The Nutcracker "Sweet"

Last week, our church had our Ladies' Christmas Tea. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed planning this one. Our theme was The Nutcracker "Sweet," so obviously the décor of the day was nutcrackers. They were everywhere. I borrowed several from ladies in our church; I also found them at Goodwill, online, and even had a man in our church paint a couple on two free standing boards (see pictures below). We also used red and white peppermint candy as accents. I found adorable napkins in the shape of peppermints at Hobby Lobby (love that place!).  I also found felt place mats in the shape of peppermints and used them as the base of the centerpieces. My goal was that no matter where you sat at the table, there was something fun to look at in the centerpiece. I made little "Dr. Seuss" looking trees out of scrapbook paper, glitter and floral picks. I placed them behind the large nutcracker so you weren't looking at his back if you happened to sit on that side of the table. There were about 3-4 other small nutcrackers in the centerpiece. I also put a small decorative box with a big lime green bow in the centerpiece and glued a nutcracker to the top of it so that there were different heights on the table. We placed a few tea lights and red ornaments to fill in around the nutcrackers. Lime green glitter and real peppermint candies were scattered around the table to complete the look. We also had little nutcracker Christmas ornaments at each place setting for favors, so everyone went home with a little nutcracker.

Centerpiece

Another angle

These were just so fun to look at!

We wrapped the support poles in the basement with red crepe paper to make them look like sticks of peppermint, and as I said, there were nutcrackers everywhere. We have a large flat screen television in our church basement that is used for a variety of reasons. I created a PowerPoint slide show with pictures of nutcrackers and scenes from the Nutcracker ballet. I had that slide show running during the tea...it was so much better than looking at a big black screen on the wall. :) We also hung snowflakes and large peppermint lanterns from the ceiling. And of course, we had music from The Nutcracker playing during the event. The room was very whimsical and festive. Here a few pictures:

Loren with the other 4-foot tall nutcracker

Painted by Jim O'Connor - a very talented member of our church

Our menu was fairly simple: cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches, spinach dip in a bread bowl with crackers and a veggie tray, raspberry & white chocolate scones with raspberry jam, sugar plums (of course!), peppermint Oreo balls, cookies, and a chocolate fountain with marshmallows, pretzels, strawberries and pineapple to dip. We had cranberry punch, a hot chocolate bar, and three kinds of tea: The Nutcracker Sweet tea, Sugar Plum Spice tea, and Candy Cane Lane tea. These teas are made by Celestial Seasonings, and I found them at our local grocery store. Perfect for our theme!

Oreo Peppermint Balls

Abigail with Sugar Plums (in honor of the Sugar Plum Fairy)

We also had a cookie exchange to go along with the "sweet" theme. Each lady that wanted to participate brought 2-3 dozen cookies. During our snack time, they were invited to browse the cookie table and take 2-3 dozen assorted cookies. Each lady was given a cute treat box to take their selections home in. We had so many cookies, even ladies who didn't plan to participate were able to take home a box of cookies. Love that!

We played a few games...one was called "The Nutcracker" from the game show Minute to Win It. The players had to stack large silver nuts on top of each other, only using a candy cane to move them.  The winner received a Bath and Body Works set. Here's a picture of the ladies playing:

...and Colleen won! She was able to stack all ten of them in about 55 seconds. Way to go, Colleen!

I also had a little girl, Abigail, read a shortened version of The Nutcracker. I told the ladies that they should pay close attention because I was going to ask them some questions when she finished the story. I saw several ladies taking notes. Once Abigail was finished reading (she did a great job!), I asked her to leave the room. Then I asked everyone to write down what Abigail was wearing... Surprise! The lady that had the most items written down won a Bath and Body Works gift set. Kind of fun!

Abigail reads The Nutcracker

We had a very pretty flute duet. Mrs. KristaJoy and my daughter, McKayla, played Silent Night. It was a beautiful arrangement with just the two flutes. So pretty!

After that, I gave a short devotional including the history of the nutcracker and how they came to be so popular. During the devotional, I drew a few parallels between Clara's gift of the nutcracker (from the story) and our gift of salvation. Then we played one more game to give away the 12" tall nutcrackers from the centerpieces. This was one of my favorite themes, and I had so much fun planning and organizing this tea!