Coming up

What to post for Burns Night

It falls on a Monday, a slow night you can own, a proper supper gives people a reason to come out midweek.

Mon 25 Jan 2027the date 120 days to gofrom today 14 daysthe run-up
Pick your days and we write your own guide. Your first plan is free.
The run-up

Every day between now and then that is worth a post

Not one a day. These are the ones that do a job. What each is for is underneath it.

Mon 11 Jan 14 days before Name the night early Post that you're holding a Burns supper on the 25th, with the actual menu written out, not 'traditional fare'. People book a thing they can picture. Write this one →
Fri 15 Jan 10 days before Show one real dish A photo of the haggis, the cranachan, the whisky you'll be pouring, plated, so someone can taste it in their head before they reply. Write this one →
Mon 18 Jan 7 days before Read them a line Share one short line of Burns that everyone half-knows. It sets the mood and marks the date without asking for anything. Write this one →
Fri 22 Jan 3 days before Say how many are left If it's a set number of covers, name the number. 'Six seats' tells someone to reply tonight; a vague 'booking up fast' quietly tells them they can wait. Write this one →
Mon 25 Jan The day Post the room on the night One shot of the tables filling and the haggis coming in. It sells next year's supper as much as it thanks tonight's. Write this one →
The idea most businesses miss

Make it concrete enough to taste

Chip and Dan Heath found that ideas lodge in the memory when they're concrete, a specific picture the mind can hold, not an abstract label. 'A warming Scottish menu' is abstract and forgettable; 'cock-a-leekie, then haggis at seven, a dram to finish' is concrete, and the concrete version is the one people remember and repeat to a friend. Write the menu, not the mood.

Chip and Dan Heath, authors on why some ideas catch on and others don't · Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Random House, 2007

Questions

The questions people ask

I'm not Scottish and neither are my regulars. Can I still do it?
Yes, if you do it with a wink and real food. People come for the warmth and the occasion, not to pass a heritage test.
Do I need a piper and the full ceremony?
No. One good dish, one line of the poem and a dram is plenty. The ceremony is optional; the specifics are not.
Isn't late January too quiet to bother?
That quiet is exactly the opening. A supper gives people a reason to come out on a night they'd otherwise stay in.

The other dates worth the effort

Fri 1 Jan 2027 New Year 96 days to go New Year's Day is a Friday, so the quiet reset runs straight into a weekend, say your piece before people fill the days with other plans. 5 posts to make → Mon 30 Nov 2026 St Andrew's Day 64 days to go Few of your customers could tell you a thing about Saint Andrew. Make the day about them and the place you share, not the saint. 5 posts to make → Everything else The whole calendar The rest of this year and all of next, with the British ones in the right place. Open the calendar →