Neighbors at Christmas Tea 2005: It is time to sign up for the 10th annual WBC Christmas Tea. The Tea will be held on four nights at the end of November. Each night there are 60 tables decorated by 60 different women with a plethora of themes—not all Christmas. There are around 600 women that attend the Tea each evening. The program is the same on all four nights but there are different people that attend and decorate tables.
The first three years, I used my holly and candy canes Christmas dishes as inspiration for my Christmas Tea table. Lacking some creativity but wanting to be consistent, I used holly and candy canes in my centerpieces and in my hostess gifts. One year Monica’s niece, Melissa, was learning to decorate cookies professionally so the hostess gifts as well as some of the decorations were beautiful candy cane and holly cookies.
SPA TABLE
It is hard to see but it is a bathtub planter.In 2001, my neighbors began helping me decorate the Christmas Tea table. The quality and creativity vastly improved! Susie makes homemade soaps and graciously offered them as hostess gifts so we decided to go with a spa theme. We found a bathtub planter to use with white poinsettias for the centerpiece. We had white bath towels on the chairs, and used white washcloths for napkins. Hairclips worked nicely for placecard holders. We used Cindy’s goblets, and thought our table looked quite elegant. Our verse was Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow from Psalm 51:7.
BEE TABLE
In 2002, we used a bee theme. Since Bob is a beekeeper, we could use honey for hostess gifts. Mary found skeps (straw beehives) to use in the centerpiece. Dottie picked up decorative bees and helped make our verse banner. Monica made cute bee candies for the plates. We had jars of honey to use as the hostess gifts. The verse that we used was “Bee”hold . . . Unto you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. from Luke 1:11
BEACH TABLE
In 2003, I think that Mary suggested a beach theme. She had been moved by the poem Footprints in the Sand. It was an easy table to do with brightly colored wash cloths as placemats (from Monica), and beach towels tied on the chairs with flip flops. We had shovels and sand pails filled with goodies for hostess gifts. We used little umbrellas, multi-colored straws, plastic fish and shells to decorate. In the center of the table we used a large vase that had live gold fish and an artificial palm on top of it. Dottie typed out the poem for each of us and we used this verse from Matthew 4:19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
S'MORES TABLE
In 2004, Kris saw a fun little pot at Halloween that had flames that blew up and thought it would make a cute s’mores table. She had a bear that was dressed for winter and we gave him a marshmallow to roast over the pot on a log firepit. My green rimmed plates and cups looked great on chocolate brown placemats and Monica made very cute place card holders with a graham cracker, brown foam piece and marshmallow with paper clip. I bought s’mores ornaments for our hostess gifts. The verse that we used was Mark 12:33, To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself s’more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
PRINCESS TABLE
In 2005, Kris was inspired to do a table in only one color. Someone else had done a stunning lemon table using only yellow. Monica suggested a pink princess table. Everything on our table was pink: the tablecloth, napkins (made by Kris), plates (Dottie decoupaged clear plates with pink tissue on the bottom), and round pink placemats. We found a pink Christmas tree at Hobby Lobby for the centerpiece. We tied little glass slippers (Party City) on the tree as ornaments. Our hostess gifts were the tiaras and the ornaments. Our verse was from 1 John 3:1, What Love! That we should be called Daughters of the King!
FROG TABLE
Last year, 2006 was our cutest table. Mary had suggested in 2005 that we should do a table using frogs from her collection! She suggested using the acronym Fully Rely On God. We found green clear plates and blue round placemats with a lily in the center at Penney’s on sale at the end of the summer. Mary has adorable frog cups. Mary also suggested using goblets upside down for our candles. I added geranium leaves and pink scrunchies to make them look like lily pads. I used the same material and made napkins. We thought a mirror in the center would make it look like water but since none of us had a mirror, my oblong silver tray worked great. Dottie provided adorable little frogs for under the candles. Mary found cute pot sitter frogs as hostess gifts. We put them on pots that Dottie painted and filled with pink candy kisses. Along with the acronym for FROG, we also used the verse, Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; from Proverbs 3: 5.
There will not be a WBC Christmas Tea in 2008. Ten years seems like a good stopping place. We had better get busy on our last table.
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