Children's Tea Parties

I do not know your feelings on children drinking tea. My earliest memories involve an amber substance in a baby bottle, so there you go. No, it wasn't Jameson's!

I do know I drank tea as a child, both hot and cold, bag and instant. While I was in college, tea wasn't available cold like it is today (I went to Penn State and the only tea you could find outside the cafeteria was in the coffee machines in the student union...Ick) so I drank lots of Pepsi. LOTS...the back seat of my AMC Javelin would clink from cans and bottles.

I had tea parties as a child. I had crackers that had butter and jelly, tea and sometimes mom gave me gingersnaps for my little plates. The snaps were always too big for my tiny plates, but at least my dolls never went hungry...nor did my brother when he was home from the Navy who would indulge his baby sister by trying to handle those tiny cups. Now he has to do it for his granddaughter, Meghan....I bought her a tea set for her 5th birthday next week!

I have several ideas and websites that will help you get a very nice children's tea party under way.
First, let me say children are not much for planning. They like to do things when they want. I think that is great and it should be encouraged because as they grow into adulthood those opportunities to do what they want unstructured will disappear. Let them be children as long as possible.
However, if you would like to plan a child's tea party for say, a birthday, halloween, or just because that child of yours is the sweetest thing that ever walked the Goddess's planet, then by all means let's plan.

Pick a theme. Halloween? Birthday? Victorian? For this example let's do a Beach theme since summer is just around the corner.
Make some invitations. These could be bought or made. It is quite easy to purchase pre-folded invitations ready for the printer at your local meglamart. However, let your child decorate the invitations rather than send them through a cardshop program. Lots of suns and beach chairs, flipflops and umbrellas and of course, teacups. Fun!
Make sure to put a few cut outs in your invitations of the sun or some sprinkles of confetti so that the person opening the invitation will know the party is going to be full of surprises.
Perhaps you can add that the children could come in a beach type outfit.

For food for the party, keep it simple whether it is for just you and your child or for your child and her friends. PB&J sandwiches cut into shapes, or perhaps a little more grown up sandwich like egg salad made with cream cheese on the small deli breads used for cocktail parties, trim the crusts before assembling and cut diagonally. Their small size are perfect for both the party and small fingers.
Remember that a small size is important in an adult's tea party, just think how much smaller you have to make these things for a child's party.

Make a plate of fruit wedges and grapes. Pears and apples can be dipped in orange or pineapple juice to keep them from browning. Make a dip for the fruit by mixing a small container of peach yogurt with a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and 1 oz of cream cheese. Whisk until smooth.

Cookies and cakes are easily done. You can make a tiny version of your child's favorite cookie or most stores have the tiny or mini cup cakes these days.
Try this recipe:
I would suggest getting a Jiffy mix cake , whatever flavor you like. Theses small cake mixes only make a one layer cake.
Make this mix, but spread the batter in a square pan, 8x8, and bake at 350 degrees (325 for a glass pan) for 20 minutes and check for doneness.
When cool this little cake can be cut into squares 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" or use a 1-1/2" circle cutter. Place these on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet or wax paper.
Whisk 1 cup of 10x powder sugar into 2 tablespoons of milk until smooth, add a drop of food color to liven it up a bit. If this glaze is too thick to drizzle, add milk a drop at a time until it is of the right consistency.
Place the glaze in a zip bag and nip a corner, very small nip.
Drizzle this over your little cakes getting as much or as little of the glaze as you want on them, leave some plain to sprinkle powdered sugar on for a different look.
Let the glaze set and move to the serving plate. If your child wishes, while the glaze is still wet, she can sprinkle edible glitter on them.
IF there is any left, store loosely covered. You just made a quick version of peti fours without the jam inside!

On to the beverage of the day...(fanfare please) TEA!
If you do not wish to serve your child tea because of its caffeine content, no worries. I have recipes for tea without ANY caffeine.
Since this is a beach theme, how about mint tea? Or Lemonade 'tea'?
If your child is set on having regular tea, then the way to go would be iced green tea or decaf tea. It is a beach party and not many people (except me) have hot tea in the summer.
If you go into a healthfood store, any organic market like WholeFoods, EarthFare, etc, there is an herbal tea bar. It is a place that you look at all of the teas available and pick the one you want. You bag it and tag it. Another way to go if you do not mind having leftover teabags in your house is buying Celestial Seasonings Mint Magic for the Mint tea, there are other ingredients in this particular tea, however it is caffeine free and a very good tasting tea. From the same company, Lemon Zinger makes the best lemonade I have ever tasted. Again, it is caffeine free.
Another great thing about Celestial Seasonings is that their boxes of tea have some of the prettiest artwork on them and the blank artwork is available for printout for your children to color.

Nothing about the party has to be expensive. A trip to a dollar store recently showed me that their selection of gift paper would be great for covering a small tea table, or use a beach towel. While at the dollar store look into a "Goodie Bag" idea for the guests to leave with.
A zip bag decorated by your child with markers (Sharpie has some wonderful colors out now) filled with such beachy things as sunglasses, bubbles, a plastic beach cup, maybe a lollipop. There were so many ideas I got just walking around the big dollar mart we have here.

Have fun, use your imagination and enjoy your time with your child. This time with them is so precious, enjoy every minute of it.

Feel free to comment your own adventures or reminisce from your childhood. Let me know either here or by email on how you are wanting to do a party. Afterall, we are all children at heart.

Brightest Tea Blessings!