Teddy Bear Tea Party

Teddy Bear Tea Party: teddy bear party activity ideas, tea party decor, and a tea party menu with links to recipes.

On the weekend my youngest daughter Maddie celebrated her eighth birthday.  Maddie loves few things more than her teddy bear “Cookie”.  He sleeps with her every night, goes on vacation with us, and plays with her everyday.  When it was time for us to decide on a theme for her birthday party this year she enthusiastically requested a Teddy Bear Tea Party!  And it was perfect.  We had such a great time and I'm excited to share all the details with you.

Teddy Bear Tea Party Activities

We had lots of fun teddy bear themed activities that we did with the girls before we got down to the actual tea drinking…well lemonade for the girls.

Guess How Many Gummy Bears

When our little guests arrived we asked them all to guess how many gummy bears were in the jar, a teddy bear twist on a classic party game.  The winner went home with the whole jar and big smile on her face.

Sew Your Own Teddy Bear Ears

Once everyone arrived we got started on a little sewing project, making Teddy Bear Ears.  We did consider making the teddy bear ears out of paper at first, and then we thought maybe the glue gun would be easier.  But since little ones can’t use a hot glue gun, we actually went with sewing them together.  We had lots of adults to help out, and although some of the girls had never sewn before, I think they all enjoyed it.  

We bought brown elastic hairbands, and then each girl cut-out her felt teddy bear ears, inside and out, and stitched them together.  There was lots of needle re-threading, but it went really well.  And they were so, so adorable when they were finished.  Most of the girls wore them for the rest of the party and loved matching their furry friends.

Love Tree

Throughout the party, guests were invited to write down something they loved about Maddie and add it to our Love Tree.  We used some branches, and made the teddy bears out of scrapbook paper and used a cookie cutter for the bear pattern.

Her guests wrote the sweetest things about her, and this tree will be a special keepsake from the party -her grandparents wrote the sweetest things about her too.  Afterwards we put all the little bear notecard into a special box, as a special keepsake from the party.

Watercolour Teddy Bear Portraits

Our next activity was to create a watercolour portrait of your favorite teddy bear.  Maddie took a drawing and watercolour class in the fall, and really enjoyed it so we thought it’d be fun to incorporate into the party.  

We did this activity near the beginning so that the paintings would be dry enough to pop into the little frames and we could send them home in the loot-bags at the end of the party.

Everyone sketched a picture of their bears first, and then added colour in watercolours.  They turned out really sweet.  I picked up the cute little frames at the dollar store, and made sure to pre-cut the watercolour paper to fit before the party.

Teddy Bear Cookie Decorating

After the watercolour paintings we moved on to sugar cookie decorating.  My mom made the sugar cookies the day before, and used a teddy bear cookie cutter to cut them out.  I made some icing -chocolate, pink, white, and aqua and we put out lots of fun sprinkles, jimmies, and coloured sugar.  This activity is always a big hit -at any party, and the girls seemed to love doing it…and licking their fingers.

When they were done, we packaged up these little sweet treats into little cello bags and put them into their favor bags.

Teddy Bear Paper Dolls

The last activity, which we didn’t end up doing because we ran out of time, was to make Teddy Bear Paper Doll Chains.  I’d rather have too many, than not enough things to do at a party, and it might be an idea that you’d like to incorporate into your own annual teddy bear tea parties, so I’m including it here.  I pre-cut and folded the paper, but left them blank so the girls could draw their own bears, with the reminder to make sure that the hands and feet ran off the page, so they’d be connected when they unfolded them.

On the tray were lots of fun things to decorate with, like gem stickers, cupcake liners to make frilly dresses with, googly eyes, and stick-on bows.  We also had scrapbook paper and magazines to cut out of for collage inspired clothing.

Since we used the kitchen table for most of the activities, ahead of the party I put everything we needed for each activity onto its own tray.  This made it easy to put out and then clean-up each activity, and I highly recommend it.

We had a small party of just five little girls, but that meant we could do fun, and more detailed activities like the sewing and painting and it was certainly reflective of Maddie and what she loves to do -she has an artist's heart and loves to create.  

Tea Party Decorations

Maddie wanted the party to have a vintage tea party feel -perfect.  I felt like I had most of the things we needed for the party already.  Last year for a church event I made this pretty rag curtain from vintage sheets, and it set the tone for a pastel colour scheme.

 I just shopped for the sheets at thrift stores, and then ripped them into strips and tied them onto a another piece, along with some pretty ribbons and pieces of lace.  I love how it turned out and it was the perfect backdrop for our dessert table.

The other great decorations for the party were the marquee lights that spelled “tea”.  We picked them up, and thought that after the party we could use them in the kitchen or the dining room to spell “eat”.  Such a fun little detail.

We used the prettiest paper lanterns in the kitchen to bring a little of the pastel vintage feel in there too.  I just loved the pretty floral paper lanterns and we mixed them in with plain ones, doily ones.  They looked wonderful tied to our kitchen light fixture.  Paige helped me hang them for you the party for her little sister.

Tea Pot Vase

On the table in the kitchen, a simple tea party centrepiece -pretty tulips in an old teapot.

Vintage Tea Cups

Maddie decided that she wanted to use vintage teacups for everyone, so we found someone selling off their collection on-line and picked up ten for the party.  We let all our little guests choose one to take home as a party favor.  The girls really loved this detail.  And we heard reports of her friends using their special tea cups at home afterward.

On the food table, we used pretty roses in mason jars for centrepieces.  Pretty and easy.

Tea Party Lunch

Our food for the tea party started with classic tea party fare, little sandwiches.  

Tea Sandwiches

We had egg salad on mini croissants, with lettuce.  Another favourite of ours is chicken salad that cups -find our recipe here.

Despite choosing to have a tea party, our Maddie isn’t really a big fan of sandwiches….so we added a few other things into the savoury mix for her.  I made scotch eggs -see our recipe here and we picked up some sausage rolls at the bakery.  We also had a simple veggies and dip tray.

Scones with Jam and Clotted Cream

You can’t have a tea party without scones, so we made a batch of my easy food processor scones and served them up with butter, jam, and clotted cream.

Teddy Bear Bread Rolls

Maddie’s Grandma occasionally makes bread, so we asked her to make us some teddy bear buns.  They were so, so sweet.  Her Grandma made them, and Maddie added the face details with edible markers.  We served them as part of the tea party.  

We also packed up one for everyone in a cello bag, and included it along  with a bear shaped honey in everyone’s loot bags.  They were so, so adorable, and the kids loved them.

Tea Party Dessert

For dessert, we of course had to have cupcakes, and since it was our chocolate loving Maddie (remember her Chocolate themed Party here) they were of course chocolate.  I found the sweet little silicone cupcake holders a few years ago, and they were perfect for the occasion.

We also made some yummy cookies.  These raspberry almond thumbprint cookies are a favourite around here.  We also make our favourite chocolate chip cookies with shortening.

I wanted to include a little fruit so we served some grapes in mini tea cups.

Of course we had to include some gummy bears at this teddy bear party.

Tea Party Drinks

For drinks we had tea for the grown-ups and bottles of pink lemonade for the kids.

It was a yummy, yummy lunch.  And everyone seemed to love all the tiny, fancy things to try.

With a Teddy Bear Tea Party that’s this sweet, life really is a party.

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