Tea Party Birthday Decor
I love mixing colors together for a birthday party. A multi-color palette brings life to the setting. Pick a few colors you love and mix-and-match them throughout your linens, serving ware, and party favors.
Carnations always bring friendly cheer to the table (and are very affordable and long-lasting). The pink flowers represent gratitude, white for good luck, and light red for admiration – perfect birthday wishes for your VIP!
Tea Party Birthday Drinks
Iced tea is a nice beverage to serve year round. Plum Deluxe’s Afternoon High Tea uses a white tea flavored with peach and pear. With just a touch of apricot and a splash of marigold petals, this lightly caffeinated tea is wonderfully refreshing.
For a fun conversation starter, use a custom ice cube tray to make uniquely shaped ice for your drinks, such as really large cubes or ice spheres.
If you’re in the mood for an adult beverage, this Cake Batter Martini is festive and fun. If you’re celebrating with a larger group, you can triple the recipe and refrigerate ahead of time.
Of course, this magical tea party birthday wouldn’t be complete without the Magical Butterfly herbal tea. The secret ingredient is the butterfly pea flower, a vibrant blue flower from Asia that transforms a simple tea drink into a blue concoction.
Tea Party Birthday Lunch
Tea sandwiches are on the menu for this tea party birthday. I’m loving pre-made dips and spreads right now because they make life easy when party prepping and tea sandwich assembly. You can experiment with all sorts of combos of meats, fruits, cheeses, and spreads, such as spinach dip and hummus.
For my party, I kept the sandwiches easy peasy with a nice, thick-sliced roast turkey from the deli on whole grain bread. For my first combo, I used an avocado spread with turkey. For the second sandwich, I used a feta-cucumber spread with turkey and spinach. Cut each one into fours and you have a perfect bite-sized savory nosh.
Some tea sandwiches have even more flavor when you mix the ingredients the night before, like a delicious open-faced Egg Salad Tea Sandwich seasoned with smoky paprika or an Apple Slaw Sandwich made with shaved Brussels sprouts and thinly sliced farm-stand-fresh apples tossed in a honey-lemon vinaigrette. Refrigerate the filling overnight so the flavors have a chance to marinate, then assemble the sandwiches with fresh bread just before your guests arrive.
Tea Party Birthday Desserts
A classic cake and ice cream dessert felt perfect for my birthday party, and when I found this recipe for a No Bake Layered Banana Cheesecake – from our very own Andy Hayes – I was inspired. So, I made my own interpretation of layered cake and ice cream in a clear glass demitasse (small) mug: a Cake and Ice Cream Sundae.
I chose to use some amazing chocolate chocolate chip muffins that are rich, moist, and dense. You can find similar ones at your grocery store, labeled “muffins,” but let’s not kid ourselves – they’re single serving cakes, am I right?
Slicing one muffin into rounds, I used two of the rounds for cake layers in my mug, pressing the first layer to the bottom of the glass to create a solid foundation for my ice cream. I used a knife to “scoop” my organic vanilla bean ice cream because I could spread a flat slice of ice cream on the cake layer better than a round scoop of it. Topped with hot fudge and sprinkles, it made about six bites of the most delicious dessert you can imagine.
Tip: Mix it up to your liking with pre-made cake, cookies, or brownies for this recipe, and get creative with toppings, too!
For a really keen Mason jar cake that would be fun for this party, check out this sweet treat: Upside Down Cake (a la mode, of course!).
Birthday Gifts for Tea Lovers
There are so many gifting ways to say, “Happy Birthday!” and tea gifts are some of my favorites to give and receive. To share your love of tea with a friend who’s a newbie, check out this Tea Starter Set. It’s a tea care package with everything needed to begin a tea addiction adventure. Just add a mug and some hot water!
For the friend who is already
Need more ideas? Here are lots!
Birthday Tea Party Favors
I love a special little giveaway at parties, like a hostess gift, but in reverse – a gift from the host to their guests. Often, I can find pretty teaspoons in my local thrift stores. Beautifully detailed, these treasures are just waiting to be placed in new homes where they can start their next life chapter; you can continue their story by repurposing them as party favors. Or, for a more unique approach, check out these adorable spoons.
Tie a pretty ribbon around the spoon stems, and place them at your guests’ table settings.
For the guest of honor, how about a special tea cup and loose leaf tea? While out thrift store hunting for your teaspoons, pick up a cup and saucer set for your VIP. Have your guests sign a birthday card offering their favorite birthday quotes or inspirational sayings.
Birthday Tea Party Games
One of the best things about getting together with friends is the opportunity for laughter! Playing games has a positive effect on our mental well-being and creates a positive environment for friendship bonding, so definitely include some party games for your tea party birthday.
A Treasure Hunt – This requires pre-planning to write clues and hide objects, but if you want a game that gets your guests out of their seats and having fun with team work, treasure hunts are the best! You can hide prizes around your house, or if the weather is accommodating, use an outside space like a yard or public park.
What’s In the Bag? – For a laugh-inducing game experience, place tea-related or household items in a non-transparent bag and have your guests try to guess what they are by feeling but not looking inside the bag.
Partners in Art – This game is like reverse Pictionary in pairs! One person has an object (hidden from the artist-to-be), or the name of a thing or animal that they have to describe to their partner to draw. The person describing the object cannot say what the object is, only describe what it looks like to their partner while they attempt to draw the object being described.
Your guest of honor will feel special when you throw them a tea party birthday and to have such great friends who celebrate and commemorate the day that they were born!
