Victorian Ladies

Victorian Ladies

How to Host A Victorian Tea Party Ideas

How To Host A Victorian Tea Party Ideas Recipes Hosting A Victorian Tea Party Planning Ideas Recipes

Tea parties are quite popular now & people always comment on how they like mine so I thought I would share some of my ideas with you. A Victorian Tea Party would be the most elegant of all. Everything in Victorian times was done lavishly. So break out your grandmothers china, silver, crystal & serving pieces. The fancier the better. Of course if you have a truly prized possession that would break your heart if it was damaged, please don't use for the party. Accidents do happen! Before you get your house ready & prepare your food, you have to send out invitations.

INVITATION IDEAS

 There are so many options here. With today's computer programs you can make some beautiful ones at home. Tuck an actual tea bagin the invitation. Perhaps make some using paper doilies& scrapbooking supplies.

DECORATING & SERVING

You will want to make the house as pretty as possible.  Fresh flowers are a must, use them everywhere. I had a birthday tea in early June & I put vases of peonies everywhere, they are beautiful. Use traditional vases, or teapots that no longer have lids. Sometimes you can find then for a bargain since they no longer have a lid! Use candles both tapers & scattered votives or tea lights. I use some of those fancy shaped Christmas light that are sold now in all kinds of shapes. I have some pretty heart ones & some flower ones & even some dragonfly lights Play soft music in the background. There are even tea party music  CD's you can purchase. For tablecloth try lace or damask.  Scatter silk rose petals on your table. Use real linens or fancy paper napkins. I found some monogrammed napkins at an antique store in California last year. They were inexpensive I guess because not too many people have an "O" monogram. Here is a picture of one with our heirloom "O" ware from my husbands Grandma.

 

For Serving Pieces You Will Need At Least Some of the Following

      Teapot Silver Or China 
      Sugar & Creamer
      Salt & Pepper Shakers

      Water Pitcher
      Various Serving Trays
      Tole Tray
      China Serving Platters
      Silver Serving Pieces
      Crystal Serving Pieces
      Crystal Plates
      Crystal Bowls
      Silverware
      Pedestal Cake Plates
      Porcelain or China Teacups
      Pretty Plates(mix & match is OK)
      Jam or Jelly Serving Jar
      Denitasse or Fancy Spoons

You don't need to spend a lot of money. You can find some great bargains at your local thrift stores, flea markets & antique malls. Here is some of what I use.

Mix & Match is Definitely OK for teacups & saucers. Even mismatched sets are OK. Some I have been given as gifts, but most are from estate sales or thrift stores. I have at least 24 mix & match cups & saucers. The there are those that match my several sets of china!

I love the pedestal cake plates or the tiered serving pieces. The middle glass tiered dish & the metal one back right I purchased at the Salvation Army. The Hobnail cake plate I bought for $1. It has a repair on the pedestal part , but I cover with appropriate fancy ribbon! Sitting atop the hobnail cake plate is an Early American pressed Glass candy dish. It is a Bryce Highbee V in Heart Pattern from the late 1800's. I found it for $2.99 at my Salvation Army Store! Just a couple of months ago! Be sure you use lots of scented candles, be creative with your candle holders. Use paper or lace doilies under or on your serving pieces.

 

Sorry I wish this picture was a bit clearer. There are cute silver teapot salt & pepper shakers & a darling  green heart shaped toothpick holder.  Be sure you have a nice glass or crystal on hand for water. Maybe not all of your guests drink tea.

       To use for serving sugar or with teacups, or as party favors, be sure to see some of the demitasse spoons I sell. Aren't they sweet! Tie them up to a tea bag with a little satin ribbon & you have a darling tea party favor. If you can find some bargains, give each guest a fancy teacup to take home.

   YUMMY  FOOD TO SERVE

Offer your guests a variety of tea flavors. I leave them out in a lined basket. It is fun to use decorated sugar cubes & sugar tongs too!

TEA SANDWICHES

There are many varieties of tea sandwiches you can serve. Try to find a firmer style bread, cut the crust off & cut sandwiches either diagonally so you have 2 triangle sandwiches or in 4's for a bit smaller sandwiches. Cucumber sandwiches have long been a tea party tradition. This is an easy one that everyone likes. Just spread softened cream cheese on bread & top with thinly sliced cucumbers. Simple. For a fall or Christmas time tea try turkey & cranberry sauce sandwiches. Use your favorite egg salad or chicken salad recipe. try adding sliced almonds to your chicken salad recipe, yum! For other fillings you can use, watercress, tomatoes, cheese, deli meats, smoked salmon or ham salad. For Children spread softened cream cheese on bread & top with jelly, cut with cookie cutter. On top of the sandwich spread just a bit of softened cream cheese & dust with sprinkles! Here's mine:

SCONES  BISCUITS  COOKIES & CAKES 

You cannot have a Victorian Tea Party without scones.  You can find a variety of scone recipes on the internet. I have used scone mixes before as well. If you have a Panera Bread Store in your area, they have wonderful orange scones. You might like to have traditional devonshire cream, lemon curd or jelly or jams for your scones & biscuits.

Lemon Curd Recipe:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1 cup sugar

Mix together melted butter & sugar. Add well beaten eggs & lemon juice. Place in double boiler or over simmering water. Stir continuously for 15 minutes or until thick. Allow to cool & refrigerate. Will keep for about 2 weeks.

Cupcakes are fun for tea parties. Be sure to see all or great cupcake baking accessories. Liners, wrappers, toppers, complete cupcake sets.

CUPCAKE Baking Liners Wrapper Picks Toppers Party

 

Traditional Tea Cakes Recipe:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• milk
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Caraway seeds

Mix all ingredients together, mix to paste with a little warm milk, cover with a cloth and let stand for about an hour in a warm place. Roll out cut with round or shaped cutter & bake on lightly greased or sprayed sheet at 350 degrees until they are golden brown.

For other treats serve a variety of breads, cakes & cookies.Serve sliced banana bread, shortbread cookies, your favorite holiday cookies, lady fingers, lemon cookies or biscuits, orange cake, peach or strawberry tarts or tartlets, petit fors, applesauce cake, brownies or fudge, carrot cake, gingerbread, or tiny cupcakes.

TEA PARTY THEMES

Do you need an excuse to have a Victorian Tea Party?? Next time you host a baby or bridal shower, make it a tea party, a birthday party for a friend, a Christmas tea is always beautiful. Host one for your ladies group at church or ladies Bible study. Celebrate an anniversary, invite over your grandma, or granddaughters, let your little girl invite her friends for a fancy dress up day! Combine a tea party with an etiquette class, have a garden tea party in the summer, and of course there is always Valentine's Day, my favorite.

Having A Fairy Princess Tea Party?
Check Out This Too Cute Castle Cake at The Betty Crocker Website

I hope you enjoyed reading & have a wonderful time at your party!

 

About the Author

http://www.nanaluluslinensandhandkerchiefs.com/

What would a Victorian girl/teen have acted like?

The upper class or upper middle class ones.

What would their manners have been like? I am really interested in the Victorian era especially for girls in their teens like me.

I want to know how they would have been the same as modern girls and what would have been different?

I want to be more of a proper young lady with Victorian influences!!

Teenagers of both sexes would be expected to be respectful to older people (not just men, as an answer above claims). Well brought up teenage girls would not be expected to swear, and probably would not hear swear words very often anyway, since gentlemen never swore in front of ladies.

Victorian girls might be educated at home by a governess, or the might go to school. There were boarding schools for girls like Roedean and Cheltenham Ladies College where girls would get a similar academic education to boys, and where they would play team games like hockey and lacrossse. Some exceptionally clever girls might go to university.

Most girls learnt to play the piano, so they could entertain themselves and their famlies and friends. Sketching and painting were popular, as was sewing. They would enjoy going out walking and playing tennis and croquet. If they lived in the country they might enjoy horseriding. Sea bathing was popular, people bathed from bathing machines that were towed into the sea. Men and women generally bathed seperately, some beaches were completely segregated.

Teenage girls would enjoy socialising with their friends at parties and dances. When they were about seventeen or eighteen they would 'come out' and start attending grown up dances. At a dance, young men woud queue up to write their names in girls' dance programmes. A girl was not supposed to dance more than three times with the same man.

Mixed social gatherings were generally chaperoned, young girls were not generally left alone with young men. At a party or dance a girl might cease an opportunity for some private conversation by going out into the garden or into an unoccupied room perhaps, but generally there were people keeping an eye on young girls. Agatha Christie wrote in her autobiography:

"Everyone made apoint of being kind to young girls. They asked them to house parties, and they arranged pleasant theatre evenings for them. You could rely on all your friends to rally round. Girls went otu to dances and met all kinds of young men.

The art of flirtation is lost nowadays but then it was in full swing and as an approximation, I think, to what the old troubadours called 'le pays tendre'. It is a good introduction to life, the half-sentimental half-romantic attachment that grows up between girls and boys. It teaches them something of life and of each other, without having to pay too violent or disillusioning a price.

Sexual attachements would have been difficult to enter into, because young men had a high opinion of young girls, and adverse public opinion would have affected them as well as the girls. Men had their sexual fun with married women, usually a good deal older than themselves, or else with 'little friends' in London about whom no one was suppossed to know.

Those were still great days for the purity of young girls. I do not think we felt in the least repressed because of it. Romantic friendships, tinged certainly with sex or the possibility of sex, satisfied us completely. Never again, after your youth, do you have that particular feeling; the excitement of friendship with a man; that sense of being in affinity, of likng the same things, of the other one saying what you have just been thinking.'

Lower middle class girls might have to work when they left school, some girls became teachers or nurses, and in the late Victorian era some girls were working in offices as typists or secretaries, or they became telephonists.

Upper middle class and upper classs girls though would generally expect to stay at home until they married. In her autobiography Agatha Christie wrote:

"In fact I only contemplated one thing - a happy marriage. About that I had complete self-asurance - as all my friends did. We were conscious of all the happiness that awaited us. We looked forward to love, to being looked after, cherished and admired, and we intended to get our own way in the things that were important to us, while at the same time putting our husband's life, career and successs before all, as was our proud duty. We didn't need pep pills or sedatives; we had belief and joy in life. We had our own personal disappointments - moments of unhappinesss - but on the whole life was fun.

Of course there were always girls who declared they were not going to marry, usually for some noble reason. Possibly they wished to become nuns or to nurse lepers, to do something grand and important, above all self-sacrificial. I thinkit was almost a necessary phase. A hospital nurse wass also considred a heroic way of life, with all the prestige of MIss Nightingale behind it. But marriage wass the main theme; whom you were going to marry the big question in life.'

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