Neighbours Day is coming!

Neighbours Day is coming up in around 6 weeks.  This is an excellent opportunity to get to know the people who live near you and help them to get to know each other.  If you're not already, could you consider doing something in your neighbourhood?

Neighbours Day 2017

Our street had a really good Neighbours Day celebration yesterday.  We got some council funding to help with costs, conditional on us writing a report on how things went.  Below is my report, along with some photos of the event.

 

Upcoming opportunities to build community where you live

Neighbours Day 2017 is coming up on the weekend of March 25/26. This is a great opportunity to get to know your neighbours and build community where you live.  You can sign up here to get emails with ideas of how to celebrate (the most recent newsletter for our region even told us how to apply for supermarket vouchers to help with associated costs!), or check out the official website here - it has a number of resources to help you get started.

Your celebration could be as simple as inviting your nearby neighbours over for a cuppa, or you could band together with other neighbours to organise a full-on street party!  You can see photos of Neighbours Day celebrations in our street from 2015 here.   We typically find people from about 1/3 of the houses in our street come along and we've made a number of friends through it.

Also, Tuesday week (the 28th) is Shrove Tuesday - the last day before Lent.  This is typically celebrated with the eating of pancakes 😅.  We had a couple of retired neighbours over for a pancake breakfast last year and hope to do the same this year.  It was good to spend time with them and also gave us an opportunity to talk about what Lent has come to mean to us.  You can get heaps of ideas for how to host a low-stress, community-building celebration on the Sacraparental blog here.

'10 years' house party

This month it's 10 years since we moved into our current house.  To celebrate, last Saturday we invited all the people we've got know in the street to come over for afternoon tea.  I was surprised to realise we knew well over 20 people.  In the end 15 were able to come.  People seemed to mix pretty well and a lot of people met people they didn't already know.

Tantrix (the game being played in the background) was very popular.

It worked well having me on the sofa.  I spent a lot of time just watching what was going on but also had a number of one-on-one conversations.

A few people spilled outside.

Both Martin and Sarah worked very hard making sure everyone was well fed and had someone to talk to.

I loved watching our next-door neighbour Paul (granddad to 12 kids) playing with little Josaiah.

It was a lovely day - I got a bit teary later, thinking about all the people who mean a lot to me who I wouldn't know if we hadn't come to live here!

Neighbours Day 2015

I'm too tired to write much, but here's some pics from Neighbours Day yesterday.

The set-up

Play-doh tent.  The girl at the front right is Libby, who I first met at Neighbours Day 4 years ago aged 14 months - now she's starting school and her mum and I are good friends :-)

Martin with Kathy, whose lawn hosts the bouncy castle etc.  The lady next to me is called Becca - she stayed with Martin and his family in Thailand 25 years ago.  We met her at Neighbours Day last year, when she figured out that connection :-)

Allen, who I've met a few times but had a really good talk to this time, and Peter (with the rabbit), who's Becca's husband.

Bouncy castle - popular as ever :-)

The woman standing is Sue, prime organiser of the event.

Neighbour's Day 2015

Neighbour's Day is coming up in just over 4 weeks: Saturday March 28th - Sunday March 29th.  If you want to get to know your neighbours, this is your chance!

• Read about Neighbour's Day here;
• Get resources (ideas, posters, editable invitations etc.) here;
• Register your Neighbour's Day event here!

We've really enjoyed Neighbour's Day in the past, so I encourage you to give it a go!  It can be as simple as inviting some near neighbours over for a cuppa or as full-on as throwing a party for your whole street: whatever works for you :-)

Neighbour's Day in our street, 2013

Neighbours Day 2014

Neighbours Day Aotearoa 2014 is coming up at the end of March.  If you're in New Zealand, maybe you could start thinking about organising a gathering in your street?

Martin, Sarah and I have found Neighbours Day a fun and fairly non-threatening way to get to know some of our neighbours.  Don't be put off by the apparent complexity of our event!  We happen to have a very energetic woman who coordinates organisation for our street so what happens here is moderately involved.  However, it can be much simpler.  Last year my friend Anna simply invited people to her place for afternoon tea :-)

If you think that sounds like a fun and worthwhile thing to do, check out the NDA website: they have a bunch of resources to help you get started.

Neighbours Day

On the weekend, our street celebrated Neighbours Day.  It was the third time we've done it, and definitely the best.  A few more people came and most people stayed a lot longer than in previous years.  I think the bouncy castle and face painting had a big impact on that: drawing the kids out of their houses, bringing their mums and dads with them :-)  I had a good catchup with someone I hadn't spoken to since last year as well as some general chitchat.  It's nice to gradually recognise more of the people I see on the street :-)