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adult birthday parties
Birthday parties are usually given for children but there is no reason why grown-ups shouldn't have them if they like.
There is, however, one difference. Adults do not announce that the party is in honor of a birthday. That would be too much like a bid for presents.
Usually, if a husband or a wife would like to celebrate the other's birthday, a small dinner is arranged for close friends.
If there are children in the family, they will like celebrating Mother's or Father's birthday and should be given the opportunity-at luncheon, or even breakfast, if an evening party will take the parents away from home.
Occasionally a married couple will choose to give a birthday party for a grown-up relative. Unless all the guests are intimate friends of the birthday person, however, no mention of it should be made beforehand.
Grown-up birthdays are especially fine occasions for having champagne before and during dinner. It adds a really festive note to the toasts.
If surprise parties are enjoyed by the birthday person, give one; but arrange everything carefully so that he will really be surprised. This kind of party practically necessitates telling the guests it's a birthday, so the guests should be intimate friends.
the housewarming
A housewarming party may be given by a couple who have just moved into a new house or apartment, or it may be given as a surprise to them by their friends.
Naturally, as soon as a married pair has settled down in new quarters, which they have spent much heart and thought to decorate and make comfortable, they want their friends to see it. In this case, they usually give a cocktail or evening party to which they invite a crowd of people. Every room in the house is open to inspection; in fact, inspection is invited. Therefore, the hostess must have an eagle eye for every detail of neatness, charm and arrangement before the party. In new quarters this is less difficult than in a house where one has lived for a long time. The new home usually shines, which it is expected to do, and its mistress must not disappoint her guests.
Ordinarily when people give their own housewarming parties, they do not designate them as such. That's too much like asking for donationsl On the other hand, good friends will know that the first party given in a new home is a housewarming, and they will undoubtedly come bearing gifts. Sometimes it's more fun and more exciting for the recipients if one big gift is presented by all their friends instead of lots of little ones. It's easy to find something which the new householders long to
have and mean to acquire as soon as the extra expense of moving and decorating is absorbed.
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