A few years ago my wife and I decided to stop doing the regular neighbor gifts because usually that meant the kids running past houses as fast as they could to drop things off at porches. We didn't get to talk to people.

So, instead we came up with the idea to do a soup party at our house. We are pretty decent cooks, and we make a bunch of soups from scratch. We have it "open house" style, so people can come and go, over about 3.5 hours. Last year was the 4th consecutive year, and we had over 150 people in our pretty small home throughout the evening. We made 17 gallons of soup, with 7 different types.

People seem to really like it, and it gives us the opportunities for real talking like we wanted. It's crowded, but pretty fun.