Quick answer
Seat four players at a square card table with a felt cover and good light, plan two to three hours, and put the end time in the invitation. Serve dry, one-handed snacks during play and keep drinks on a side table. Give the newest player an open rack, save advice until the hand ends, and schedule the next night before everyone leaves.
Hosting mahjong is mostly logistics. You need four people, two to three hours, one table, and a plan for a mix of skill levels, from players with twenty years at the table to players with none. Here is how to run a night that turns into a standing invitation.
The table
You need a square-ish table that seats four with elbow room, because everyone is handling tiles constantly. A card table is the classic answer. A felt or vinyl cover quiets the tiles and saves your dining table from the shuffle.
Good light matters, since so much of the game is reading small engraving and a printed card. Use overhead light plus a lamp, not candles.
Timing
Plan for two to three hours of play, and put the end time in the invitation so everyone knows when the last hand will be.
Start on time. With exactly four players there is no slack, so make it clear that arriving late means three people waiting.
Food that does not ruin tiles
The rule is dry and one-handed. Nuts, pretzels, crudités, cookies, anything that does not leave grease or crumbs on tiles that four people are touching all night. Serve the real food before or after play, not during.
Keep drinks on a side table, not the playing table, where a spill would reach the tiles and the cards.
Mixed skill levels
This is the actual challenge. The generous move is an open rack for the newest player. They play with their tiles visible so anyone can help between decisions. Agree to it up front so it does not feel like charity mid-hand.
Set the coaching norm early too. Questions are welcome, and unsolicited advice waits until the hand ends. Keep stakes low or nonexistent when a true beginner is at the table, so nobody is nervous about the cost of learning.
Turning one night into a standing game
Schedule the next one before people leave. A fixed date, such as the second Tuesday of each month with hosts taking turns, gives everyone a date to put in the calendar before they go.
Have a spare card or two on hand for guests who do not own one, and point new players somewhere they can learn between sessions. The free daily hand is built for that, with one coached hand a day that a beginner can play on their own.
Put it into practice
New to the game? Start the course at Lesson 1, Meet the Tiles. The first three lessons are free and need no account.
Already play? Have the coach read a real dealt hand for you, free. It names the direction the hand goes for, what to keep, what to pass, and the reasoning behind each call.
If some of your guests are new, the free read is a way for them to practise reading a hand before the night. Mei, our AI coach, reads a real hand tile by tile, names the direction it goes for, and says what to keep and what to pass.