How do you put on a girls birthday tea?

Question

I am looking for suggestions for having a birthday tea party for my daughter who will be turning ten. We will be having 12 girls total. Ideas, recipies, and warnings are welcome. Thanks!

Answer 1

The first thing you need is crystal, or crystal-like, dishes. Each girl should wear gloves and a hat and be invited to look her very best, wearing a dress. A fun game idea would be a tea cup decorating activity. Each girl would get a piece of paper in the shape of a teacup, and on it, she could color her name and any designs she wants to represent her: flowers, etc. Next, she would get a little holder of some kid to affix to the back of it, to be used as a placecard at the table. Next, you can buy little disposeable cameras, if you want to, for each girl, to snap pictures as she wants to at the party, and they can give them to you at the end to make sure all the most candid moments are captured.
You should have decaffeinated tea: there are many flavors such as peach, cinnamon, and apple, etc., for your little girls, and next, the sandwiches, and cookies, etc.
The following website has some wonderful recipes:
http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/teasandwichrecipes.html
Common sandwiches to have are egg salad and cucumber, both found on this site and others you can find online with ease.
Here are some more I found:
Tea Room Chicken Salad

6 c. chicken, cooked and chopped
1 pt. mayonnaise-type salad dressing
4 oz. Dijon mustard
2 c. pineapple, chopped
2 c. apple, chopped
1-1/2 t. salt
2 c. celery, thinly sliced
Garnish: 3/4 c. cashews, halved

Mix chicken with mayonnaise and mustard;
blend well.
Add pineapple, apple,
salt and celery.
Garnish with cashews
before serving.

When It's Apple Time..Make ~

Taffy Apple Salad



15 1/4 oz. Can pineapple chunks (in juice)
(Reserve Juice)
2 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup sugar
1 tbls. All purpose flour
1 egg beaten
1/2 tbls. White vinegar
8 oz. Whipped topping (i.e. cool whip)
2 cups apples (your favorite eating type)
(unpeeled and diced)
l cup spanish peanuts
Day Before:
Combine pineapple chunks with marshmallows -
And refrigerate - overnight.
In a saucepan, over medium heat -
Mix together: pineapple juice, sugar, flour Egg and vinegar.
Cook till thick -pour into heat
Resistant dish -
and refrigerate overnight

Before serving - Fold together :
Whipped topping, pineapple sauce,
pineapple Mixture. Stir in apples & peanuts.

Serves 4-6

Recipes above found on the
Gooseberry Patch Website

Another wonderful site with lost of great recipes:
http://www.teas2dine4.com/recipes.html

Another excellent thing to have which I have no recipes for is a kind-of three salad sandwich loaf. For this, you need tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, and white, wheat, rye, and whatever other kind of bread you want to use, and you mix up the salads, putting a different kind of salad in between each kind of bread, stacking it up and alternating the kinds of bread so that there is a variated color.
When you have about five to six layers, cover the whole thing with softened cream cheese. Refrigerate it for a few hours, and when it is chilled, cut it. Each slice will have all the alternating breads and the alternating salads in it. It is special and festive, but easy to make.
I hope you enjoy your tea party! I've been robbed of my chance to have girls! Have all my fun for me!

Answer 2

If you love to cook, search for a recipe for scones and serve with jam and/or lemon curd. If you have a Costco, you can also buy "Two Bite Scones" which are yummy. Butter cookies are also good. Don't forget the honey and milk for the tea.

Birthday Express has two tea party themes right now - the original tea party and a cute new flower fairies tea party set. Also, they have lots of ideas on their website. However, a less expensive and nicer way is probably to use your own dishes (since the girls are old enough) and get a bunch of cups and saucers from a discount store like Big Lots or even Linens & Things. You can dress up the tables with colorful scarves and flowers.

Finally, if your daughter is really into the whole theme, have the girls dress up a little and offer everyone white gloves. You can usually get them at Party City (which often has tea party goods as well). Have fun!

Answer 3

My 9 year old hates tea but maybe not all do. Might try the flavored ones like from Panera's (about 25 to a can for $7). Then do fancy little cookies - like spritz (Food Network has a Butter Spritz recipe that looks easy), thumbprints (Smuckers.com has one), chocolate dipped (like Melting Cookies on Food Network), etc.

I'd use nice tea cups (not necessarily expensive though) with a paper doily between cup and saucer. At 10, they might think it most fun to help make the cookies.

Answer 4

Aw, that sounds like a great idea! Trust me, their children, they'll keep themselves entertained. All you need to do is prevent any nastiest between the girls and make sure their happily entertained. Bitchiness even occurs in 8 year olds... You could put a film on, or T.V programme? Go and rent Hannah Montanna or something and put that on for a while before tea and maybe even during tea?

Answer 5

If you can find Tea Time Magazine, it might be helpful. This magazine always has ideas for tea parties in it--recipes included! Also, check out the food network website (www.foodnetwork.com) and look under Party Ideas. They have recipes there for Afternoon Tea. I remember one birthday party that I went to that was very simple: low tables with lots of floor cushions, japanese/chinese decorations, lots of pots of tea and takeout chinese appetizers. For something more personal, I did a bridal shower tea--finger sandwiches, little pastries and centerpieces in tea cups. Or you could do something with a theme and plan your food around that--maybe Alice in Wonderland. Costumes are always fun too! Good Luck!

Answer 6

My daughter had a dress-up tea for one of her birthday parties. The girls had a wonderful time dressing up for the party. Most of them wore dressy women's outfits, jewelry and high heels. Some dressed up in their Sunday best. And twins dressed up in princess costumes. Everyone was just perfect.

The things I can remember having for the food was a cheese ball with little fancy crackers, finger sandwiches, punch and instead of having a regular birthday cake, we got tiny cupcakes with fluffy frosting in pink and purple.

The decorations were all pink and purple and we had dainty pretty plates and little tea cups for the punch.

Answer 7

I threw my most famous tea party on a horribly rainy day when I had babysat all week and it rained every day. I secretly put together a spread and hid it. I then handed the kids an invitation to the tea party of Mrs Aloysius Smythe the Third, noted patron of the arts, who wished to invite a collection of interesting people to her tea. The kids had 10 minutes to:
1. Find an outfit from the dress up box (I had a HUGE dress-up box)
2. Prepare a persona
3. Be able to tell who he/she was, and demonstrate his/her special abilities/talents.
When the alarm went off, I made them leave the house and go to the (never used) front door and ring the bell. I greeted them in a formal hat, a bridesmaid gown and ushered them into my "gracious home". In the dining room, spread with linen cloth, I served "canapes"- peanut butter crackers, cookies and finger vegetebles "cru d'ete's", and made a pot of non-caffeinated tea (hey I had spent a week stuck in the house with them and I was NOT wiring them up!). We used the good china and linen napkins.
I began by describing what a patron of the arts does- helping artists, writers and great thinkers to meet and exchange ideas at lovely tea parties. The kids, age 9 and down, did not disappoint- they had wonderful made-up names and their personas went like this:
The noted cookbook author read her favourite recipe for upside down pineapple cake, the Chinese acrobat demonstrated how to do some tricks, the gymnast described his Olympic gold medals and did handstands for us, the famous actress talked about her latest movie and Michael Jackson (my blond, blue-eyed 4 year old) sang "Beat It". We ended our tea with chocolates and being ushered out to the front door. When they came back in, I was in jeans and all the dishes/linens had disappeared. I never admitted to having been Mrs Aloysius, and denied it vehemently (still do). They begged for another party and then began throwing their own tea parties, and every time they used different themes. The imagination was what they enjoyed the most. Usually my daughter made a pineapple upside down cake and rice crispy squares for everyone (she is now a noted cook).
Kids love being different personas: you could even make up persons for them and then ask them to "be" that person for a day- give them a title and an occupation and let them research and add to it. Ask them to come as their favourite author, characted from a book, or a woman who inspired them.
Serve formal food on nice dinnerware. They will respect that. Avoid caffeine if possible, but they may enjoy a proper tea: most Americans have never experienced a tea ceremony: heating the pot, adding and brewing the correct amount of tea- there is a formal ritual-type set of behaviours that pre-pubescent children are interested in observing and participating.
Your invitations should state expectations and require formal dress- state what that is for them- they're kids after all.
Go lavish on the treats but make them finger foods or fancy. Finger sandwiches cut into little triangles, lady fingers and individual cakes dusted with a little confectionary sugar- you want pretty and dainty. Buy some fancy petit-fours, or make individual brownies and frost them with hearts by piping frosting on.
Warnings- keep to a schedule and time frame. Arrival and greeting followed by seating (yes place cards and napkin rings, and a flower for each child to take home). Classical music low in the background, no phone, tv or other interruptions. Serve and pass the refreshments, then ask for their brief biographies or performances. Once done, move the next phase into the formal birthday- have a very different cake than she usually has. Instead of Happy Birthday, try a different song- For She's a Jolly Good Fellow or make up words to a song and have the words printed for them.
Your favours should include: a menu, or programme, a flower, and some girly kind of treat like little bubbles (check the party store).
If moms are also attending, make them dress too and act the part.
My family is big on tiaras- we all wear them to certain parties, and sometimes at work to remind ourselves we are in charge ofour destinies.
You aren't just amusing them- you are reminding them that some of these society rituals are important traditions that women have used for centuries, that manners are a way to show consideration for others and make them feel comfortable, and that imagination is something you never grow out of!
Good luck! And have fun!

Answer 8

um, don't go overly complex on the flavors and have a variety of them. I'd say 5 different kinds is superb. Ice it if you want to avoid anyone saying it's too hot.

Answer 9

i would buy snapple lemon ice tea and pour it in those fancy teacups