Tea parties and tea party games are a traditional children’s pastime that should never be forgotten. Some of the best basic tea party games for a small group of children are:
Fancy Party Teddy Bear Hats
This can be done as cheaply or pricey as the supplies you wish to buy, every child should be encouraged to bring their best stuffed friend, but have a few extra’s that can be borrowed incase anyone has forgotten, then supply party hats to decorate with lots of streamers and construction paper, or you can buy small straw hats and fake flowers to decorate them with at your local craft store. The bear friends should be feeling beautiful in their new hats leading to the next part of the party.
Dress up
Dress Up is an essential tea party game. If your child doesn’t already have a dress up trunk full of pretty baubles, it fun to head to a local thrift store with your child to pick up a nice selection of satin and sequined gowns and a few necklaces. Play silks make great tea party dresses and can be used for any myriad of other things your child can imagine so make a great toy investment as well. By now your guests will be getting hungry, a great way to move to the actual tea party is by
Decorating Lady Fingers
Or cupcakes or cookies with sprinkles or icing or food markers, this is always a fun tea party game and only has to be as messy as you can stand. Cooking whatever you wish to decorate beforehand is the best way to go so all you have to do is pull them out. This keeps the kids from fighting over who gets to help next as well. Next you can
Set the table
This is important in letting the kids feel grown up. Let them carry the pretty breakable tea cups and saucers to the table; you probably don’t want to use your good china. While they set the table, using cloth napkins and a centerpiece also makes the kids feel special, it is a great time to play a little tea party game called
Proper Party Etiquette
Explaining that at fancy parties you sit quietly in your chairs, set your napkins on your laps, always say please and thank you is not only a fun way to pretend to be a grown up but also sets up a platform for good manners throughout life. Now you can help serve the tea and snacks if anything is hot or heavy.
After the snacks the kids will probably be ready for some more active games, some classic suggestions are:
A treasure hunt; the treasure could be mardi gras beads or a toy cup and saucer etc.
Pass the teddy; hot potato using a teddy bear. Play music as the bear is passed in a circle and when the music is stopped whoever has the bear is out.
Musical Teddy Chairs; play music as the children walk around a circle of chairs totaling one less than the number of children then when the music stops everyone scrambles to put their teddy on a chair, whomever doesn’t get to a chair is out and one chair is also removed for the next round.
A tea party is a great time to introduce all the fun games you used to play or your parents played as children such as freeze tag, blob tag, hide and go seek, fox and chickens. The FoxFire book series is a great place to find the rules to these and other classic children’s games. Non competitive tea party games are also a great idea especially for smaller kids who don’t understand or take well when they are the losing party. Some examples of these would be the treasure hunt, or having the kids work together to untie knots in a rope as fast as possible. Haba a German board game manufacturer and a few other companies offer several beautiful cooperative board games that children love to play. Don’t forget that some of the best tea party games are the ones that the kids make up themselves, leave time for them to have imagination time in their beautiful tea party dresses and sit back, have a cup of tea yourself, and take a moment to watch them play.
