A Mary Richards Party

Do you remember Mary’s disastrous dinner parties?  Where the guests don’t show up or the wrong ones show up; the food is a failure and conversation goes nowhere?          I remember talking to my sister over the phone after she had her first dinner party and she said “It was a Mary Richards party” and I knew instantly what she meant. 

There is nothing worse than holding a party and having most of the guests not show up.  This has happened to me several times so this year I decided to make it a Come & Go event so people could show up whenever they liked and leave as they liked.  It really did not work much better as most of the guests still did not show up but the positive thing was that I had scaled down on the food so there were no real leftovers this time.

So how does one become a successful hostess?  A non-Mary Richards?  I decided to troll the internet for advice and the very first item was Miss Abigail’s lifting of advice from a 1930’s book entitled (oddly enough) “How to be a Successful Hostess” written by Charlotte and Thelma Clarke (with names like that this has to be good).

“To be known as a brilliant entertainer is the sincere wish of each hostess. Beyond measure she covets the high opinion of her friends regarding her ability to carry on social activities in a competent and winning manner.”  The book then proceeds to advise on a variety of games to be played.  Games?  Okay,  I will stuff that in the archive of “things to do”.

I then jumped over to WikiHow and got a list of 15 items, all of which are already checked off on my list except the last.  Games.

Redbook and Global News also have tips on parties which include, big surprise, Games.

I am sensing a trend now.  So this is where I have been going wrong?  Shall I mention games will be the theme at my next party?  Risqué games or Xbox games?  If this is the clue that I have been missing there is one thing that I do have.  An ace up my sleeve.  I have a nephew who is THE Gamesmaster of all time.  Lookout everyone, you are about to get outsmarted by A Successful Hostess.

But first I need 364 days to plan the event of all time!