If your home is small, or you're going to do the cooking and serving by yourself, or if, above all, you cherish good talk, never give a seated dinner for more than eight people. Beyond that, general talk becomes impossible, and your guests more reticent and formal. That means your dinner party won't be as much fun as it could be.

buffet suppers
A buffet is the best way to entertain at meals at which there are to be more than eight people. You can offer simple, easily prepared food, planned to keep well in case of delays. You need (and preferably will) offer only two courses. If you want to be lavish, give a choice of two main dishes and watch almost everyone take some of each. Buffet sup­pers are ordinarily less expensive than dinners for the same number of people.

To make guests at a buffet supper as comfortable as possible set up card tables at which they can eat. If you have a dining room and a living room, set up the tables in the living room for greater ease. A great deal has been said and written about the discomforts of balanc­ing a plate on one knee, but it rarely happens, and at a good party with well-chosen guests, lacking card tables, the guests themselves will use coffee tables, nests of tables, even the stairs, and they won't mind.

evening parties-fun and easy
If your facilities for cooking and dining are small, yet you want to entertain a comparatively large group of people with something more than cocktails, give an evening party. Food and drink, alcoholic or not, are simple. Games are easy to plan and arrange comfortably, and the many other possibilities for evening entertainment are all outlined later in this book.

just the boys
For wives, there is always the possibility that husbands will like to give stag parties. And a wise wife will appreciate and enjoy her func­tion, which is to plan, prepare and provide food and drink, plenty of ash trays, card tables and space, and still remain invisible for as much of the time as doing her part allows.

outdoor fireplace parties
Plans for outdoor fireplace parties are given in detail later. If you're provided with a yard and a built-in or portable grill, the outdoor party ought to have full consideration when you're planning a party. You can do some very fine entertaining of large numbers of people in this way at the right season in the most informal manner possible. It's one of the few occasions when mixing children with adults can be a happy ar­rangement.