7 fun ideas for your next party

When it comes to giving a dinner party, everything's on the table. Everything, that is, having to do with originality. This is the time of year to shake things up a little and add vitality to gatherings that help tide us over until spring.

"The best time to throw a party is in February, when there's nowhere to go," says Lawrence Scott, owner of Lawrence Scott Events. "It's very important to throw winter soirees and be a little creative."

Scott, whose Hicksville-based business caters to the upscale, stresses that you don't have to be wealthy to add spice to a dinner party. You just have to be willing to experiment.

Creativity can come in the way you design the invitations, seat invitees, lay out a table's centerpiece, decorate a room, serve the food and get your guests to participate.

"A dinner party at home has to have the essence of welcoming," says Arlene Travis, owner of Glen Cove-based Mansions & Millionaires, which produces designer showcases for nonprofits. Warmth and fresh ideas can combine in the simplest of ways. "It's not necessarily about the food. It's how the food is presented so that a guest walks away with a memorable evening. That's the whole key to a wonderful party," she adds.

These and several other designers and event planners share suggestions on thinking outside the box. They all say a host or hostess should be ready to jettison some traditional, perhaps tired ideas in the quest for dinner party inspiration.

OLD SCHOOL Seat guests at the dining room table

NEW SCHOOL Use other areas of the home to entertain

'Pick a great room in the house," says Andrea Correale, owner of Elegant Affairs of Glen Cove. It can be the living room, den or room with a fireplace. Correale enjoys throwing casual fondue parties. Start by getting a round piece of wood cut out at a hardware store and put it over a coffee table. Place pillows on the floor for seating. Ditch traditional cheese and bread fondues for other items, such as seafood or sausages. "You could make it potluck and let people bring wine or their particular fondue," she says. And don't invite 20 people. With six to eight, conversation is more intimate and you don't have to work so hard.

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OLD SCHOOL Let your home decor set the mood

NEW SCHOOL Create a new ambience with instant color

Transform a room, or your house, into a monochromatic themed zone. Lawrence Scott recently threw a Muttontown party all in red, which feels brighter in the dead of winter. Change the bulbs in the house from white to red, lay out a red tablecloth and serve red pomegranate martinis and red velvet cake. Ask guests to wear all red, of course. Or, go for another look and drape silver linen over lampshades to create centerpieces on several small round tables. "Call it the 'Winter Blues Supper Club' and create a jazz night," Scott says. "It's like an intimate supper club in your home."

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OLD SCHOOL Waiting for your official high school reunion

NEW SCHOOL Hosting a mini-reunion in your home

Would you like to party like it was 1977? Or '67, or '57, or any other year? If you're like Lawrence Scott, you just might organize a party by finding 10 to 25 classmates on Facebook living within a few miles of your home. Then let the decorating begin. For Scott - Hicksville Class of 1977 - that would mean pinning up glow-in-the-dark posters and setting up some lava lamps, and perhaps adding some black light bulbs and asking guests to dress in white so they glow. And don't forget the music, which in this case would be a heavy dose of Jethro Tull, Boz Scaggs and Jackson Browne. Scott also suggests sprinkling toys from one's childhood around the party room, such as Etch A Sketch, Operation, Rubik's Cube, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and Boggle. "They make their own nostalgia," Scott says. "Even though it's juvenile, we're all kids at heart. And it's a great icebreaker."

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OLD SCHOOL Place a floral centerpiece on the table

NEW SCHOOL Use a personal collection to spark interest

Do you have a collection of . . . anything? Salt and pepper shakers? Russian nesting dolls? Old tools? Cotter-Kroboth suggests taking items - for him, it's his collection of porcelain birds - and mingling them with the flower arrangement. "They should follow the shape of the table," he says. "You can have flowers or vines or ivy flowing around the candles and birds among them."

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OLD SCHOOL Seating couples next to each other and keeping them in place all evening

NEW SCHOOL Mixing up and moving people around

'Never have couples or spouses sit next to one another," Locust Valley designer and antiques dealer Roland Cotter- Kroboth says. "Ever." At most dinner parties, he says, you see couples sticking together because they feel more secure. "But it's not great for conversation or for the whole flow of the party." At his own parties, Cotter-Kroboth has guests move around after each course. "You take your wine and switch seats so you're not stuck for three hours with the same person you can't stand." And by all means, have fun making seating cards. Arlene Travis says she puts her guest's name and a bow on an inexpensive colored paper bag (silver if she wants to get fancy) and hangs it on the back of the chair. "It can start conversations going between the guests, too," she says.

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OLD SCHOOL Burning tall candlesticks or standard votive candles

NEW SCHOOL Use stemware to showcase candlelight

While you're shaking things up in the middle of the table, Cotter-Kroboth says, why not pay attention to the candles? "You can use any pretty cut or uncut glassware or stemware and drop a votive in it," the designer and antique dealer suggests. "Or get the type that float in water and color the liquid with food coloring. Float them in a brandy glass or a wine glass."

SUGGESTED ITEM Floating candles, set of 36 (2 inches tall), $19.99, quickcandles.com

OLD SCHOOL Hanging around the kitchen before the meal

NEW SCHOOL Using a kitchen island as the focal point

'If you have the type of home where the kitchen is the center of the house, why not do the whole party around the island in the kitchen?" says Correale. She suggests throwing a tapas party, asking each guest to bring an appetizer for a night of grazing, standing or sitting on stools around the kitchen island with wine and music. Start things rolling by serving dishes you enjoy making, such as spring rolls or stuffed artichokes. "Then, take turns going to the oven and passing dishes around," Correale says. "That way you're getting everyone involved."

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