Take your shoes off at the entrance without being asked. If your host offers slippers, put them on, even if they’re a size off, it’s a small hospitality gesture worth accepting rather than working around.
Bring a modest gift, it doesn’t need to be expensive, but showing up empty-handed reads as an oversight. Once inside, wait to be shown where to sit rather than picking a seat yourself, particularly at the dining table, where seating follows a hierarchy based on age and status.
- Skip the gifts covered elsewhere on this site — clocks, sharp objects, handkerchiefs, pears, umbrellas, and anything in a set of four are all off the table here too.
- The seat facing the door or east is typically the seat of honor, reserved for the host or eldest guest — don’t take it yourself even if it looks like the best spot in the room.