When planning a tea party for a birthday, sleepover or just for fun you’ll want to include some games to keep the guests busy and entertained. Active, fun tea party games will help ensure the party is a success for you and the kids:
- Teacup Treasure Hunt
Paper teacups make great decorations for a tea party, but they can also be used for games. A game of teacup treasure hunt will get the kids up and moving. Hide the paper cups around the yard or house, as Red Ted Art suggests. You can give some basic clues or run it like an Easter egg hunt. An added bonus: You can send a paper tea cup home with each child as a souvenir.
- Tea Bag Toss
You’ll need some inexpensive tea on hand and some old teapots for tea bag toss. As Party Games Plus directs, give a point value for the teapots based on the size of the opening, making the smaller higher in value. Place a line to stand behind and have the kids toss the tea bags aiming for the pots. A tip: Pick up some old china teapots at a thrift store so your good ones don’t break.
- Tea Leaf Pictionary
Playing some rounds of tea leaf pictionary is a great way to use those tea bags that were tossed. Write some items to “draw” on small papers and place them in one of the teapots. The children pick a slip and use tea leaves from opened bags to create the pictures while others guess. Find full directions on Clarizze at Home.
- Guess How Much, Tea Party Style
Fill a tea cup or teapot with candy or sugar cubes for a guess how much game, as directed by My Kids Guide. Have everyone write down their guess on how many pieces are in the cup or pot. Let all the players share the candy and the winner receive a prize.
- Sugar Cube Stack
You’ll need at least a box (maybe more depending on the size of the tea party) to play sugar cube stack. Divide the children in teams of two, as Almost Unschoolers does, and see who can create the tallest stack of sugar cubes in 30 seconds.
- Pinko
Every good tea party needs a snack, right? Print out boards for a cupcake-themed bingo game called Pinkalicious, or Pinko for short. It’s played using printed calling cards and the winner yells out “pinko” when they get a full row of items marked off on the board. Find the game at Kid Scraps.
- Tea Tray Memory Game
Adapt this tray memory game from Activity Village to fit a tea party theme. Place numerous tea-related objects on a tray and give the kids a specific amount of time to memorize it. Then they each have to write down everything they can remember on the tray. The one with the most correct answers wins.
- Hot Tea Cup
Birthday Party Ideas has a great game for a thrift store tea cup or one from an old set of dishes. Similar to hot potato, the tea cup is passed until the music stops. The last player wins the tea cup as the prize.
- Pin the Lid on the Tea Pot
Played like pin the tail on the donkey, pin the lid on the tea pot uses a large poster board with a tea pot drawn or painted on. Each player gets a cutout of the tea pot lid. Wearing a blindfold, the person who gets their lid closest to the pot wins. Find full directions at Fun Events 4 Girls.
- Tea Pot Relay Race
Use two plastic or unbreakable tea cups, a bucket of water and two smaller buckets — or tea pots to stick with the theme — to play a tea pot relay race. Following the directions from Kandy Kreations, form two teams and have the children relay water from the bucket to the pot using the cups. The first team to fill their teapot wins. - Prizes
Make sure you have some small prizes for the winners of the tea party games, but keep them simple so no one feels left out. A couple of individually wrapped tea bags tied together with a pretty ribbon, a handmade bookmark, a tea cup, some sample-size nail polish or a stuff-filled goodie bag are all great options.
Learn more party tips by reading 14 Cheap Ways to Stuff a Goodie Bag.
Need some extra help organizing or setting up the party? Hire a babysitter or housekeeper to help out for a few hours.
Kit Arbuckle writes for numerous publications specializing in parenting, health and education topics.