During the long stretch between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day, it can seem like winter will never end. Brighten a cold afternoon with a Winter Fantasy tea party, reminding guests of the beauty of the winter landscape, while you warm them with your hospitality.
Choose invitations with wintry scenes, and ask guests to wear a favorite woolen scarf to the party. Each guest can also contribute a candle to a “fireplace” you’ll build on a tray lined with aluminum foil. Set the tray where you can admire the flames ( at a safe distance from drafts and loose hanging drapery.)
Think snow and ice as you plan your decorations: lots of white linen, lace, and china, and all your best silver. Place votive candles on small mirrors down the center of a long table, alternating with cut glass dishes of jewel-toned jellies and jams. Set places for a sit-down formal afternoon tea, giving each guest a napkin tied with an elegant strip of lace. Prepare a place card for individual guests, decorated with snowflake designs or real white feathers. Make cards with the names of each dish and type of tea you are serving.
Spray-paint winter branches white, and stand them around the room in clear glass jars tied with white satin ribbons. Drape white gauze around pictures and windows. Blanket windowsills with more white gauze, nestling pine cones into the folds. Line metal baskets with paper doilies, and fill them with candies wrapped in silver paper.
If you’re lucky enough to have a snowfall after you send out invitations, collect fresh, clean snow and store it in your freezer in plastic bags. You’ll be able to serve authentic snow cones in champagne or wine glasses, drizzling them with berry preserves thinned with ice water. (your guests will love this!) If snow is not a possibility consider creating “snow balls” out of round scoops of vanilla ice cream rolled in coconut and served on a brilliant silver dish.
Soft classical music will round out the mood. Mozart, Bach, and Handel are always in season. Choir music and English madrigals bring the warm of the human voice into your party.
To break the ice, ask guests to each share a story about a time when they were unusually cold. Make sure the room is warm and cozy, and that everyone’s cup is filled with steaming tea as they remember colder times. Then go around the tables once more, asking each person one thing they like about spring.
Management Suggestions:
- Activities will play an important roll in this winter themed teatime. Consider reading poems about snow or history on winter related customs in a variety of other countries.
- Place winter related poems on each tea cup and ask your guests to share read their quote out loud to their table mates.
- Bring in an interesting story teller who can weave a tale of intrigue and suspense.
- Be sure to give your guests at least 1 block of 20 minutes to chat amongst their table.
- An “ice-breaker” is a necessity if you seat unacquainted guests at the same table. Consider a simple game which each table can participate in.
Menu Suggestions:
- Vanilla-scented black tea, ginger tea, smoky formosa oolong
- Small bacon quiches
- Pear and Stilton cheese sandwiches
- Cream cheese and spiced currants on date-nut bread
- Cinnamon rolls
- Toasted English muffins with assorted jellies and jams
- Hot fruit tarts with vanilla ice cream
- Chocolate torte sprinkled with confectioners sugar
- Snow cones, if real snow is available
About Dawnya Sasse
