A house-warming (also written housewarming) is a party you give when you have just moved into a new home. Friends come to see the place, eat, and wish you well. Guests often bring a small gift — a plant, a candle, something for the kitchen — though they do not have to. The idea is to warm the house with people, not with the heating. In some families it is a sit-down meal; among younger people it may be drinks among half-unpacked boxes. Though actually, you hold a house-warming for a home you will live in. A night in a hotel is not that, and a party in a house you already know well is just a party.