A Mom’s Guide to Hosting a Fun-Filled Tea Party and Cookie Decorating Event

Valentines always hypes me up, it’s such a fun way to celebrate with our friends and show how we care to those around you. At the start of January I wanted a creative way to celebrate with my girls, create some community with their friends, and of course something with a theme. When we put Christmas in the attic I came across a sweet tea set from when I was a little girl.

When I was little My grandma would always make tea parties super special. When you talk about core memories this was it. I would get dressed up, go outside the house with my large over sized purse and knock on the door as if I was coming over for tea. We would sit on the porch outside and enjoy the Florida weather, sip tea, and she would engage in all my made up stories. Once I found the tea set again I knew this was something I wanted to start bringing to life in my own kids space to create the same fun memories as I had as a kid.

I came up with the idea and I knew it was something I wanted to make special, add to the calendar, and have fun planning to create more core memories with my girls. I have laid out the process for you as well to create your own fun tea party for your home as well.

Planning the Party

1. Plan your guest list: As a homeschool family creating community during the day with our friends is always an easy way to keep learning. We made sure to plan a day for each of our kids to invite 1 friend each to participate in the event and of course schedule with the parents to get the party on the calendar.
2. Order your cookies: Of course this is optional and many ways you can go about doing cookies. Selfishly, I wanted to play with a perfectly made icing too, so I ordered a Cookie kit from The Friendly Fox. My neighbor and sweet friend started this company and I love any opportunity to support a small business. This keeps the pressure off me, and allows me to focus on being present with the kids. She had the entire packet ready with icing, cookies, sprinkles, and made my day less messy. You could also make, bake, and do your own version of cookies too if your schedule allows. Again the easier it is on me as a momma, the better.
3. Whats to Eat: We had our party during lunch so the need for food was definitely on the party list. Here is what we had on hand a few notes to make it feel special on the day.
   • Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhiches: Cut in small squares for tea of course.
   • Fresh Strawberries: Girls washed, cut, and prepared these for the event.
   • Rasberries
   • Tazo Tea in 2 flavors:
   • Milk
   • Sugar
4. Grab your decor and items: I have a few items that are always on hand to grab and make any event special. Here is the list of things we used for the day. The great thing about having basic colors in these items is they can be used for multiple holidays to make any event feel special. I have linked a few ideas to amazon (and no I am not affiliated with Amazon).
   • Red Charter Plates
   • Fresh Flowers: We pick up a set at Costco
   • Red Napkins: Or a themed napkin to pull it together
   • Tea Set
   • Small Spoons
5. Keep it simple: The kids don’t need it super fancy, all of these items we had on hand. Keeping my stress levels low, and the planning simple.

The Party

Again, we homeschool so I didnt prep anything ahead of time. I got the kids involved in doing all the things. These are life skills and they had so much fun making the sandwiches, washing the fruit, giggling, pouring, and using the kurig to make the hot tea. Everyone had their own roll in creating the space, and making it perfect for each other. One of my favorite moments was when My 7 year old did the peanut butter side, her friend did the jelly and once they were both done they counted down… 3,2,1 and pushed the bread pieces together. Add the sweet laughter on the back side of that was just joyous.

1. Prep the food: The kids did all of this, from pouring the milk, filling the sugar bowl, and washing the fruit.
2. Set the table: Make sure they had all the items they needed for the tea party.
3. Get the playlist: I hooked up the bluetooth and said ladies what music would you like. A quick responds was “Can you please put on christian Music”. I think my heart almost exploded.
4. Clean Up: Once they complted the eating, tea party, and ready to move on they moved all the items to the kitchen and cleaned up their space. They then got to play for about 20 min while I did an adult clean
5. Set up the Cookies: I set them up with sprinkles in their own little container making it easy to grab and use. Each child had their own 2 cookies on their charter plate, and we talked about what techniques they could use and how to use the icing packets from
6. Clean Up again
7. Eat the Cookies: They got to decorate 2 cookies, but got to eat one. We saved the extra one for later in the week to relive the memories and talk about how we can love our friends like Jesus does, by inviting them to celebrate with us and planning events with them.
8. Play again: This time we took the extra energy outside for some tree climbing, dirt digging, and bike riding to finish up our play date.

Keep it stress free

Stress is caused by overthinking, perfectionism, and control. So, if you let your guard down, allowing yourself to be present with your kids and create boundaries in the process it will be most fun. First, make a checklist of all the things you need to prepare and delegate tasks to the kids if possible. Next, plan the event well in advance so that you have plenty of time to get everything organized. Have a backup plan in case of any unexpected issues, like when a mess happens. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or delegate tasks, whether it’s asking a one of the moms to bring a lunch dish or delegating cookie decorating to the kids (which we already established this).

Finally, don’t forget to relax and have fun! After all, the goal of the party is to create memories and have a good time with your kids. This is also a great opportunity to speak to the kids on how this also shows the love of Jesus, because he wants us to be in community with others.