Happy Mother's Day! When planning your
events for the month, you might want to consider hosting a Mother's Day Tea,
but add a special twist to it with a program about High Tea. Sometimes you
don't have to think too far outside the (tea) box to have a special lunch for
Moms. The guests are coming to a Tea Party and enjoy drinking tea. So share the
story of tea!
I will tell you that when I hosted this
party, it was not my idea to start with exactly. Having the party and focusing
on the tea aspect came about because I had a resident who came into my office
with a problem. She wanted to host a party for a few of her friends but was
concerned that she might offend someone that she would forgot to invite, and if
the party got to big, she would not be able to afford to do it properly. She
shared with me that she had talked about teas in the past and was going to
present a "little talk" as a part of her party. After a few
discussions with her, we came to the conclusion that I would run it through my
department as an activity and bring her in as my "guest speaker." She
agreed and left happy. (Read more about successful Resident
Run Programs.)
As the Mother's Day Tea came closer, I
learned that my tea-expect resident had taken the ball and ran with it! She had
gotten the community very excited. She encouraged the ladies to sign up and to
wear a hat when they came to the tea. She helped me select the proper teas and
food that she wanted for the day so that they would tie into her talk, and she
and her husband created special tea-pot shaped name tags.
The event went well overall. The room was
set up with round tables, with 7 chairs per table. We had a table for name tags
at the door. My resident "guest" speaker had asked a few ladies to
help her at the table because the tea-pot shaped name tags were the pin-on
style. They were in baskets in alphabetical order. The distribution of the name
tags was the biggest hurdle because the residents came in to fast and the line
became too long at the table. Next time, I would encourage the volunteers to
use a longer table and lay out the name tags. They didn't want to do that when
I suggested it to them. I would also make it so that they could be helped
from both sides of the table. I would also relocate the ladies helping to pin
on the tags away from the table. In other words, hand them the tag at the table
and ask them to go to the volunteer located in another area to get assistance
if they needed it. In this case, in order to expedite the long line, I invited
guests to be seated and then brought the name tags to each person that didn't
get one.
The meal was wonderful. The culinary
department made a beautiful looking plate featuring ham salad, egg salad,
chicken salad and cucumber tea sandwiches. Cucumber was a must-have as a part of
the tea presentation talk. The plate was nicely garnished with strawberries,
blackberries, kiwi and edible orchids. In order to reduce the need for culinary
staff help, the plates were pre-set, along with clotted cream, strawberry
preserves, scones and petit fours.
Besides the preset lunch plate, the tables
also had a lovely center piece that I made using fresh flowers and tea pots.
Our community owns a wide variety of unique tea pots. They have been given to
us by residents in the past. If that is not the case in your community,
determine how many you will need and ask your residents for them. You may want
to gather a few extras in case so you options as to the ones you put out, and
because some pots might work better for the flowers that you buy than others.
As for the program, I turned the
microphone over to my resident guest speaker. She talked about the history of
tea, about the cucumber sandwiches and more. If you don't have a resident who
has this special interest, you may find a staff member, a person from the
outside community, or even an owner of a local tea house in your area who may
want to share their passion with your guests.
p.s If you'd rather host a fashion show
instead, I have a good timeline for organizing one at my article about fashion
shows.
