Original post shared on tumblr on Mar 30, 2025

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How to throw a fancy dinner party in The Sims 3

You will need @flotheory's new dinner mod, download it here. Depending on what you want, choose either

• Version 1: limited to 8 sims having dinner and sims will finish what they are doing before going to dinner -> best for family gameplay when you only want your active family to have dinner together
• or Version 2: more than 8 sims can have dinner and sims will stop what they are doing and proceed to their chair once you direct them to do so -> best if you also want inactive sims as guests at your dinner party

Step 1: Assign each sim a chair

1. Click on the chair
2. Select "Join dinner…"
3. Select the sim you want to sit in this chair
4. Repeat for all chairs/sims.

Sims will now proceed to their respective chairs and sit down at the dinner table:

Step 2: Get them to eat dinner together

If you're doing this with more than one table, pause your game!

You will have to repeat these steps for each table! Do not switch to a different table before you have done them all!

1. Place the group meal in the middle of the table
2. Click on the group meal
3. Select "Serve for dinner…"
4. Click on the table
5. Select "Eat dinner together…"
6. Select the sims sitting at this table
7. Click OK
8. Without un-pausing the game proceed to the next table and repeat for every table.

Once all tables have been served their dinner and the sims have been directed to dine:

Press play and watch them all eat at the same time!

Additional tips:

• I found it is best to place the group meals on the table after all sims have been seated. If you place them before, you run the risk of a hungry sim grabbing a plate and blocking one of the chairs.
• Once all sims are seated at the dinner table you can leave them sitting and just chatting for a little bit, but don't wait too long or they will get up again.
• If you want more than 8 sims to dine together, you will need either a custom table seating more than 8 sims (don't know if they even exist…?) or you will need to place several tables. If you want to push them together to make a bigger table, use the cheat "moveobjects on". Take care not to push the tables into each other, or sims may not have enough room to sit down. It's best to leave a small gap.
• If you want several tables to eat the same food, either prepare the same group meal for each table or use icarus_allsorts mod "Cook with any ingredient" in order to make a group meal with up to 16 servings. When serving several tables from the same group meal you will have to move the group meal to the table you want to serve before repeating step 2!