Instructions: Your home is a dazzling showplace trimmed to the max with ornaments and lights. Party season is in full swing.

And, youre feeling obligated, but too crunched for time to plan a big bash.

Heres some advice from caterers and party planners:

Serve finger foods. They can save you time, money and tension.

There are many advantages to serving finger foods at a party:

First, you can invite more people, because they can eat standing up.

For another, youll have much less cleanup to do.

Nearly all finger foods can be prepared days or even weeks in advance, so you wont be stuck in the kitchen missing your own party. and in the long run, finger foods are much less expensive than sit-down dinners.

One problem with finger foods is figuring how many pieces to prepare. But there are some tricks.

A lot depends on the time of day you are having the party.

If its during a regular mealtime, youll need more food and it will need to be more substantial than the selections you make for a party between mealtimes.

For example, at an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. you might serve raw vegetables, fruit and cheese and one or two hot nibbles. For a party from

5 to 9 p.m., youll want to add more substantial items, such as finger sandwiches, meat or poultry platters, and perhaps a salad or two.

A basic rule for cold meat platters is two rolls, 3 ounces of meat and 1 1/2 ounces of cheese per person. If you are serving salads, figure a quarter-pound

For ready-to-eat sandwiches, such as pinwheels, figure two for each guest. Of course, that all depends on how many other items you will be serving. In general, four choices is about right for most parties.

For other items, such as mini-quiche or puff-pastry

hors doeuvres, figure one to two pieces of each appetizer for each person.

Again, that depends on the time of day and the number of items you are serving.

Basically, for a party of 50 guests, youll need about 200 to 300 individual appetizers.

So your guests arent disappointed, its a good idea to state on the invitation "light hors doeuvres." That way, they wont arrive expecting a full meal and can plan accordingly.

The best advice: When planning your menu, remember: You dont have to pretend you are Martha Stewart. Food doesnt have to be complicated to be unique.

Know your guests. If most are vegans, you might need more vegetable-based appetizers than meat. If youve got a lot of big eaters on the guest list, you might want to add a few more hearty items.

Look for recipes that can be made ahead and frozen. Most puff pastry or phyllo appetizers can be frozen. Because they are small, you can just pop them into the oven from the frozen state. Raw vegetables can be washed and cut up a day in advance. Cheese and cold cuts can be arranged on platters, then wrapped in plastic and refrigerated until party time.

As for serving the appetizers, keep it simple. Its better to use smaller platters that look filled than large ones that look empty.

Keep in mind that meat, poultry, fish and appetizers with dairy products should not sit out longer than two hours. In that case, its best to bring out small quantities at a time and refill the platters when theyre empty.

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