Hosting a Family Party (without Going Crazy)

Whether you are living in a small loft apartment or a huge mansion, there is going to come a time when you are called upon to host a family get together. While it can always be great fun to have all of your family together in one location, this might easily be one of the most frustrating experiences that anyone can go through.

Everyone has those stories about Uncle Ted not getting along with Aunt Sally, or the various in-laws not being able to get along. With all of the confusion, and the possibility of offending someone's touchy feelings, it should go without saying that everyone could use a little help. Follow these guidelines, and you are going to be able to have a highly successful party without going crazy from the stress.

• Plan. The key to any successful family party is prior planning. A plan is going to help you answer the questions of who, what, when, where and why. Having this firmly in mind is going to remove a huge amount of weight off your shoulders. If you have family members that don't get along with each other very well, then one of the things you need to do is to plan out where everyone is going to sit during dinner.
• Clean. If the party is at your home (instead of at some other location) then you should take the time to give it a thorough cleaning. Having a clean home to present to family and friends when they come over is going to help reduce any possibility of embarrassment and tension resulting from that embarrassment. Do this a day or two in advance so that you can be sure to thoroughly clean everything.
• Organize. When you are cleaning your home for your party, take the time to organize it a little. This doesn't have to be as in-depth of an organization process as you might undergo at other times of the year, but rather one more geared towards getting your home ready for a party. What this means is you should simply remove anything that you don't want broken or that won't go with your proposed theme.
• Assign. Just because you are hosting the party does not mean that you are the one that has to do everything. Assign other family members to help out. For instance you could place one family member in charge of the music, another in charge of keeping younger children entertained (if there are going to be any at the your party), and finally you could have other family members help pick things up as the evening goes along.
• Have fun. Last, but certainly not least—have fun. Keep in mind that the whole idea of a party is to have fun, so don't get so wrapped up in making everything run "smoothly" that you forget that. Loosen up and enjoy yourself.