Hosting a Virtual Afternoon Tea! New traditions to carry on long after quarantine

Virtual Afternoon tea time is a great way to take a delightful break with friends and family. "Come-as-you-are" - a plus!

With shelter-in-place constraints, we're all getting creative in connecting with family and friends. We've participated in holiday group chats with the family and on-line happy hours with good friends. It's only logical that we apply those same principles to afternoon tea and today we did just that with heartwarming results.

This afternoon, my daughter, Rachel, and my sister-in-law, Cara, arranged to meet at 2:00 PM for afternoon tea via FaceTime. (There are quite a few connecting aps available - we've used FaceTime, Zoom, Houseparty and Google Duo with varying rates of success).

On-line Easter chat and Trivia game with the family - Happy Hour with friends

The only requirement was to bring a favorite tea cup (or mug) and have it filled with tea for the call. And, on the plus side, there's no dress code, so come comfy! There's no need to get fancy or spend time fussing with hair - the tea table is the only object that needs  adornment.

I took the opportunity. as the hostess, to set an elegant tea table. (It also served as motivation to gather many of my  tea cups that had been stored away since we moved three years ago and bring them back to a more appropriate home in our dining area.) 

Setting the tea table can be a motivation to "unearth" some packed-away treasures

We started by holding up our selected tea cup for the day and sharing what tea we were drinking. Then, it was off-to-the-races chit-chat with topics ranging from graduation dates to wedding plans. Lamenting some of the disruptions to our daily life and canceled trips, we were also in agreement that we still had plenty to be grateful for - like the ability to see each others faces while sharing a  hot cup of tea.

We also exchanged room tours of our abodes with updated pictures and furniture that the other parties hadn't seen before.  While life has slowed us down a bit, we're not only making lemonade out of lemons, but stopping to smell the rosehip tea.

We're looking forward to more of these afternoon tea times and to carry on a new tradition that, while initiated during challenging times, can serve to remind us to celebrate the small things  and connect regularly with each other when we're all back to the "usual" busy.