How to Host an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party

The key to creating an enchanting tea party based on a classic book is worldbuilding. You'll replicate the most evocative elements of Wonderland right in your own home, so that your guests feel as though they’ve "fallen down the rabbit hole", and landed inside the actual book!

• Themed decorations
• Mismatched dishes, teacups, silverware
• Teapots, sugar bowls, cream pitchers
• Serving platters
• Napkins
• Scones, tea sandwiches & tiny desserts
• A variety of tea in different flavors

To recreate this iconic literary world, you won't need to go out and buy tons of specially-themed items. All you need is to find things around the house that remind you of Alice in Wonderland... like a clock or a playing card featuring the Queen of Hearts.

What belongs in the world of Alice in Wonderland? Think about the images that first come to mind when you hear “Alice in Wonderland.” There’s her blue dress and white headband, the Mad Hatter and his funny hat with the price tag on it, the white rabbit with the big watch, the Queen of Hearts, those card soldiers, the teapot with the mouse in it, the caterpillar smoking on the toadstool … and of course the Cheshire Cat. More generally, you’re probably imagining a sort of springtime setting with grass and trees and flowers, lots of green with pastels. Now hold onto that...

Take a look around with a prop-master’s eye for things that give you that same Alice feeling. You may not have the exact card soldiers from the story, but I’ll bet you have a deck of cards. And you may not have The White Rabbit, but you can probably come up with some kind of bunny, whether it’s a garden statue or even a stuffed animal. And don’t feel like you need the exact pocket watch that the White Rabbit carries around … instead, collect a bunch of clocks.

Combine the items you find with some flowers, pastel table linens, and even some bits of grass, and you'll be well on your way to creating an immersive Wonderland setting.

An eclectic collection of dishware will underscore the springtime whimsy of your theme, so don't worry about finding a perfectly matching set of dishes for all your guests. Instead, collect anything you have in pastel colors, or with a floral pattern. You'll be surprised how lovely they will all look when you arrange them together.

Don't forget to pull out some serving pieces as well for your scones, sandwiches and desserts. If you don't have any traditional tiered plates, you can actually make them by turning a teacup upside down and placing a plate on top of it.

Mismatched teacups will really bring the charm to the party, so plan to use them not only for their intended purpose, but also to serve other food items in as well, such as puddings or ice cream.

If you don't have enough teacups to serve all of your guests, make a quick trip to your local thrift shop where you'll be able to pick up some beautiful cups for just one or two dollars apiece. You can either hang onto these for your next tea party, or turn them into adorable candles when you're done with this party.

You don’t need a fancy dining room, or a special room at all for an Alice in Wonderland tea party. Just choose the space that lends itself best to the size of your party and your color scheme.

You can move furniture to make space near a window and set up some folding tables covered with pretty tablecloths, then carry over all your houseplants to create a lovely garden effect. Or you can pick a spot near some floral curtains or near some shelves where you can display a bunch of teacups, or you can even set up outside if the weather’s cooperating.

The most important thing is to choose a spot where you have room to set up your iconic elements in a central location (sort of as a still life) ... a space where there aren’t too many modern, non-Alice distractions.

This being a tea party, the food and drinks are really the centerpiece of the event.

A traditional tea party generally consists of 3 courses:

1) Scones, with some kind of clotted cream and jam

2) Sandwiches with the crusts cut off

3) Small Sweets

You can bake everything from scratch yourself, but that's pretty time-consuming. Tea parties actually lend themselves to modifying foods that you can find at the local grocery store.

Start by purchasing several varieties of scones. If your local store doesn't have clotted cream, you can substitute creme fraiche, or even cream cheese. Add some jam in some tiny bowls and you're all set.

Tea sandwiches are actually very easy to make, especially if you start with deli salads. You can offer your guests a simple egg salad or tuna salad sandwich, or sliced cucumbers with butter and dill, or even bananas with cream cheese and brown sugar.

Ham salad is a perennial favorite, and here's a little secret ... if you buy ready-made chicken salad at the store, then add a bit of curry powder and some raisins, and you have just made Coronation Chicken Salad, and this delicious sandwich filling is always a hit.

Choose bread that has a very tight crumb to it, cut off the crusts, make the sandwiches and cut them on the diagonal to make triangular pieces. Make these ahead of time, wrap them up really tightly in plastic and keep them in the refrigerator until party time. Sandwiches get dry super fast!

Scoop up your favorite cute, tiny, mini treats from your local grocery or bakery. Look for little one-bite brownies (add jam and fresh raspberries on top), mini cupcakes, tiny tarts, mini cake balls, or even petit fours -- the options are almost unlimited.

All of these items are fairly tricky to make well, so they're the ideal items to let your grocery store bakery handle for you.

You can also offer small chocolates, teacups full of pudding or ice cream, or even small cookies decorated to look like suits of cards. Whatever you choose is certain to be greeted with enthusiasm by your guests!

The secret to throwing a party that runs smoothly is having everything prepared ahead of time, and every detail thought through before the guests arrive. You never want to find yourself in a situation where you suddenly realize you have no sugar, or it didn't even occur to you what to do with the teabags once the guests take them out of their cups.

Sit down and think through exactly how the party is going to run and what things you'll need to have out so the guests never have to ask you for anything. For example, will you be using tea bags, or are you going to steep the tea in a teapot. How do you plan to keep the water hot? How will you dispose of those bags? You might want to have a little dish off to the side specifically for that purpose.

What's going on the table? Obviously, in a tea party setting, if you've got a great tablecloth, start with that, whether it's floral or it's green so it gives you a grass-type background. If you can get ahold of cloth napkins, that's fantastic, or you can just get some cute Alice themed paper napkins.

Think through the obvious stuff: you need a plate, teacup and spoon for everyone. You'll need sugar, lemon, milk, sugar substitute, and your guests will be really happy if you think through potential allergens ahead of time. Maybe you need to have a few gluten free or sugar free options available. Whatever you can think of ahead of time to be prepared for, organize all that ahead of time, so that at the party itself, everyone is amazed at how smoothly it's running!

Depending on your particular guests, you might want to plan an activity or two to round out the party. For example, if you're throwing this party for your mom's birthday, and all your guests are family members who really are just interested in catching up, then you may be better off skipping the reindeer games and just letting the conversation flow naturally.

But, maybe you're hosting a party of young girls whose attention spans are a little shorter. This is the situation where maybe you want to plan a cute craft, to keep everyone busy. Or maybe your guests are all your Millennial friends, and in that case you might want to add a trivia game with prizes just to stretch out the fun.

This is where the internet comes in handy. Take a quick stroll through Pinterest just to see what kinds of crafts other people have done that have Alice in Wonderland themes. Look around to see what kind of craft supplies you have on hand to make this project more affordable for you. Consider making things that guests can take home with them like a bottle that says "Drink Me" or painting a teacup or a plate or something adorable like that. By the same token, the trivia game can be put together fairly easily and cheaply using trivia questions and facts that you find online.

This is optional, but will certainly add a fun and immersive element to your party. You yourself can dress up, or you can ask your guests to dress up. You can ask them to wear authentic Alice costuming, or you can just go with generic tea dresses. You can wear something floral, or plan to wear a dress with a lovely hat and gloves -- anything that you think you and your friends would enjoy.

Adding the extra element of dress up really brings the event into the realm of fantasy. It really makes everyone feel as though they're slipping into another world and essentially that's the fun part of any kind of immersive event.

So many of us read or watch movies or listen to storytelling so we can mentally travel to another place or immerse ourselves in another world... and after the dumpster fire that was 2020, our current world is a place from which a lot of people would like to escape!

Providing an opportunity for your guests to become someone else for a little while is a great way to spread joy, happiness, and positive vibes. Alice in Wonderland is a fantastic theme for this purpose because it's so iconic, so whimsical, and so easy to achieve.

Have a wonderful time in Wonderland!