If you had a party and served frozen foods, beer in cans, wine out of a box, no music at all, and kept the light on, the party would not be too great at all. The rules for good entertaining are; Good food, good drinks, and good atmosphere.
Even casual parties need to serve fresh food. Serving finger foods is a good idea this is because there are no utensils used so there is less of a clean up afterwards. Serve the finger foods on a tray so you don't need to run back and fourth from the kitchen. You also need to enjoy your party.
Never ever serve canned beer. Wine should be bought in bottles. It should not cost you an arm and a leg even though it doesn’t come from a box. It is also o good idea to have a few bottles around the house, for guest that may pop by and like to have a few drinks.
As for atmosphere it had three components music, lighting, and decoration. There needs to be music at every party. Where there is good music there usually is dancing, and parties are a lot better if there is dancing. With the lights on nobody will even think about dancing. It is a good idea to have your light switches changed to dimmer switches sometime if you plan to have a few parties over the years.
The table with the finger foods and the liquor will probably be the focal point so pretty it up with some flowers and a table cloth. If it is a theme party you are having then you need to decorate accordingly. Nothing tacky is needed.
