Nutcracker Tea Party

Visit the land of sweets for this Nutcracker themed tea party. It's the perfect party for anyone who loves the classic Christmas ballet. We've got ideas for themed food and decorations.

Jump to:

• Why We Love This Party
• The Nutcracker Themed Party Decorations
• Nutcracker Place Settings
• The Food
• Tea Sandwiches
• The Dessert Table
• Frequently Asked Questions
• More Christmas Entertaining Inspiration

A Nutcracker Tea Party...what little girl's Christmas dreams are made of! This weekend I had a little Nutcracker Tea Party for my girls, my best friend, and her two little girls. It was pink and pretty, and full of treats -just as a Nutcracker Tea Party should be. 😉 We attended the broadcast of a live version at our local movie theater, it would also be great after seeing a live version or watching Disney’s the Nutcracker movie at home, or the Barbie version for very little ones.

We love a good tea party. Be sure to check out all our tips for hosting a tea party for adults here. And this Christmas themed tea party is perfect for the holiday season.

I had so much fun putting this together, and I'm so excited to share it with you. My friend Heather takes her girls every holiday season to see the Nutcracker at the movie theatre. They get dressed up and watch the Nutcracker being performed in Russia or London all from the comfort of the local movie theatre, for the price of a movie theatre ticket, and with the added bonus of popcorn! If you're interested check out if it's available at a local movie theater near you. This year we joined them, and I suggested a little nutcracker party to go with it.

I really loved creating it, and might have even gone a tiny bit overboard...but what can I say, you know we love a theme around here, and a nutcracker theme is really perfect for a holiday party.

The Nutcracker Themed Party Decorations

Let me start with the table all set for party guests. We set up the cozy little party in the kitchen. I actually did a Christmas Nutcracker themed Bedroom for my daughter years ago, and I still had all the things tucked in a box with other Christmas decorations in the basement. That set the colour scheme for the party -pink and aqua, and I mixed in lots of gold and silver with it.

• pink tulle 
• pink, aqua, gold and silver Christmas trees
• twinkle lights
• candles
• hand painted nutcrackers
• stuffed mice
• bowls of candy

I picked up some pink tulle at the fabric store and used it as a table runner.  It seemed the perfect way to dress the table for a ballet themed party, and reminded me of the ballerinas beautiful pink tutus.

Then I layered on all sorts of little Christmas trees in pastel colors like pink, aqua, gold, and silver. I also used some candles for sparkle, and a string of gold lights. 

This table was all about more pretty things to look at, not minimalist in the least. There's also a garland of sparkly stars in there, and then a bunch of pretty nutcrackers and a little army of stuffed mice.

The nutcrackers were a paint your own set, so we just painted them in pink and aqua which worked perfectly with our pink and aqua color palette. My daughter made these ones years ago, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw the little faces she had painted on them when she was little. This would be a really fun craft to do at the party as well, if you were looking for a party activity, everyone could paint their own nutcracker.

The mice are from Ikea, and they made the perfect little mouse king army.

Nutcracker Place Settings

I set the table with some pretty snowflake plates, the perfect nutcracker napkins and some fun little Christmas crackers. The Nutcracker is such a popular Christmas party theme that it's easy to find party supplies like themed napkins.

At each place setting I used some pretty pink tea cups for our tea and found the cutest little nutcracker chocolates as well. The chocolates would also be great party favors too.

• snowflake plates
• Nutcracker napkins
• Christmas crackers
• pink teacups
• Nutcracker chocolates

The Food

Tea Sandwiches

We started out with some traditional tea party fare -little tea sandwiches and some veggies and dip (in a vain attempt to not just fill the children with sweets).

I made my usual tea sandwiches -egg salad on mini croissants, chicken salad in toast cups -see my recipe here, and cucumber sandwiches.

• egg salad on mini croissants
• chicken salad toast cups
• cucumber sandwiches
• pickles
• nuts

Since it was the nutcracker, I thought some nuts were in order, and offered some pistachios in one of my milk glass containers.

The Sweets

I also had some snowflake chocolate covered pretzels, and some snowflake gummy candies in pretty milk glass containers.

I wanted the food to follow our theme somewhat, so this is where I really had some fun.

• chocolate covered "snowflake" pretzels
• snowflake gummy candies
• sugarplum pastries
• snowflake sugar cookies
• chocolate dipped pink wafer cookies
• mouse king chocolates
• marshmallow sugarplum fairy wands

Sugarplum Pastries

I wanted to have something "sugar plum" inspired by the sugar plum fairy, and I came up with the idea of sugar plum pastries. I had hoped to use some plum jam with puff pastry, but unfortunately I couldn't find any. 

So I looked for some jarred plums and discovered that prunes are dried plums. I bought a jar of stewed prunes and cooked them down with some sugar into a jam. 

Then I used it as the filling for these little sugar-plum pastries, and sprinkled them with coarse sugar. They were pretty yummy.

My girls made and decorated some delicious snowflake sugar cookies.

I also made some easy chocolate dipped wafer cookies with strawberry wafer cookies dipped in pink chocolate with some snowflake sprinkles.

Mouse King Chocolates

For the mouse king we made the most adorable mice chocolates.

We dipped a maraschino cherry with a stem into chocolate and let it set, then added a Hershey kiss, and two little ears made from sliced almonds. There were quite easy to make and so, so cute!

Marshmallow Sugar Plum Fairy Wands

We made some homemade marshmallows too, and used them a couple different ways for the party. I cut some of the white ones into snowflakes and used a candy stick and some edible glitter to turn them into sugarplum fairy wands.

These marshmallow wands are so fun, and perfect for stirring hot chocolate. There were lots of desserts and sweets on the table, but there was also a little dessert table at the side.

The Dessert Table

I made the back drop for the little dessert table by hanging some paper stars and paper decorations. 

Beneath that was the pretty snowflake ballerinas. I used this tutorial to make them and strung them onto some tassel garland to hang them up.

Under the ballerinas I hung a little "Dream" banner that I made on my cricut out of gold glitter card stock. Since the nutcracker is all part of Clara's dream, it seemed like the large nutcracker was perfect. If you had a nutcracker collection this would be a great place to include them as decor.

I added more Christmas trees to this spot and in the larger one is a group of mice, including the mouse King himself, in his little felt crown.

This little area was full of more sweet treats.

Ballerina Marshmallow Pops

I used more of the homemade marshmallows to make some ballerina marshmallow pops. I dipped the homemade marshmallows into some pink chocolate and added some sprinkles. The ballerinas tutu is a small cupcake liner.

Ballerina Cupcakes

I also made some ballerina cupcakes.

We made simple vanilla cupcakes and then added gold sprinkles and the sweetest ballerina cupcake cake toppers.

We uploaded a ballerina silhouette and used the Cricut machine to cut them out. Then I hot glued a little tulle on for the skirt, and attached them to a toothpick to make the cupcake cake topper. These would be a great alternative to a birthday cake if you were celebrating a birthday party with a Nutcracker themed party.

One more fun detail was using a little ballerina jewelry box to serve some candies. I wound her up and she danced as we ate sweets.

Sugar Cookie Houses

One the sweet table there was also a little group of sugar cookie houses that my girls made.

I'm not really a big gingerbread fan, so I love the idea of sugar cookie houses as an alternative, and they couldn't be cuter in their pink and aqua.

Making Christmas Memories

This little party truly was like a visit to the land of sweets right out of the four realms, and so much fun. I loved seeing the girls faces when they all saw it. And they were so adorable all dressed up in their fancy Christmas dresses discussing the ballet and enjoying their treats -making special Christmas memories, and happy holidays. This really is a great theme for any holiday get together.

I had such a fun time planning this party it may have to become a yearly tradition!

Frequently Asked Questions

More Christmas Entertaining Inspiration

If you try this Nutcracker Tea Party or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!