High Tea at Christmas Time

There is a whole photo album of me both hosting and attending tea parties as a little girl, as is true for a lot of other little girls, but one of the fun things about growing up is that the things you enjoyed as a child grow up too. So my little plastic cups transformed into fine china; my bedroom into an airy dining room; and my easily cleaned juice became finely milled tea. So, with Christmas just around the corner, it was time to dawn my finest attire and head to high tea.

A lot of people think that having high tea means you need to be posh and fancily dressed, and while they can be true high tea isn’t what it used to be, meaning anyone can enjoy tea with some treats-- wait until I tell you about the treats. And while I do put on a nice dress, I certainly don’t stress about it, I just wear what I feel nice in. To me, high tea is a chance to get away from the stress of my hectic holiday schedule and have a chat with whomever I go with, in this case, my darling mum.

Onto the tea itself!

For the second year in a row, my mother and I attended high tea at the Park Hyatt Resort and were dazzled by their colorful Christmas decorations of a towering gingerbread house, archways of garland and halls lined with sparkling Christmas trees. At the precise time of our reservation we were seated at a quaint table for two by their massive windows and could look out onto the sunlight grounds, but who had time for that when a tower of treats was before us? On each of the three levels of the stand before us were pieces of savory sweets.

The first level had scones that left you wanting to pick up the tiniest crumbs; on the second we found five kinds of sandwiches that left you wishing they had been bigger, and finally at the tippy top were the deserts. There were cakes, and puffs, and pies that exploded with flavor, but despite all those tempting treats that made you want to rush to eat them all, there is just something about high tea that makes you want to sit, sip your tea, eat your snacks slowly, and enjoy your time.

Enjoying your time is something that is usually forgotten during the holiday rush. I wonder if I finally realized I had forgotten about it because for the first time I wasn’t studying for finals until the Friday before Christmas, or worrying about how my grades would affect my chances of getting into a good college. Maybe it’s because of the rush that comes with realizing you survived your first semester as a college student? Either way, I found high tea at Christmas time to be the perfect chance to be content with life, not thinking days, or weeks in advance, just drinking tea with someone I love and enjoying the holiday.