One of the most enjoyable types of entertainment at home is the very informal affair that is organized on the spur of the moment. Such events may happen when a group of friends drop in unexpectedly, or when you suddenly decide to have the gang over for a good time. If you have learned how to give

An informal kitchen party can be fun! these parties, they can be great fun. Below are listed some ideas for such parties.

Exploring The Kitchen

Sometime when you want to entertain friends on the spur of the moment, invite a few over and turn them loose in the kitchen, each one to prepare his own food or to co-operate with someone in preparing food. Beforehand you will want to have stocked the pantry with a few necessities such as eggs, milk, sugar, chocolate, bread and butter. The rest is up to the guests - including the dish-washing.

Obviously only a small crowd should be invited to a party such as this, but it is fun. Incidentally, a very good stunt at a kitchen party is to bring in a bowl or a tray filled with all kinds of raw, unpeeled vegetables. Place this assortment before the crowd and ask them to see who can make the funniest figure (animal or human) from the raw material before them. Toothpicks and a knife arc usually needed in the process. Leave the tops on the vegetables because they make good headdresses and tails.

From the accompanying pictures you will get an idea of what can be done with raw vegetables and toothpicks.

A Candy Pull

A close relative of the kitchen party is the good old candy pull. But it is good only when everyone enters into the spirit of the occasion and gets his fingers into the candy. Such gatherings are especially enjoyable in the winter when the nights are cold and it is pleasant to bend over a warm stove and smell the taffy boiling.

Popping corn and making candied apples are also good activities for such parties.

Pot Luck Or Dutch Treat

If you want some real fun sometime, arrange a pot-luck supper with some of your friends. Each person brings a different dish of food, cooked or prepared according to his or her own liking, but enough to give portions to four or five others who will be present. It is usually a good plan to arrange for three or four to bring desserts, one to bring rolls, and then let chance take care of the rest. Some will bring meats cooked in a particular way, and others will bring vegetables prepared to their own liking. The person whose house is being used for the party should arrange for implements, beverages, and chairs. When all have brought in their contributions, the meal is served.

Such parties take very little planning and do not work a hardship on any one member of the group. You will find them interesting and entertaining.

Progressive Parties

Another type of informal party that is easy to plan, because no one person needs to do all of the work, is the one in which the group goes from one house to another, having a course of the meal at each stop. At Smith's there is a fruit cocktail with a chance to get acquainted with everyone. Next, all go over to Brown's, where hot soup helps to prepare the crowd for a game or two. From here to Barton's is a short walk, where the main course is awaiting the hungry diners. And last, but not least, the dessert in Merrill's mansion. After ice cream and cake are finished, the group will usually be surprised to find that the evening is spent.

A Quilting Party

Before the days of the telephone and radio, it used to be a common practice to assemble at some friend's house for the purpose of doing special kinds of work, such as making a quilt or husking corn. These parties generally accomplished two things. First of all, it was a sociable way to meet with friends; and second, a considerable amount of work could be done.

Believe it or not, women and girls still quilt and enjoy it. There are several ways to have a quilting party these days. One way (quite expensive, but worth the trouble for a good finished product) is to go to a dress-goods store and buy the necessary materials needed for one silk quilt. You will need 10 yards of rayon or silk of the proper color. Cut this into four even pieces, each 2 1/2 yards long. Sew two pieces together down the middle. Then sew the other two together down the middle. You will then have the top and bottom of the quilt. Two pounds of wool lining will be needed as well as thread of the right color and plenty of pins.

If you do not have a quilting frame, borrow one from a neighbor or from some club. Very often the local church has a frame that is not in use. A design can be secured from a dry-goods store. This is ironed upon one side of the quilt with a hot iron.

The old quilting party was a social function in the days when women felt that they could not waste an afternoon or evening in idle "visiting."

You are now ready to invite about nine girl friends to tea and get down to work. The idea is to talk and sew, using a running stitch along the lines that have been ironed on the silk. Quilts made like this make the best kind of presents for your mother's, your aunt's, or a friend's birthday.

A Hobby Party

Try inviting your friends over sometime to a hobby party. Then you can all work on your hobbies while you talk, and tell each other about the enjoyment you receive from your own particular interest. Those who are interested in photography could mount their pictures that night, those who like craftwork of some kind could bring their belts or purses or other articles with them and work while they talk. Each person could tell about his hobby briefly and answer any questions the group might have. Those without any hobby would enjoy seeing what others do and might learn what they would like to do.