How to Host a Burns Supper at Home: Food, Speeches & Music
, 6 min reading time
Plan your Burns Supper at home with an order of courses for all three meal kits, simple speech ideas, table-setting tips and a Spotify QR code.
A Burns Supper can be a cosy dinner for two or a table full of friends. With the food chosen, a few words prepared and the music ready, you can give the evening a lovely sense of occasion without making hosting complicated.
This is our relaxed guide to setting up a Burns Supper at home: what to put on the table, which course comes next, when to bring in the speeches and how to listen to our chosen Burns Supper album on Spotify.
Choose your menu and count your guests
Each of our three meal kits serves two people. Order two kits for four, three for six or five for ten. For an odd number of guests, round up to the next complete kit. Our meal-kit quantities guide has a table for gatherings of 2–20.
- Burns Supper Dine-In — Start with Baxters Cock-a-leekie Soup, then enjoy the traditional haggis main and Scottish sweet treats.
- Burns Supper Dine-In with Smoked Salmon & Pâté — Begin with CAMPBELLS & Co Smoked Salmon 250g Pack and Smoked Salmon Pate, then serve soup before the haggis.
- Burns Supper Dine-In with Venison, Cured Beef & Chicken Liver Pâté — Open with Smoked Venison Great Glen Charcuterie, Smoked Cured Beef and Chicken Liver Pâté 90g, served with Traditional Scottish Oatcakes Macleans and Caramelised Red Onion Chutney Arran 195g. Follow with soup, then the main.
Baxters Cock-a-leekie Soup is included in all three kits. Each also includes Traditional Macsween Haggis, Mashed Turnip 400g, Mashed Potato 400g, MacSween Whisky Cream Sauce, Traditional Clootie Dumpling, Mrs Tilly’s Tablet, Irn-Bru and tartan napkins. Check each product page for the full quantities. For a closer comparison, read which Burns Supper meal kit should you choose?
Set the table before you start heating
Put out the tartan napkins, water glasses, cutlery, soup bowls, dinner plates and dessert dishes. A simple tablecloth and a small vase of flowers are enough to make it feel special. Set a serving board aside for the charcuterie kit, or two small plates for the smoked salmon starter.
Decide on any extras before the day: bread or toast for the salmon pâté, custard or cream for the clootie dumpling, and tea or coffee to enjoy with the tablet. These extras and tableware are not included in the kits. The kits include Irn-Bru; bring any other drinks you would like for the evening. A toast works perfectly well with a soft drink.
Check guests’ dietary needs, read the individual ingredient and allergen labels, and follow every pack’s storage, use-by and heating instructions. Work out which dishes need your oven, hob or microwave before serving starts. The running order below is an event plan, not cooking instructions.
A relaxed order of courses and speeches
The traditional customs include the Selkirk Grace, bringing in the haggis, Address to a Haggis, the Immortal Memory, the Toast to the Lassies and Reply, and a closing Auld Lang Syne. The Scottish Poetry Library’s Burns Supper guide explains these traditions. Here is our shorter, flexible version for a meal at home.
- Welcome and settle in. Have the music ready at a comfortable volume. Welcome your guests and introduce whoever is reading. If you would like to say the Selkirk Grace, do it before the first course.
- Enjoy the opening course. For the classic kit, begin with the soup. For the smoked salmon kit, serve salmon and pâté first. For the venison kit, share the charcuterie board, oatcakes and chutney.
- Bring out the soup. With the salmon or charcuterie kit, clear the starter plates and serve small bowls of Baxters Cock-a-leekie Soup. The classic kit has already served its soup as the starter.
- Give the haggis its moment. When the main is ready, bring the haggis to the table. Pause the music for your reader, enjoy the address and raise a glass.
- Serve the main dinner. Plate the haggis with neeps and tatties, and spoon over the whisky cream sauce. Let everyone enjoy the meal before beginning the longer readings.
- Serve dessert, then a few words. Bring out the clootie dumpling. Afterwards, make space for a short toast to Burns, a poem or the optional paired toasts.
- Finish with a sweet treat and a song. Share the tablet, thank your guests and invite everyone to join in Auld Lang Syne.
For dinner for two, swap a few lines across the table. For a larger group, ask for volunteers in advance and give each person one small part. Keep the evening moving at a pace that suits your guests.
What should you say?
Before the main: Address to a Haggis
Have a copy of Robert Burns’s Address to a Haggis ready on paper or your phone. A confident reader can perform the whole poem. For a short home version, introduce it as an extract and read the opening lines:
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Then use your own toast. For example: “To Rabbie Burns, good company and a grand supper. Slàinte!” This is our suggested host’s toast, not a quotation from Burns.
After dessert: a short Immortal Memory
The Immortal Memory remembers Burns and his work. Scotland.org’s guide to Burns Night introduces this and the other traditional recitals. For your home supper, try a two-minute version: say why you chose to celebrate, introduce a favourite Burns poem or song, and finish by inviting everyone to raise a glass to his memory.
Optional toasts and poetry
If you would enjoy the Toast to the Lassies and Reply, invite two willing guests to prepare a short, affectionate toast and response. Agree the tone beforehand and keep it welcoming. Another easy idea is to invite everyone to choose a favourite line or say a few words about someone at the table. You can keep the formal speeches short and spend more time enjoying the company.
A wee soundtrack for your supper
Scan the QR code to open The Robert Burns Collection – The Burns’ Supper on Spotify. On your phone? Tap the picture or the listening link below. Choose your tracks before guests arrive and pause playback for your own readings and toasts.
Listen on Spotify: The Robert Burns Collection – The Burns’ Supper
This is the same Spotify album linked from our Burns Night card. Open it before the evening and decide what you would like to play; keep your own running order to hand so music and readings fit around the hot food.
Your final hosting checklist
- Count the guests and order one kit for every two people.
- Check delivery options at checkout and plan storage and preparation from the pack labels.
- Set out the bowls, plates, serving dishes and any extras you have chosen.
- Choose your reader, save the poem and open the Spotify album.
- Leave time to sit down and enjoy your own supper.
Explore all three Burns Supper Dine-In meal kits and choose the opening course that suits your table. A little preparation, a few well-chosen words and good company will give the evening its character.