Y is for Yuletide Tea

 

The holiday season is a lovely time to book an afternoon tea and enjoy a leisurely time with family or friends.  It's also a wonderful time to hold an afternoon tea in your home and here are a few tips from the last one I hosted.

These photos are from my first Christmas Afternoon Tea and Ornament Exchange in 2019.  It was our first year in our new home and I had planned for this to be an annual event.  Sadly, the next few years precluded any gathering like this, first because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then because our house was ripped apart by a year-long kitchen/dining room renovation.  I had hoped to bring the event back in 2023 but recovery from knee surgery was slow so there was no tea that year either.  2024 is on the schedule, however, and I look forward to welcoming my friends to take tea and have a lovely afternoon.

First of all, this is the time to bring out all of your china, holiday if available, but not essential.  I am fortunate to have been collecting Lenox's Holiday pattern for several years and I use it all throughout the month of December.  I would shy away from paper plates as they are sometimes flimsy.  If you want to use disposable products, I would choose a sturdier option available at party supply stores - many of the premium plastic plates have a gold or silver rim trim that is very pretty at the holidays.

Lenox also has matching table linens and I picked up some of these oval runners when I found them on sale.  That's my Nora Fleming napkin holder with the Christmas tree mini.  My local Hallmark store carries a large line of Nora Fleming products and minis.

I split the tea offerings into two rooms - the savory selections were in the kitchen and the sweets were in what we were using as a dining room at the time (now the morning room).  Most of us don't have an unlimited supply of tiered servers so I improvised by using the one large one (three tiers of dinner-size plates) as well as another two plates on another oval runner.  The little ornaments are place card holders, but I made cards to show the sandwich filling on each plate. 

Here are the plates filled with the sandwiches and small phyllo cups with chicken salad.  By far, the most popular was the Olive Nut Spread on the right in the top photo.  It's a dip recipe that I've had for years from Heloise (first published in Good Housekeeping magazine in the 1960s and you can find it here) and it makes an excellent sandwich filling as well.

I set up a coffee station and there was tea and a spiced cider to drink as well.  The festive mat under the mugs and K-cups is one of the drying mats that are so popular.  You can find them on Amazon here and at the holidays, they are usually featured in a festive design.

The sweets table in the dining room featured contemporary tiered servers that I've had for years, they were from Bed Bath and Beyond.  You can see mini mince pies on the center tier on the right and slices of Battenberg cake to the left of that.

Here is the filled sweets table.  I've added chocolate tulip cups with chocolate mousse to the server on the right and on the left we have chocolate cheesecake petit fours, mini fruit tarts, and mini lemon tarts.  All of these new desserts listed here are from the bakery section at Whole Foods.  They do a wonderful selection of mini desserts.  For this table, I used some fun festive plates and a tray to hold the mini forks which were from the entertaining aisle at Party City.  More holiday napkins rounded out the display.

Finally, I put together thank you gifts for each person who attended.  I think there was a small holiday plaque and a mini-loaf of pumpkin bread.  You can also include votives or other small holiday items.

So, a few tips in summary:

You don't need too much decor, your Christmas tree and other holiday decor already set the scene.

A sandwich tip from Mary Berry: The sandwiches can be made the night before, or in the morning before an afternoon event. Butter the bread, fill and stack no more than six sandwiches on top of each other. Put them, uncut, on large trays, cover completely with cling film, then a damp tea towel. Transfer to the fridge. No more than 2 hours before serving, trim the crusts from the bread using a very sharp knife, then cut each sandwich into either 4 triangles or 4 domino (finger) shapes.

You can choose to make the sandwich fillings yourself or turn to your local gourmet market or grocery store to source your sandwich fillings. Trader Joe's has a great selection of chicken and egg salads, as does Whole Foods. I purchased all of my fillings other than the tomato/egg rounds and the olive nut spread that I make every year. You can also add mini quiche - most supermarkets will have a frozen selection to choose from.

Likewise you can prepare the desserts yourself or source them from a local bakery.  The key is small, small cakes, small tarts, small.

I didn't serve scones at this event because it wasn't really a sit down type of afternoon tea.  We did a lot of milling about, admiring and discussing decorations, playing games, getting up and down.  It's easier to balance a plate of tiny sandwiches and desserts than it is to attempt to cut, spread toppings on, and eat a scone.

Thank you gifts are optional.  A good time to look for thank you gift items is when you look for stocking stuffers in the post-holiday sales.  There always seem to be a lot of things you could use at any craft store like Michaels or Joann.

Happy Tea Time Holidays!