How to Host a Party and Handle House Guests - 171 Great Party Planning and Guests Hosting Ideas

You don't need to be an event planner with a staff of 20 to host an inspired gathering. Time to hose down the patio furniture, dust off the grill, and bust out the creativity. Follow the brilliant tips from Judith Brown for a party your guests won't forget

This guide covers the following areas:

* General Party and Guest Hosting Ideas

* Holidays Ideas

* Gifts and Gift Wrapping

Before you throw your next party, find out how to make it an occasion that your guests will be talking about until the next time you entertain.

Here's just a small sample of the tips included:

Before a card party, you can clean plastic cards by placing them in a paper bag with a few tablespoons of flour. Shake the bag, then remove the cards and wipe them off with a damp cloth.

For a special occasion party, send balloon invitations. Inflate the balloons with a balloon pump, and write the invitation on them with a felt-tip marker. Then deflate the balloons, put them in envelopes, and mail to your guests.

If you don't feel confident about timing several courses, serve a casserole in an attractive dish.

Don't try out a new recipe on guests. Prepare it first for family members or close friends.

You'll be sure of the taste and the length oftime it takes to prepare.

For an easy party menu, set out different types of salad vegetables and a lot of toppings and let guests create their own salads. Make sure some of the ingredients are interesting or unusual enough to add a festive feel to the meal. Add some bread and wine to make the meal complete.

A creative way of serving vegetables for dips is to line a wicker basket with lettuce and then fill the basket with carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower, celery, and other vegetables.

Large green peppers make ideal cups for dips. Slice off the tops of the peppers, scoop out the seeds, and fill the centers with your favorite dip. A loaf of bread sliced in half horizontally, with each half hollowed out, makes a container for a heavier dip or spread-a thin mixture would seep into the crust and then all over the table.

You can prepare vegetables for a party 1 or 2 days ahead of time. Cut up the vegetables, wrap them in damp paper towels, put them in plastic bags, and refrigerate.

A hollowed-out half melon makes a perfect container for cut fruit. An ice bucket can be used as a serving dish, because its insulation keeps foods appropriately hot or cold.

You can make individual butter servings look different if you put pancake-size dollops of softened butter on a cookie sheet, set the sheet in the refrigerator till the butter hardens, and then cut the butter into various shapes with your cookie cutters.

Don't despair if you don't have as many dessert dishes as you have guests; you can serve most desserts just as easily in wine glasses.

Lay a damp napkin on a serving tray so that tumblers and dishes won't slide off.

For crisp summer napkins, use men's white linen handkerchiefs.

Bagels fresh from the bakery make unusual napkin rings.

Make your buffet convenient for you and your guests by wrapping place settings of silverware in napkins and placing them in a basket.

Dry drinks served before a meal stimulate the appetite more than sweet drinks.

If you're making any kind of fruit juice punch, freeze some of the juice in a large bowl or container, and use it instead of ice cubes. The punch won't be watered down.

A pretty party garnish for punch is peppermint sticks poked through the centers of lemon or orange slices.