And people will come, make no mistake. It's an almost impossible cus­tom for a young woman with small children to follow, especially if she does all her own work; but for those whose children are grown it's one of the surest ways of making your home a hospitable place.

cocktail parties
A cocktail party for large groups provides a way of repaying all sorts of social obligations at once with a minimum of preparation and only moderate expense. Usually it turns into a voluble sort of gathering and is not recommended as the best entertainment. Nevertheless, there may be times when you decide this is the kind of party you want to give.

Cocktail parties are usually given between the hours of five and seven. No matter what hours you set, however, there will be a peak time when all your guests will be in your house. If you have over­estimated its capacity, make the best of it. It doesn't last long, fortu­nately.

Cocktail parties for small groups are a good invention for the enter­taining of men and women together. They are much more expensive than tea parties and relatively more than big cocktail parties, but they are more fun. They also cost a great deal less than dinner parties, no matter how simple, and are a much less troublesome way to repay social obligations. It's very nice to give a cocktail party for a small group before someone else's dinner party, or before a dinner dance at a club.

dinner parties
Dinner parties, however simple, are the most elaborate entertaining anyone can do. You give dinner parties for the people you want to entertain most and best. That best can be as inexpensive (except for the fact that you have more mouths to feed), as a dinner for your family any night in the week.

Let's say you want to do special honor to a group of friends. This means you will entertain them at dinner. Your budget is limited, so you base your dinner on some fine but inexpensive dish like spareribs and sauerkraut. Mashed potatoes and a green salad go well with this. For dessert there are cheese and crackers, served at table with the coffee, if you like, and throughout the meal, iced beer. Finer food could not be desired. That is the prime requisite, and this, the axiom to remem­ber: if each dish served at any dinner is perfect of its kind, its cost is of no importance whatsoever.

If you feel you must entertain someone formally, which I hope you won't, ask him to dinner. Perhaps it's hard to be formal over spareribs, but there are other inexpensive foods you can serve in most elegant style.