Entertaining Top 10 for 2000

More of this Feature • Part 2: The Top 10 List    Join the Discussion Favorite Theme Party What's Been Your Favorite?

You may now take a deep breath. 

Yes, the holidays are virtually over and you can take a time out to reflect upon and congratulate yourself on last year's entertaining successes before running off to issue invitations for your first party of 2001. 

The first question you'll want to ask yourself is whether you had as much fun as your guests did. I certainly hope so since you were the one who put in the time to make your parties happen. If you did not enjoy them, perhaps you need to reassess your approach to entertaining and think about ways you can make your parties easier this year.

The next question is whether you entertained more or less than you wanted. If less, what was holding you back? Was it finances? If so, perhaps you'll want to plan a progressive dinner for this year where everyone helps out with preparing the menu. Was it anxiety over being able to pull it all off? Then you need to find ways to feel that you're in control of the situation. Was it time? If so, there are many acceptable shortcuts you can take. Expectations have changed, and no one expects you to prepare everything you serve from scratch (although it's impressive and appreciated when you do!)

Finally, were your parties as fun as you wanted them to be? If not, consider adding games or themes to your parties this year. In reviewing the activity on this site over the past year, the observation that jumps out at me more than anything else is how many people love party games and theme parties.

Which brings me to my review of last year's activities.  It's very clear that readers are still interested in celebrating the traditional, major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, Passover and the New Year. Parties for children also rank way up there in popularity. And information relating to corporate entertaining is as important as ever. 

However, I thought it would be fun to look back over last year and see what were the Top 10 party occasions or themes for readers of this site that don't include the above, expected, categories. So, on the next page I present the Top 10 List of Entertaining Occasions and Theme Parties for 2000.

Next page > The Top 10 List > Page 1, 2