No, I'm not going to offer tips on how to be more entertaining. I'll leave that to the coaches on The Voice. Instead, I'm going to offer some tips on throwing parties, inviting guests, and offering hospitality.

• The single most important thing is to put yourself in your guests' place. (Remember the Gold Rule?) If you focus on their comfort and pleasure, the rest will fall into place.
• Don't try to do too much at one time. It's not the inaugural ball or a coronation. A simple event — a basic meal, some conversation, maybe a nice playlist in the background — what else do you need?
• Relax. The fate of the world doesn't depend on the courses being timed just right. If you have fun, your guests will have fun.
• Build your guest list with care. Invite people who have a bit in common (enough to talk about), but enough variety to keep things interesting.
• Make lists for everything: who you'll invite, what you will serve, what needs to be done, your grocery list, your timetable. Putting things on a list gives you control over them.
• Plan your menu and décor so that as much as possible can be done in advance. Neither you nor your guests will have fun if you spend the evening in the kitchen stressed out.
• Remember, you only need to clean the rooms that the guests will be in. If your house is messy, clean the living room, dining room, and guest bathroom and close all the other doors. If your house is really messy, have a barbecue and clean the guest bath. (It's not hospitable to make people go to the gas station on the corner to pee.)
• Don't buy a ton of specialized stuff for hosting. Use the best of what you have and go from there.
• Do everything as early as is reasonable – and that includes cleaning. But never leave your guests to clean unless absolutely necessary (you need to treat a stain before it sets or you need to wash a pan so you can cook something else in it). Trust me, you will regret leaving your cleaning until the next day. The elves will not come and clean for you. Sorry.
• Don't focus on impressing people. Focus on enjoying yourself with people you care about. that's the secret.