By Helen Christa


Holiday tea parties are becoming quite a popular trend among tea lovers. Cups of tea and intimate conversation followed by fresh scones and sweet treats are time-honored afternoon tea traditions perfect for any holiday celebration.

Planning a Mother’s Day Tea is a lovely way to treat your mom, grandmother, or mother-in-law to a memorable afternoon. Bring out your fine linens and floral English tea ware to make this an elegant gathering.

An Easter Tea Party can be fun for children and adults alike. Choose a whimsical bunny theme and use splashes of pastel colors in pink, blue, and green. Many online retailers now carry children’s tea sets and accessories.

St. Patrick’s Day calls for a green-themed tea party complete with shamrock-themed tea ware, and of course, green tea.

Treat a co-worker, secretary, or administrative assistant to a special afternoon during Administrative Professionals Week. Surprise them with English scones, petite sandwiches, and hot tea served in floral cups and saucers.

With so many Christmas china patterns available, a Christmas Tea is a special event to plan with closest friends and family. With your home already decorated for the holidays, add fine linens, tea party food, and cinnamon tea for an unforgettable holiday party.

Celebrate the entrance of spring with a Spring Fling Tea Party. This tea party calls for vases full of colorful spring blooms, floral linens, and floral teacups and saucers. Flowers should adorn the table and the menu. Candied roses can be used to garnish tea cakes and a few drops of red food coloring can be added to tint sugar to pink for a special effect. Floating flowers and candles in a wide glass bowl make a stunning centerpiece on a coffee table or serving tables. Plan your spring tea as an annual gathering to create a new tradition everyone will love.

Plan a tea party to celebrate the special holidays and events in your life. With a lovely presentation, careful menu planning, and special people, your guests will not soon forget about your holiday afternoon teas.

If you are looking for information about tea party themes, go to http://www.theteapartyclub.com for more articles about tea parties. Tea Party Themes

By Shelia Gordon


If you are in charge of planning a baby shower and you have come up with the idea of making it a tea party baby shower then you will have to do a few extra things then you would with a regular baby shower. To start with you are going to have to have all of the invitations printed up tea party style and you can have that done at your local print shop.

Make sure that you specify that it is a tea party baby shower on them, so your guests will know. Then of course you are then going to have to pay a visit to your local baker to decide on what all you are going to be serving at your tea party baby shower in the way of small cakes and pastries.

One idea is to make your own small tea party sandwiches by using a cookie cuter to cut out bread in shapes that go along with your motif or theme of the baby shower. Of course, to have a tea party baby shower you are also going to need all of the serviceware including table clothes and all of that can be had from your local rental outlet.

You will find if you call around that most rental yards that rent tools and equipment also rent out party necessities as well. You are going to have to give away some party favors as well at your event and small boxes of exotic teas are an excellent idea for a tea party baby shower.

Also, one other good idea is to keep some good coffee available for anyone that prefers coffee over tea at your event. Remember that for the mother to be, you should have decaf available in both coffee and tea for your event as well.

Written by Shelia Gordon. Find the latest information on Tea Party Baby Shower Invitation

By Gail Leino


Even though a tea party should be sit down, it should also have some entertaining tea party games to keep the guests awake.

Tea Words:

Before the tea party games start, make up a list of unusual words from the dictionary. You can make each of the words you choose relatable to the theme of tea party if you like. Then create index cards with each word chosen placed on a separate card. Below that word you will place multiple choice options for the definition of said word. You could create an index card for the words, White Tea, with the following: A) A Chinese Tea created for foreigners, B) a tea made from leaves that are specially prepared to preserve the most antioxidants, C) a tea that has hallucenagenic properties. In the case of this word the correct definition would be, B.

Ask each person a word definition in turn and have them guess an answer. However is right at the tea party games gets a point. Keep a tally and the person with the most points is the winner.

Tea Mime:

These silly Tea party games are great to get a laugh out of your guests and it works best at tea parties where everyone knows each other. Write down the names of all the guests on pieces of paper and during the Tea party games have everyone draw a name from a hat. If a person draws their own name at the tea party games he or she must put it back.

Then tell the group that each player will mime the dominate emotion of the person whose name they’ve drawn at the party. If Aunt Joy is really happy then someone would act really happy and the other players at the tea party games would have to guess who the player is imitating.

Fun, fun, is all you‘ll have with these two tea party games for your guests. You never know when you’ll need them so keep the games handy for other impromptu events.

Mrs. Party... Gail Leino takes a common sense approach to planning and organizing events, celebrations and holiday parties with unique ideas for tea party supplies and fun free educational party games. She explains proper etiquette and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Shop has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free holiday printable games and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Party Themes to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or "just because" parties is at the Party Theme Shop. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gail_Leino

By Michelle Bery


Nothing retains the luster of childhood more than a tea party. In the social infancy of our youth we set our tables, put out the perfect set of dishes – commonly small and plastic at that innocent time in our life – and invited all our friends; who if not imaginary were stuffed and furry. We took tea in the realm of fantasy where princes and princesses danced the night away at royal balls and fairies appointed the room with their magic dust.

Today’s tea party – while not so grandiose – still offers its own gift of whimsy. The adult version of this elegant ritual includes real china, fragrant tea, delicious sandwiches and pastries, and company of the human kind. Depending on the culture, the tea party takes many forms – a social ceremony, a reverent custom, a romantic offering, or a daily gathering.

Whatever its purpose, the tea party can be as extravagant or simple, formal or casual as you desire. In any case, tea party guests should always be made to feel special. A carefully chosen tablecloth, beautiful linens, or an heirloom teapot will go a long way towards making your tea party special.

While many use tea bags to brew their tea, loose tea can augment taste and presentation. The addition of strainers or loose tea balls can really make just having tea into a tea party.

Be sure to offer small tea spoons, sugar, milk, honey, and lemon. Additionally, some tea sandwiches or small pastries will really bring your tea party to the next level.

A tea party can be an opportunity to stop for a moment and revisit the simple things in life. That which brought us such joy as children can most certainly be recaptured amidst a beautiful table with delightful delicacies.

But no matter what the offerings – or the occasion – a tea party can be a wonderful way to gather with friends and share a unique experience; no matter what your age.

For easy to understand, in depth information about tea visit our ezGuide 2 tea.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Bery

By Andrew Regan


As the capital of Massachusetts and the largest city in New England, Boston has long been regarded as one of the USA's premier cultural and historical cities. And whether or not you're a history buff, every tourist that visits Boston is made aware of its colonial history and its involvement in the American Revolutionary War. But why not make this historical aspect the focus of your city break in Boston? By exploring the city's main revolutionary sights, you'll definitely be able to get a more authentic feel for America's legacy of independence.

Start your journey at Boston Harbor, the site of the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party saw the American colonists destroy many crates of tea bricks on ships owned by the British East India Company in Boston Harbor, on December 16th 1773. The incident is widely held up by historians as a main trigger of the American Revolution; but one of its more immediate effects was in bringing about the Boston Port Act, which shut down the port until the East India Company was compensated for its loss.

Today, Boston Harbor has been transformed from a bustling commercial port to a leading ferry and leisure area of the city. You'll also be able to visit the Boston Tea Party Museum, located on the Fort Point Channel, which houses a full-scale replica of one of the ships involved in the event. Additionally, Boston Harbor is surrounded by a number of islands, many of which are part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Once you've visited Boston Harbour, take a trip down the Freedom Trail. Marked by a red brick path that runs through downtown Boston, the Freedom Trail takes visitors to sixteen significant historical sites in the city. These include some of Boston's best-known monuments to the American Revolutionary War such as the Bunker Hill Monument, which was erected to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, one of the Revolution's most famous battles.

Paul Revere House is also part of Boston's Freedom Trail, and is the colonial home of the legendary Paul Revere. Revere is famous for his "midnight ride", in which he played the role of a messenger in the battles of Lexington and Concord before serving as an officer during the Revolutionary War, and his home is one of Boston's most visited monuments to the heroes of the American Revolution.

The compact nature of Boston city centre means that you'll be able to find many places to stay in downtown Boston that are just a stone's throw away from its main sights. For instance, locate a hotel in Boston that's in the heart of its historic district and you'll be able to see all of Boston's revolutionary heritage monuments in one weekend - so you won't even have to take a long vacation in order to pay homage to the city that played a crucial role in laying down the foundations of the modern United States.

Andrew Regan is a freelance online journalist

By Vivek Kuriyal

A place where almost everyone surprises you by calling you with your name even you come across them after days. A city which is famous for a historic incident! “Boston Tea Party” if you can recall from your history book. A destination which offers a lot in terms of modern and old heritages, Boston invites tourists from every corner of the world. The highly acclaimed television serial “Cheers” shot in the Bull & Finch Pub also brought fame to this place.

Boston Tea Party ended up giving rise to the first Continental Congress. You also come to know how the murder of five British colonists geared up the American Revolution if you explore the history of this city. Many world renowned literary legends came from Boston and its surrounding areas. Some of the names you can easily recognize: Herman Mellville, Herman Mellville and Ralph Waldo Emerson. One unique fact about the city is that it has a considerably large number of youngsters who grace the city’s bars every night. Boston Hotels welcome their guest with great hospitality.

Known as the “Bean town at the harbor” Boston is the favorite place of people who want to please their taste buds with fish and beans. For most of the tourists Boston largely resembles London. And this is not false when it comes to history and grace of the city. More than 60,000 inhabitants occupy the land of Boston which is eccentric, modern, fashionable and highly cosmopolitan. You find all sorts of modern amenities like shopping arcades, cinemas, theatres and a thrilling nightlife. Just cross the river and you come across the Harvard University at Cambridge. The capital of the state of Massachusetts, Boston comprises of several tourist spots such as capitol building with its famous gold dome.

http://stayresusa.com/hotels-in-boston.html

by Lisa Halvorsen

Although Boston's famous Freedom Trail has been a popular "Beantown" attraction since 1958, this past April a new type of tour debuted to inform visitors about the trail's many historic sites. The Freedom Trail Foundation has developed an Antenna Audio Tour that combines state-of-the-art technology with colorful commentary. Massachusetts personalities describe each of the 16 stops--Old North Church, Paul Revere's house, and the Old State House, among others--along the 2.5- mile trail, as well as spin intriguing tales about people, places, and events in Boston, including the 1950 Brinks Robbery and the Great Molasses Flood.

As an alternative to the walking tour, groups of 20 or more can book the Theater-on-Wheels, a brand-new mini coach tour of movie and TV sites that shows film clips and provides narrative on featured sites in the greater Boston area. Tours range from three hours to a full day. Groups can customize their tour by arranging for lunch, dinner, or drinks at a movie hot spot or by adding on the Fenway Tour, a behind-the scenes look at the Red Sox' home field with commentary on Field of Dreams, Fever Pitch, and other movies and TV shows filmed at the baseball stadium.

Boston By Boat recently began offering weekend ferry service from the Charlestown Shipyard, home of the USS Constitution (free tours Tuesday through Sunday), to South Boston's Seaport District with stops at key points along the waterfront including Lewis Point (Old North Church) and Christopher Columbus Park (Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, and New England Aquarium). For $10 your group can hop on and off all day. (One-way trips are $6.) Your ticket also is good for discounts on food and other purchases at designated restaurants, shops, and attractions.

The Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum, which was severely damaged by fire in 2001, is scheduled to reopen in summer 2006 after an extensive $13 million renovation. The new interpretive center will have twice the exhibit space with many new displays, living history programs, and videos about the Boston Tea Party. The showpiece of the renovated museum will be the Robinson Half Chest, named after the 15-year-old patriot who retrieved it from the water. It was acquired in January from a private collector and is one of only two known surviving tea chests from the Boston Tea Party.

Get more information at Leisuregrouptravel.com and Grouptravedirectory.com