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Are you looking for a fresh way to bring the women in your small church together for a time of Christmas celebration? Consider hosting a Christmas tea party. We usually think of tea parties for Mother’s Day or Springtime, but Christmas can be the perfect time to slow down our pace and connect over a nice cup of flavorful tea!
Tea Parties give us the opportunity to:
- Celebrate our guests and make them feel special
- Bring out those tea cups and pretty plates you may not have occasion to use
- Sip and savor, especially during a hectic time of the year
- Invite our guests to focus on the true gift of the season, Jesus Christ
Where To Have A Christmas Tea
There are many options when deciding where to host your Merry Christmas Tea celebration. If your group is smaller, a home celebration might be in order. One of the best things about the holiday season is no matter where you host your party, there will be festive decorations. All you need to do is add table decorations and food to make this gathering beautiful and complete.
Hosting at your small church is always an option and is a good opportunity for new guests to experience your church in a relaxed setting. A Merry Christmas Tea celebration can be a wonderful event to invite others to participate in a fun gathering where they will hear the message of the Christmas season.
What about hosting your tea party at a local restaurant or community gathering spot? Depending on where you live, you could host your party outside in a park or a beautiful garden! Think outside the box and consider venues like an art center, a cozy cabin, or an event barn. Look around your community and think about where you can host your tea party!
Easy Small Church Christmas Centerpiece Ideas
As previously mentioned, most venues have their own Christmas decorations, so let’s focus our ideas on centerpieces to make our season bright! You can also add another layer of celebration to your gathering by giving the centerpieces away as door prizes at the end of our event.
Here are some suggestions. They are easy to put together and can bring a festive accent to your tables:
- Potted Poinsettias
Wrap them in a gold florist foil or fabric and accent them with a decorative Christmas ribbon. The ribbon will give you flexibility in matching the colors of your table decor. - Different sizes of glass vases filled with ball ornaments of your color palette
Try traditional red and green, gold and silver, or blue and white. - Tabletop Trees
Purchase these from the landscaping nursery or garden center at the big box store. Decorate them with fairy lights and mini ornaments. - Bud Vases
Gather a cluster of bud vases and fill them with red roses, baby’s breath, and a sprig of pine to make an elegant statement. Find these at a thrift store to get a variety of different shapes and heights. - Evergreen Garland
Whether fresh or faux, lay them across the length of your table. Tuck small ornaments, flowers, berries, holly sprigs, pine cones, or even candy canes to make a fun and easy centerpiece.
Looking for a done-for-you complete tea party?
The Tea Party Bundle Vol. 1 has 3 complete, creative, and engaging tea party programs, themed beautifully for you!
Check out the Tea Party Bundle Vol. 1!
Christmas & Tea Time, A Great Combination
Don’t feel pressured to use fancy china if you don’t have any. Remember, this is the perfect opportunity to let others be involved! Ask around; perhaps one of your small church family members has a whole china hutch full of things they would be willing to let you use. This could allow them to be an honored part of your celebration.
Another suggestion is to ask everyone to bring their own tea cup and place setting. It’s a fun way for people to show a bit about themselves! If you choose to do it this way, give some guidelines for your ladies. This is the color theme, or we want each place setting to have a plate, tea cup, and silverware; we will provide the napkins, etc.
Let people know even within your guidelines. They can be creative, mix and match, pick up items at a thrift store, or borrow from a neighbor. Better yet, invite the neighbor to join you!! Paper items are also acceptable, and there are so many choices out there today. Some are quite fancy!
Prepare A Merry Christmas Tea Program
Make sure your guests feel welcome from the moment they walk in the door. Have a volunteer greet guests as they enter. Give name tags for each participant. This is a nice touch and encourages connection between those who may not know each other.
Print out Christmas trivia sheets and place them at each place setting. This is a good way to engage attendees while waiting for the festivities to start. You could also have an activity for guests to participate in when they arrive. Set up a station to make a simple ornament, fill out a Christmas card to be given to a local nursing home resident, or help decorate a small tree. These activities are all options for your guests to interact with each other and have some fun before the main program begins.
After your welcome and prayer, a holiday game or mixer is a great way to start the party. We have several options on the Small Church Ministry Blog, and many can be tweaked a bit to fit the Christmas season. Some of my favorites are in the game section of the 4 Fun Mix & Match Elements To Create The Perfect Christmas Party article.
We created a fun Christmas Hymn Trivia for your Merry Christmas Tea. Fill out the form below to get Becky’s Christmas Hymn Trivia. This PDF printable has 15 trivia questions plus an answer sheet.
Merry Christmas Tea & Treats
Plan your menu and decide what direction you will be heading for food. Choose savory finger sandwiches, sweet and pretty Christmas cookies, or perhaps a combination of them all. What about some lovely Christmas-decorated charcuterie boards? If you have a couple of women who love to focus on hospitality, invite them to be part of your planning committee.
Whether you have your event catered, ask everyone to bring something, or invite the men of your church to be your kitchen crew, have a beautiful table to put your tea delights on. Remember, it’s smart to encourage all the senses to be entertained. Let the eyes be pleased with a lovely tablescape of goodies. Everyone’s sense of smell can get excited by the aroma of teas and perhaps mulling spices in the background. Engage ears as they can enjoy the soft background of Christmas music welcoming guests and, of course, the bounty of things to touch and experience. Oh, what a merry celebration this will be!!
Celebrating Christ
The focus of your celebration is the focus of Christmas, a devotion about Jesus. Jesus is the greatest gift of all! Ask one of the women in your group to share the devotion at your event. Perhaps they could do an object lesson or talk about what kinds of things you suppose Mary was ‘pondering’ in her heart. Or, ask several to participate in a Christmas monologue.
The holiday season is the perfect opportunity to share about the amazing gift of Jesus with others. Did you know people are much more likely to attend a Christmas event at church than any other event during the year? Let’s invite friends, neighbors, co-workers, and unchurched family members to join us as we celebrate. This is truly what makes it a Merry Christmas Celebration!
Send Home Christmas Party Favors
One final thing to consider for your Merry Christmas Tea at your church is giving your guests a little gift to take home with them. Party favors make your guests feel valued and give them a reminder of a special day. Gifts don’t have to be expensive, but you want them to make your guests smile.
Here’s a list of some simple ideas for party favors:
- Christmas bookmark
- Ornament that can be purchased in bulk
- Decorated cookie in a clear bag with ribbons
Ask someone to make them, purchase them from a bakery, or have a little mini-baking committee make them before your event! Making cookies together adds another layer of connection between your women. - Candy cane with the Legend of the Candy attached to it
Give more than one of these. Your guest can keep one and pass the others on to someone else to share Jesus’ love during the holiday season! - Truffles or other fancy chocolate are always crowd-pleasers!
Whatever party favors you end up giving your guests, it truly is the thought that counts as you bid them farewell and, most of all, A Merry Christmas!
Share the stories and pictures of what you do for your Christmas Tea on the Creative Solutions for Small Churches Facebook community.
We are excited to see what God will do in your small church this holiday season!! Merry Christmas!
Read More:
5 Fun All-Church Family Christmas Events
Hi Becky, I’m a grateful beLeever in Christ at a small church in Orange County , Ca and I’m on a ministry team for a Christmas Tea. I love your inspirations and your story.
I too, am a wife to my Godlee man of 28 years, mother of 3 adult blessings, 1 son with an eternal home and Grandma to 3 beautiful grandlittles!
I’m blessed to use my gifts of event planning and table decor.
Abundance in Him,
Lee