Ready for Spring Birthdays....

Mad Hatter Tea Party

(Inspired by the classic story & movie)

Tea parties are great fun to have and even more so when based on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. Planning one of these can be almost as much fun as actually having one. It is almost limitless to what ideas you can use when creating this party.

First stop has to be you local second hand charity shops, most will have bric’n’brac shelves. Go for teacups, saucers and teapots, maybe even a whole tea set or tiered cake platters... Chintz, vintage and mismatched, even broken or chipped ones are great. The more the merrier. Not only are you supporting a good cause, but this is also great recycling: As these are not family heirlooms you can afford to let your kids play ‘real’ tea party or teddy bears picnics with these afterwards, which they will love you for.

But back to the party. Make your charity finds be the centre piece of your table setting (or you may already have some pieces that can be used) – you can plan the rest round this. Stack up china in a higgledy-piggledy fashion and use cups and saucers as serving bowl/plates or with candles in.

If you have a kiddies tea set then use this as props to introduce different scale of items like in the Alice story.

For the guests, we suggest using the pipii sugarcane plates and bowls and white paper cups, which can be decorated beautifully with our curious decoupage orflower images or alternatively take your inspiration Alice in Wonderland; decorate with red and white roses, chess pieces and/or playing cards, pocket watches and clocks. If possible set your table outside under trees so that you can hang decoration from the branches, but whether inside or out; add colour to the table with Chinese paper lanterns, Chinese fans,cocktail parasols and fairy lights and flowers – real or fake – you can make great tissue paper flowers. For a quicker alternative, you could scatter curious and flower decoupage images on the table. Use our cake toppers for more fun and make straw decorations yourself – look at photos for inspiration and find images in templates.

There is no end to ideas from the Alice in Wonderland story that you could use – we have listed some good fun ones below:

• Use playing cards on the table decoration
• Make sign for the table and round your house saying ‘this way’, ‘that way’,’up’ and ‘down’.
• Make cupcakes with ‘eat me’ on the top
• Make food and drink with labels saying ‘eat me’ and ‘drink me’
• Add more chairs than you need and odd ones to so that guests can move around randomly
• Put a toy mouse in the teapot
• Have a toy rabbit/ hare sitting the table, flamingos dotted around and a Cheshire cat on a branch.
• Your invitation could be from the fish footman and say ‘don’t be late for an important date’.
• Shape your invitations like a playing card, tea bag, teapot or tea cup and include a teabag, playing cards or other stuff with the invite.
• If you have a play tunnel how about using that for the entrance.
• Bake cookies in the shape of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades. You can also use cookie cutters to shape sandwiches.
• Glue the lid on a jar of jam, so nobody is able to open it.

Not so Mad…. Tea Party

If this is all too mad! – just tone down the ideas and you can have a wonderful ‘English afternoon’ tea party with just as much fun. Again, we would suggest your first stop is still at the charity shop for a couple of choice items – there is nothing like the real china to little or big girls – a beautiful teapot or tiered cake platter really does set the scene, decorate withbutterfly or heart garland as well as our beautiful white paper lace bunting – all reusable. Use as many flower as you can find or make to decorate the table. Old fashioned doilies are great and good fun to decorate and for kids too – something to do at the party table.

Keep the colours soft and gentle instead of wild and wacky, so opt for pink spotty candles for the cakes and perhaps using our stylish gold and silver cupcake cases instead of spotty red ones used for the Mad Hatter party. Use the pipii tableware and cups – decorate with decoupage paper images, flowers and butterfly stickers. Tie a flower or butterfly round each serviette, use our cake toppers and cocktail parasols for decorations. You will have a very dainty and magical looking party table.

And how about a little brocade purse for each guest to welcome them to their seat with a name tag inside. Or a fan to cool them down on a very hot day. Both will be loved equally by little ladies.

What to do on the day:

• A hat making workshop, buy old straw ones and make tissue flowers for decoration. Or tell each guest to bring a hat that they would like to decorate.
• A croquet game or just any garden games.
• Chess game or create a huge one for the garden
• Card games.
• Memory game.
• Teddy bears picnic (ask friends to bring their favourite soft toy)
• Play pin the grin on the Cheshire cat.
• Make up an Alice in Wonderland quiz.

Snack and recipe ideas:

• Sandwiches cut into butterfly and heart shaped with cookie cutters
• Chocolate dipped strawberries
• Moorish Chocolate frosted banana muffins
• Delicious chocolate cupcakes with optional chocolate icing
• Delightful lemon cupcakes with strawberry & cream frosting
• Meringues
• Festive Swords
• Butterfly cookies