Necessary components:

• a savory component
• a sweet component
• tea set
• herbal tea
• sugar
• cream or non-dairy milk

Savory Components

Tea Sandwiches

You can offer an old favorite or take the opportunity to present a new food. Sometimes having things in a new setting can be helpful for acceptance. If it’s a special “tea sandwich”, it might be more appealing than on a normal day. Here are some of our favorites.

• pb&j
• pb & honey
• ham & cheese
• cream cheese & jam
• cream cheese & cucumber (classic!)

Other Sandwichy Things

• croissant sandwich-these are so cute and delicious cut into small pieces
• pinwheel roll up
• cookie cutter sandwich

Bumps on a Log

• Pick Vehicle: celery, apples, toast slices, crackers
• Pick Nut Butter: peanut, almond, cashew, or sunflower seed
• Pick Dried Fruit: raisins (ants), cranberries (fire ants), blueberries (beetles), mango pieces (slugs)

Trail Mix

• favorite cereal
• favorite nuts or seeds (choking hazard until 4)
• dried fruit
• pretzels
• popcorn

Sweet Components

Petit Fours

This is my favorite thing to make a simple tea party seem fancy. My mom and I made these with my nieces and daughter last year. It was such a hit! They are tiny cakes 1 inch by 1 inch cakes with a poured over glaze. They were perfect for our little artistic ladies. They loved having endless amounts of tiny cakes to decorate themselves. We rounded up all the icing tubes and sprinkles we had between the two of us and let them go wild!

Mini Cupcakes

Perfect for smaller hands and mouths. I also recommend doing a simple glaze instead of full icing. It’s much easier for tiny eaters and helps cut down the sugar while still being delicious.

Donuts

We chose to do some gluten free lemon thyme donuts for the tea party pictured. We had tons of lemons on hand, and I love the combination of lemon and fresh herbs. I love adding new flavors to something I know will go over well no matter what. This helps give them positive associations with different flavor combinations that may help them accept something in the future (like my favorite lemon thyme chicken and rice skillet).

Cookies

Simple sugar cookies can be so festive for a tea party. Try flower or sun hat shapes with bright, colorful icing. Half the fun of the tea party is getting all the components ready together. My daughter loves cutting out and decorating sugar cookies. She also loves taking things out of packages and putting them on platters. It doesn’t matter where they come from, as long as you’re doing it together.

Tips for Tea Party Success

• Don’t over complicate it. I usually have one made from scratch component, and use pre-made items for the rest.
• Serve the tea luke warm or iced. In my experience, most kids don’t like hot tea.
• Play classical music. It’s festive and makes everything feel fancy.
• Dress up! Wear your fancy dresses. During COVID times, I feel like we need an excuse to bust out the nice clothes. Go all out with sun hats and jewelry and dress up heels if they’ve got them.
• Use name cards. If you want an element of whimsy, try having your kid make name cards for every one. It will feel fancy and give them a fun craft to do in the days leading up to the shindig.
• We have a real tea set for children, gifted to my daughter from my mom. She loves it and insists we keep it in the china cabinet with the other china. It makes her feel so grown up, and teaches her how to take care of fragile things. I think her favorite aspect of the whole event was adding cream and sugar to her tea from the little serving dishes. We have a Tea With Grace set, but I’m sure there are plenty of other tea sets out there for children.