Nonsense!
It's not a question of knack or money or ideas. All you need is to
know the secret, and it's an open secret at that!
First, ask yourself what you mean by a successful hostess. Your answer
will be, "One whose guests have so good a time that they want to come
again."
Sure enough! The secret is out then--entertaining successfully is
giving the guests a good time.
"More easily said than done," you say. "What must I _do_ to give the
guests a good time?"
And the answer to that is in a nutshell. "Make your entertainment fit
the folks to be entertained."
You wouldn't, for instance, think of inviting your grandmother's
friends in of an afternoon in honor of the old lady's birthday and
playing stagecoach or blindman's buff.
And if you have your Sunday School class of lively boys in for the
evening, you won't expect them to play paper and pencil games from
eight to ten.
It's really just a matter of common sense coupled with some
imagination and forethought to choose the right kind of entertainment.
Along with choosing the right variety of amusement, remember that
folks generally like the simple things best and if there's a touch of
originality in addition, you've won their hearts. For you see you've
made them feel that you took the trouble to plan something "different"
in their honor.
Because it's different, it isn't necessarily hard to prepare--there
are lots of novelties in decoration, amusement and "eats" that
are perfectly simple and inexpensive. They are what help to make
entertaining easy, in fact. And just at this point you see comes in
the reason for the writing of this little book.
It aims to make entertaining easy by suggesting plans that are simple
and a little out-of-the-ordinary to fit the most frequent occasions
when you wish to entertain or perhaps _must_ do so. Special care has
been taken to consider time and expense, but at the same time to bring
in a touch of the unusual.
Don't miss the fun of entertaining because you've always thought it
hard work! This book has been prepared to show you how easily,
after all, it can be done. And may you have the reward of joy and
satisfaction that comes with successful hospitality!