Many of us are finding creative ways to make a stay-at-home holiday season fun for the whole family.
A tea party is a perfect way to involve children and adults in creating a new holiday tradition. Whether it’s an elegant Christmas Day brunch tea party or a themed tea party such as The Nutcracker, Rudolph or Frosty the Snowman, it’s easy to have fun with all facets of designing your family’s tea party.
Start with having a family “meeting” to come up with a theme or style. Then choose a tea set, place settings and service ware to set the mood. Have the children create personalized invitations for each family member.
Venture outdoors with the family to gather evergreen branches, holly berries, pine cones and other interesting winter vegetation to decorate the invitations, place settings and table décor. Also, choose items from your family’s Christmas decorations to incorporate into the party theme.
Keeping the menu light and healthy is easy when having a tea party. While tea is the star of the show, kid-friendly options could include warm spiced cider or fruit juice, peppermint tea or hot cocoa. Tea sandwiches like egg salad, cream cheese and cucumber, peanut butter and jelly, turkey and cheese or chicken salad are good choices.
Susan Vander Maas is a graduate of Ohio State University/ATI Wooster. She is the owner of Doc’s Deli, established in 2007.
Use Christmas cookie cutters to cut the bread for the tea sandwiches. Make a fruit Christmas tree by attaching small fruit pieces to a Styrofoam tree mold with toothpicks and top the tree with a piece of star fruit. There are endless options for healthy savory bites that kids will enjoy. As for a sweet treat at the end of the party, no Christmas tea party is complete without the Gingerbread cookie.
A tea party is the perfect opportunity to involve your children in the meal planning and preparation process. Help them find clever and creative ways to make Christmas themed bite-sized snacks and desserts. This activity can be used well beyond the tea party and will keep the family entertained and engaged.
It’s fun to come up with imaginative uses for fruit and vegetables, such as Santa hats made out of strawberries, banana Santas, watermelon Christmas trees, Grinch fruit bites, loaded baked potato bites, zucchini pizza bites, etc. Not only will you create lasting memories, but you will also be teaching your children the principles of healthy eating as part of an overall healthy lifestyle!
I wish you the very best creative and healthy Christmas! Have fun in the kitchen!
