Little Invitations to Tea and Coffee
by Lisa Neault

You are invited.....

This was how the invitation started on, a busy Saturday evening at about 8:50 p.m. My  daughter Amanda had dressed up in a silk kimono robe, and carefully set out her tea set, using only shrimp forks since they were "in scale".  The invitation invited me to "tea" which had been crossed out and "coffee" inserted if I could find the time at 9 p.m. My  husband, Chris, who was equally busy, was also invited to attend.

Sometimes, no matter how busy we are, (and sometimes busy doesn't begin to cover my work day, or my husband's for that matter,) we need to take time. Since high profile tea parties served on antique china sets are not to be ignored, I attended with camera in hand.

Henry, our resident cat inside the house, was not invited but crashed the party anyway. Our menu consisted of cherry tomatoes, coffee, Oriental trail mix, (the peas were not good, but the peanuts were, very spicy) and crackers and little slices of bread with the crusts cut off, a la Miss Manners were served. Coffee was poured, and dolls - Mr. Bannister and Miss Hester attended, with Henry giving his approval on the plate of Oriental trail mix. While having polite conversation, and seeing how happy my daughter was at inviting us to tea, I pondered my own tea parties as a small child. I remembered a toy table, and chairs, that were kept spotless as the dolls did not like messy tea things, and everyone wore their very "best" which usually amounted to raiding our mother's closets and wearing filmy peignoirs and high heeled spike shoes that clumped across the hard wood floors. In the summer, it was a very social affair, as mud pies would be made, and lemonade or kool aide served, thanks to an obliging mom.

I look at Amanda's tea set, and then I looked in my own treasures, and found remnants of that former tea set. A little girl with red bows in her hair is pictured serving tea to her dolls on the pitcher, and the one plate left has the same image. These treasures, I realize were the beginnings of my own vast 'miniature' collection and play - when I owned 'real' dollhouse furniture and my dolls had invitations delivered to them to be 'received' to tea in the music room.

Adults still have tea, I realized, only the play is replaced by formality. I look over the china and crystal in my cupboards, and realize that we never really give up our tea parties, as my mother-in-law's vast collection of crystal and china attests too. We simply imitate on a more elaborate scale those childhood tea parties that consisted of kool-aide and lemonade, only Earl Grey and Maxwell House are now served instead of kool-aide, deviled eggs and muffins and croissants and petit fours replace the Oriental trail mix and brownies.

I have included pictures of this memorable tea party, and my daughter Amanda, who is always willing to play the gracious hostess. For miniaturists out there, I hope the invitation to tea at their dollhouses will become a tradition, and not be forgotten in the business of our everyday lives.