Kids love to dress up for a colorful tea party.
Toddlers love dressing up and playing "grown up." Having an old-fashioned, elegant tea party is an enjoyable way to celebrate your toddler's birthday or just have a toddler get-together that's easy to set up and engaging for both kids and parents. Moms in particular can enjoy a real pot of tea and nibbles while the kids practice appropriate tea party manners.
Invitations
Make an invitation in keeping with the party theme using a simple craft suggested by the Disney Family Fun website. Cut a teapot and teabag out of card stock and attach by stapling one end of a short string to the top of the teapot and the other to the bag. Write the party greeting on the front of the teapot and the party details on the back. On the teabag, tell the guests to bring a "special guest," a doll or stuffed animal. Do not invite too many guests, since a tea party requires that everyone sit down around a table and be well-behaved.
Dress-Up
Make dress-up the central activity of the party besides the "tea" itself. Instead of having kids come dressed up, decorate a cardboard box with pink paper and colorful flowers cut out of construction paper and fill it up with dress-up clothes for the guests to try on. Scavenge second-hand stores for appropriate items: ladies' summer straw hats, high heels, handbags, shawls, gloves and dresses, and supply feather boas in different colors from the novelty store. If you find an antique curiosities store that stocks old-fashioned hats, you may be able to find some great ones, such as pillbox hats with veils and all kinds of feathered hats, or ask Grandma for help. Even fancy old curtains can make great dress-up items. You can also set up a dressing table with a comb, mirror and brush set and costume jewelery such as long strands of pearls. Have lots of mirrors on hand for the girls to see their outfits and remember to snap lots of pictures as souvenirs for the party girl and guests.
The Tea
Cover a kids' table with a pretty plastic or paper tablecloth or a decorated lace cloth from a second-hand store or Grandma. Use a plastic kids' tea set and set cups, tea pot, creamers and sugars on paper or crochet doilies for a delicate old-fashioned tea party effect. Attach a few helium balloons to each attendants chair in the color scheme you've chosen, such as pink and white, blue and white or other pastels. Proper tea food that kids will like is easy to find and suit to the occasion. Serve up peanut butter and jam or chicken salad "tea sandwiches," cut into quarters with the crusts removed and cut vanilla and pink wafer cookies into squares to make "petit fours." Check the toy food section of the toy store for toy dessert tiers that you can use to serve up the "petit fours" and other bite-sized treats like mini-cupcakes, mini chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-covered granola bars cut into squares. Finally in place of tea, fill up the kids' teapot with juice, flavored iced tea or pink lemonaid. This will avoid scalding as well as probably being tastier for the kids!
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