Host Your Own Anne of Green Gables Tea Party

Who cannot love the little orphan Anne of Green Gables? Her caring, vivacious and imaginative personality warms us, causes us to laugh and captures our hearts.

Today I want to share with you ideas we had for an Anne of Green Gables Tea Party.

In hostessing this party, Serenity first made her invitations. She found a picture of Anne online and placed that on the front of her invitations. Inside the invite she wrote:

You’re invited to an afternoon of fun, friendship and tea in the spirit of Anne of Green Gables!

Don’t be scared off this time. I know it’s Raspberry Cordial! Also, please be prepared to do a dramatic poem reading.

Serenity had her brother make a sign so that when they walked under the tents they made the correlation of the tea party with Anne of Green Gables. It worked out perfectly that the tent’s canopies were already green.

We purchased the artificial flowers to go in the vases but the rest of the decorations were things we had around the house which you can see more of at this post. Serenity fixed up about 4 or 5 of these vases.

I just love these glass plates which a friend gave to me. She bought them at an antique store and there were 14 of them.

Serenity had made name cards for everyone but since it was breezy she had to place them under the punch cups. She also made tea favors (bookmarks). She placed them on the right side of the plate. Here’s a close-up of the favor.

She covered each bookmark she printed off with packaging tape on the front and back.

For the food we made…

Oops! I see she left off Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches which is a good thing to have when there are small children.

Some of the recipes came from this book…

There were also quotes inside the cookbook from the Anne of Green Gables books.

Serenity typed up several of these that were pertinent to the recipe I had made from the book. I read the quotes to the kids since I didn’t think they would take the time to read it themselves.

One quote we used was: “Everything went right until I saw Marilla coming with the plum pudding in one hand the the pitcher of pudding sauce, warmed up, in the other. Diana, that was a terrible moment. I remembered everything and I just stood up in my place and shrieked out, ‘Marilla, you mustn’t use that pudding sauce. There was a mouse drowned in it. I forgot to tell you before.’ Oh, Diana, I shall never forget that awful moment if I live to be a hundred.” Anne of Green Gables XVI

We played some games – the 3-Legged Race, Musical Chairs and the egg in the spoon relay – which did not work out at all, by the way.

Serenity’s idea was to eat in the back yard and then walk from the back, around to the front so that when they entered in at the front door they would see this…

After entering, the children helped themselves to tea and cookies and then found their seats in the hotel.

Serenity had a very creative script prepared.

She welcomed them to the Puffed Sleeve Society (remember Anne’s dream was to have a puffed sleeve dress) and to the fundraiser. In her script she wrote that The Puffed Sleeve Society had been raising money so that every child could realize the dream of owning their very own puffed sleeve dress and that this event at the White Sands Hotel was the culmination. After saying a few more words she temporarily lost control, raising her hands and shouting “PUFFED SLEEVES! PUFFED SLEEVES!” She then apologized for losing control and turned the gathering over to Miss Heather.

Miss Heather announced each child as they came up to do their dramatic poem reading. Serenity had wrote something unique for each person. For example, one child really likes to draw so she had them introduced as a famous artist who’s paintings of Prince Edward Island are well-loved and sought after. This was fun for the kids because they wondered what would be said about them.

Serenity read The Highwayman (only the parts Anne had recited at the White Sands Hotel) and did an incredible job. She had memorized it and was very dramatic in her recitation.

The dramatic poem readings was the last thing of the day and ended our tea party.

I hope this is helpful to someone else. I have always wanted to have a tea party but felt intimidated. I felt everything had to be done just right – it had to be so perfect. With Serenity planning one I had to face my apprehensions. What did I learn? It wasn’t that bad – especially when it’s for children. You might want to make note, too, that the peanut butter & jelly sandwiches were a must. Kids just don’t see cucumber sandwiches the way adults do!