the guest book in our home to remember those that grace our home.
The wine journal—we love trying new wine, and knowing what our guest think of the bottle we shared help us in deciding our wine menu for our next dinner party.
The conversation journal—we were recently at a party where the hostess passed a book around, we were asked to write down funny and quirky comments made on the night. This acted as a great ice-breaker and really opened up the conversation. We enjoyed it so much that we have adopted the same practice this holiday season.
The joke journal—we bring out our joke journal for cocktail parties where guests are encouraged to write their favorite joke inside.
The creative journal—we bring out our creative journal for family parties where guests are invited to draw a picture of the gathering or people attending. It keeps the younger guests entertained and surprisingly, after a few glasses of wine, the older guests get a burst of creative genius too.
The recipe journal—everyone has a recipe they love to make and share, this is the perfect opportunity to not only collect new recipes but allow your guests to share their culinary talents. I often have this on hand for coffee mornings and it gets a lot of attention around the holidays.
Our guest books have become so common place that our children have started asking for their own guest book demonstrating that this timeless classic has room in our modern busy lives, we just have to adjust the content to fit our lifestyle.