THE golden rule at any party? "DO NOT run out of alcohol," said Andrea Paton, who will be responsible for organising the 100 parties the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-le-Moors, throws this season.

"You can run out of food, burn the vol au vents if you really have to, but do not run out of booze!"

Andrea is well-qualified on how to throw a successful party - the Dunkenhalgh is one of the area's most popular venues for Christmas parties, weddings and general celebrations.

And - aside from alcohol - she believes the key to making sure your party goes with a swing is organisation.

"Write a guest list to keep track of who you've invited and who has said they are coming - and expect a few extras turning up," she said.

"That way you won't find yourself with 500 guests in a two-up, two-down terrace.

"Make sure you have enough chairs, particularly for older guests, and if you're getting stressed enlist friends to help you out.

"Don't be embarrassed about asking people to give a donation to help pay for the food and drink - they're usually happy to do so."

One of the first decisions a host must make is to decide whether or not children should be allowed to attend.

"Early on in the preparations you need to make the decision and let everyone know," she said.

"There's nothing worse than running around like mad looking for a babysitter then an hour later a couple turn up with two kids.

"Christmas is a time when families traditionally socialise together and babysitters are hard to find so you need to tell people well in advance.

"If kids are coming you have to accept it's generally going to be a more sensible night and will finish a lot earlier," warned Andrea.

"It's important to have something to keep them entertained, perhaps by hiring a children's entertainer.

"If your'e throwing a big party it's probably worth the £100 or so extra to pay for someone to keep them happy because kids can get very restless at adult parties and if they're restless their parents will be restless too."

Another area where good planning is essential is the music.

Don't underestimate the importance of music and simply expect guests to choose from your dodgy collection of CDs.

"Music is important because it creates instant atmosphere," said Andrea.

"Now most people have PCs it's easy to create compilations of party tunes.

"Don't leave it to the day itself because you'll be too busy trying to getting ready, doing last minute preparations, and welcoming your guests.

"You must also always make sure there's an area to dance.

"If people don't dance at a Christmas party, something's wrong."

Once the preparations have been done, there's just the night itself to contend with.

Everyone knows the feeling of spending weeks preparing for a party, only to spend the entire night fretting about whether everyone else is having fun.

This needn't be the case, said Andrea.

"If you're the hostess with the mostess your job is to escort the sick ones to the loo, make sure nobody gets too drunk and disorderly, try to be mum for the night.

"You have to realise early on that you're never going to please everybody.

"Not everybody's going to be happy with the music or the food.

"If you're doing a sit down dinner not everybody will be happy with where they're sitting or who they're sitting by.

"If you get a happy medium then you're not doing too bad."

Lastly, try to minimise the clean-up operation as much as possible.

"Buy plastic plates and glasses," advises Andrea.

"From my own experience I know that trying to sweep up tiny shards of glass from your kitchen floor is impossible - you always miss some."