Evite's 2026 Pregame Report, a survey of 5,000 hosts and guests, found that missing party details is guests' top pet peeve, while a majority of hosts say they're tired of no-shows — pointing to a broader 2026 etiquette shift toward clearer, more detailed invitations.
What's trending
Evite's 2026 Pregame Report, surveying 5,000 hosts and guests and covered by Martha Stewart Living, found that a lack of party details is guests' single biggest pet peeve. The report also found hosts themselves are frustrated on the flip side: a majority say they're tired of guests who never confirm whether they're coming. Together, the findings point to a clear etiquette shift for 2026 — over-communicating event details, rather than keeping things vague and casual.
The report specifically calls out dress code, parking, start and end times, gift or potluck expectations, and whether kids or pets are welcome as the details hosts are being told to spell out clearly.
Why it's resonating
Home entertaining has been on the rise generally, with more people hosting in their own space rather than booking venues. That shift puts more pressure on the invitation itself to do the communicating a wedding planner or event coordinator might otherwise handle. When there's no venue website or event page to check, the invitation is the only source of truth a guest has — which explains why "the invite didn't say" has become such a common complaint.
For an open house specifically, this etiquette shift matters even more than for a typical party. Guests already have to interpret an unfamiliar format (come and go, rather than a fixed start time), so leaving out details doesn't just create minor confusion — it can mean guests skip the event entirely because they weren't sure what was expected of them.
Where the invitation itself becomes the fix
The easiest way to meet this new etiquette bar isn't writing a longer invitation — it's starting from a design that already has the right fields built in. A Christmas Open House Invitation, Watercolor Editable Canva Template already has a clear time window, address block, and RSVP line laid out — the host just needs to fill in specifics rather than remember to add them from scratch. It's a small structural nudge that solves a problem 2026's hosting data suggests a lot of people are getting wrong.
The bottom line
The data is pretty clear: guests want more information, not less, and hosts are tired of chasing RSVPs. Whatever kind of party you're planning this year, the invitation is where that communication starts — and starting from a template that already has the right fields built in is one less thing to get wrong.