What a great post! We moved into our house in March of 2012 and we love to entertain. It is much easier in the warmer months since we have a large covered patio and the kids can play outside. However, we hosted our first large indoor gathering this past Christmas and it was very stressful!! So what were the lessons learned from this last party?? 1) Make rules for the children. -We found food in toy bins and stickiness from spilled juice on the playroom floor. Next time we will tell kids that food and drink are only allowed in the kitchen and dining room. -Designate one bathroom for the kids and put kid friendly towels in them. We have a beautiful powder room which got torn apart...scuffs on our beautiful vanity, stains on the nice towels, etc. Next time we will tell the kids to use the kids bathroom only. -LOCK doors! We did this for this party and it worked out great! We locked the toy room closet and left out several toys that were easy to put away. We also locked bedroom doors that we didn't want kids to go into. Closing a door is not enough! Kids usually end up opening closed doors out of curiosity or open them if they decide to play hide and seek! In our case this forces kids to stay in the play room area only with the kids bathroom close by. 2) Make sure you get RSVP's. We made WAY too much food so we ended up sending guests home with food. Even still a lot of food was wasted. I think it is always better to have too much food rather than not enough, but it was excessive in our case! 3) Clean as you go! We have double dishwashers so I could have easily cleaned up while talking to the ladies after dinner. Instead we all sat around and relaxed. The kids then had meltdowns and many were not able to stay and help clean up. My hubby got called into work at the end of the night and I was left with a major kitchen disaster at the end of the night! Yikes!! I think in the future I may hire a pair of high school gals to help keep the kids in order, help serve, and help clean up at the end of the night! Now for things that DID work out: -Preparing as much as I could the night before (e.g., setting the table, setting up beverages, putting out platters with sticky notes labeling what will go in them the next day, empty dishwashers, clean bathrooms and check toilet paper, etc) -Asking guests to bring something. I provided the main dishes and some appetizers. But then guests brought salad, side dishes, and dessert. We had designated areas for the appetizers/salad, main/side dishes, and dessert. So when the guests arrived we had them place the food in the appropriate area. I have learned to not have guests bring main dishes. We've run into problems in the past where people brought small dishes and there wasn't enough food to go around. -Self-serve beverage station. We get drinks for guests when they first arrive, then we make it easy for them to serve themselves for the rest of the night. We usually do beer, wine, and sometimes margaritas. Then we have a large self serve beverage jar that has water and lemon slices in it. And then juice for the kids. Juice boxes are a no-no because inevitably the kids squeeze too hard and the juice gets everywhere. At dessert time, we turn on a huge hot water dispenser and leave out a tray of different teas and chai. For the kids we leave out plastic cups and a Sharpie pen for parents to write their kids' names on the cups. Then for the adults I leave out wine and/or margarita glasses with charms on them (the charms are all different so guests can easily identify their charm/glass). I also leave out crystal clear plastic cups for adults to use if they want water. Depending on the size of the party, for hot drinks I will leave out either mugs or disposable hot cups. BTW, I also have crystal water goblets at each adult place setting. And I leave a crystal pitcher of water on the table at dinner time. -Having an adult table and a kids table. We had the adult table in the dining room and the kids table in the breakfast nook. This allowed us to have nice adult conversation without the kids interrupting us. We also had the kids eat first so adults could assist if needed. Makes for a more peaceful adult dinner time since the kids mostly played while we ate. -We did a gift exchange for the kids only. It was fun to watch kids open up a gift. -We took family pictures. We pulled each family to the fireplace area and took a family picture for them. I still have yet to email them out :) I have to admit, I was not crazy about doing an indoor party for that many adults and kids. Clean up was MUCH harder indoors. We may have to do a Christmas in July party this year so we can have the party outdoors!! Or have an adult only party at Christmas time. This post was edited by janealexa on Sat, Jan 5, 13 at 17:52

Of course, I had a secret motivation in posting this thread, which was my husband's 40th birthday party this past weekend. Mind you, he was very clear on what kind of party he wanted, which most definitely included no games and no cheesy themes (I am fond of cheesy themes). I did, however, invite some "new blood" and that worked very well. Husband was in charge of the snacks and prepared enough to feed an army, and overall the party was a success. of course the entire group congregated in the kitchen and dining room despite a cozy fire and comfortable seating in the adjacent living room. Some things just don't change with age!

A game my wife's family plays, that they call "Celebrity", works well for large groups. The game starts with each and every player writing 5 or 6 answers on small pieces of paper. They can be the name of a famous person, or really almost anything: an animal, a well-known short phrase, an obscure object. These pieces are then folded and placed in a large bowl. The large group is divided into two groups and they sit in alternating fashion around the room. In the first round a player from team one starts and is given a minute to try to get his/her team to guess as many answers as possible, by giving clues similar to "password". For each correctly guessed clue the team gets a point, and those answers are set aside. If the team doesn't correctly guess one, it is returned to the bowl. Then the next player (from team two) does the same. This continues until the bowl is empty. Then all of the answers are returned to the bowl, and whomever is next takes their turn, except now instead of giving clues like "password" that player must perform the answer following the rules of "charades" and still have 1 minute to get the rest of their team to guess as many as possible. The charades round continues until once-again the bowl is empty, then all of the answers are returned to the bowl, and the third round starts with the next player. In the third round, the clue-giver is only allowed to give a single, carefully-chosen, word as a clue. At first this might seem far too difficult, but given that all of the possible answers have already been heard twice, it actually can go quite quickly. So if only one of the possible answers is a President, giving the clue "President" should be enough,

I always have trouble with the boys-- my db and bils. I got them all yeti coffee tumblers. I ordered the 30 oz size and laughed when they arrived because they were so ridiculously big. One of the orders ended up being delayed so I bought another locally and when the package arrived, I kept it for myself-- I use it ALL the time! I love the big size and while they do keep coffee warm, they are even better at keeping drinks cool! I now have 4 of them for myself! some other ideas.. a milk frother, cards against humanity, nostalgic candy from their childhood, lens cleaning cloth/cleaner, travel pepper grinder (one of my fav gifts ever), a new or favorite book, an artisan cocktail book, stone drink cubes, heirloom beans or rice, battery tester (I just had a conversation about how I need to get one-- I always used my tongue!)