Host a Halloween Themed Tea for Mothers and Tots, Or…

Not everyone celebrates Halloween so here is a Halloween theme tea that can be changed around a bit to be a Thanksgiving or autumn-theme tea instead.

If you have enough room, make two tables for the tea - one for the kids, with the older kids supervising the younger. That table would have paper plates and cups and be decorated with bright Halloween or fall colors.

Then, set a fancy "ladies tea table" set with nice linen, crystal, and china, using fall colors for your decorating. If this is in a dining room with a chandelier, you can hang a large spider web, with spiders, from this. (I did this over my buffet table last year and it was a real hit.)

Make fun finger foods. Paint orange iced pumpkins on top of spice or sugar cookies, bake cat-shaped mini cakes and serve pumpkin or spiced cupcakes. Top mini cupcakes with white frosting and use two chocolate chips for the eyes.

Cut bread round into leaf shapes and use green, orange and red colored toppings for your appetizers - shrimp/cream cheese spread with red cocktail sauce, spinach/cream cheese spread for the green, etc. Place colored tea bags in small baskets around the table - most of the fancy teas come wrapped in black, red, orange and green papers.

Tape a large piece of butcher paper along one whole wall or on top of a large table. Provide crayons and ask kids to draw their favorite Halloween or Thanksgiving images. You might get them started with by drawing one yourself.

Brew up a bowl of green or orange punch with black plastic spiders floating on the top. Be sure to wash the plastic spiders first. You can also put the spiders in ice trays and make ice with spiders in each cube.

Provide clear cello gift bags filled with stickers and art supplies for children to take home. Make slightly larger cello bags with items for the ladies to take home. Tie all of them with black and orange ribbon for Halloween and orange and brown ribbon for Thanksgiving teas.

If it's a Halloween Tea have a costume contest for the kids. Have them model their costumes and tell stories about their characters. Award each child a different prize - "hottest" costume, "most historical" costume, "best cartoon" costume, etc. That way no one goes home without a prize. Place the prizes in brown paper bags so they don't know what they're picking out - small toys or candy will make a good prize.

Most of all, have fun!