Mad About The Hatter

With the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film hitting theaters on Friday, I can't help but get in the spirit. (To be honest, getting into the spirit isn't hard because I can't wait to see it!) Anyway, what better way to get in the spirit than to throw a party?

Here are a few ideas for a Mad Hatter Tea Party, based on a fundraiser I ran to raise money for a college scholarship fund. This committee-run event originally catered to 200 people, but the ideas can easily be used for an event of any size.

The best thing about a "Mad Hatter Tea Party" theme is that nothing has to match. It is a mad tea party after all! This is awesome because it's a money saver and makes preparing for the event so much fun. Because you don't have to be concerned with matching patterns, you can pick up your paper products and table coverings just about anywhere. Get them on sale when you can. We chose to use spotted tablecloths over top solid cloths. For paper products, we went shopping and grabbed just about everything we could find. Purple cups; yellow and pink plates; blue forks; green napkins - lots of mixing and very little matching. Now, I realize that this might sound like a big visual mess, but the hodge-podge actually made it more interesting. And we saved a ton because we bought in bulk and were able to pick things up anywhere, regardless of color or pattern.

For centerpieces, we made tea cups from old cardboard boxes that we painted in all the colors of the rainbow and accented with playing cards. If you don't have time to create your centerpieces by hand, over sized teacups can easily be purchased, most likely at a local garden center. We added color to the walls of our space by stringing up multicolored lights that we borrowed from our holiday decorations, along with garlands we made out of playing cards. These were incredibly inexpensive to make as we purchased the playing cards in bulk from the online distributor, Oriental Trading. For other decorations, we simply used poker themed items, as the Queen of Hearts is such an iconic figure from Alice in Wonderland. Bonus to this is that poker themed items are easy to find just about anywhere.

Food for a party like this is super easy. You could serve traditional tea party foods like cucumber sandwiches, scones, and shortbread. Or you could go "mad" and serve your favorite foods be they tacos and popcorn, or pizza and mac and cheese. The beauty of this party theme is that you can do whatever you want, and that goes for the food too. But, the Mad Hatter Tea Party is also an Un-Birthday Party, so don't forget the Un-Birthday cake.

Get everyone into the spirit by asking your guests to dress up as their favorite Alice in Wonderland character. Or offer them crazy hats or crowns when they arrive. We gave our staff multi-colored paper accordion hats, similar to the one worn by the Cat in the Hat. People loved them!

As party favors, we filled inexpensive mugs with a variety of individually wrapped tea bags. We bought our mugs in bulk because we needed so many, but you could easily go to local thrift stores and pick up teacups and saucers. Just like everything else with this theme, they don't have to match. Get creative! Decks of playing cards would also make great party favors.

Have fun with your own zany Mad Hatter Tea party. Throw this quick to plan, inexpensive party, then go have a blast watching Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with your friends.