Go Mad
Rabbit holes may be in short supply in the neighborhoods of Las Vegas, but that doesn’t preclude them from being used as the setting for a Mad Hatter tea party for the younger set.
DeAnna Anderson, an administrative assistant at the Art Institute of Las Vegas who’s active in local theater, suggests hanging dark-colored sheets to visually lower your ceiling and give the party a subterranean feel.
"If you get really creative, as they come in, it would look like they were coming to this underground place," Anderson said.
The opening of the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie earlier this month got us thinking about the types of crazy tea parties we could throw, so we asked local party planners, artists, chefs and creative types to share ideas worthy of the Hatter himself. One thing they tended to agree on: Use lots of color, and the more upside-down and inside-out things are, the better.
Let’s start with the invitations. Regina Verdin, academic director of graphic design at the art institute, suggested making them with materials from a local paper company (she suggests Kelly Paper or Xpedx). You can get a ream of paper fairly inexpensively, Verdin said — in bright colors and fun textures — and run it through your computer printer.
"A lot of times, scrapbooking stuff also makes fun invitations," she said. "Any store that carries scrapbooking supplies has little cutouts to put on the invitations to emphasize it’s a Mad Hatter tea party, like teapots and hats. Foam appliques and sticker appliques, beads and feathers you can get at any craft store will make the invitation a lot of fun."
Or, make the invitations look like oversized playing cards, suggested Maggie Pallan, co-owner of Two Chefs to Go, who brainstormed with children Kacie, 11, and Michael, 7, and business partner Malinda Kolias.
"You should invite the guests to bring a stuffed animal, which is either a rabbit or a mouse. Everyone has to wear a funny hat," Pallan suggested.
"When they come in, they would each be given a name," Anderson said. "If they’re all girls, I would give them each a cheap chain and make a necklace. Otherwise, you could use a little nametag with any character’s name."
The hostess should be dressed as the Red Queen, Anderson said, while Pallan suggested a teacup-shaped hat and clothes that are inside-out.
Set a truly magical scene.
"Drape lots of garlands and vines," Anderson said. "You can get them at the dollar store, put them anywhere you can and drape them." She suggests placing a lot of plants around, too.
"Definitely the main component of a Mad Hatter party is the giant flowers, greenery, oversized props and bright colors," said Rhett Marek, vice president of www.LasVegasParties.com. He suggests using uplighting, whether indoors or in the backyard. Get oversized hats from costume shops and hang them either from the ceiling indoors or from trees outdoors. Maybe hire a stilt walker to hang around outside, juggling or twisting balloons for the kids.
Pamela Schaeffer, founder of the Royal Tea Society, presided over the group’s Mad Hatter Tea Party on Sunday. Among her decorations: big crepe-paper flowers with googly eyes.
Even if you can’t get "Alice"-specific decorations, Misty Gage, an assistant manager at Party Pro, the Ultimate Party Store, said you can use generic decorations — banners, streamers and centerpieces — in bright solid colors to lend the appropriate festive air.
But also make it appropriately cockeyed.
"With the table setting, everything should be upside-down or lopsided," Pallan said. "Like crooked tablecloths, mismatched chairs at different heights." She suggested mismatched teacups in bright colors — maybe even polka dots — and noted that Wal-Mart sells oversized teacup planters in its gardening section that could be combined with cups in more customary sizes.
Marek likes to combine colors and black and white.
"For a table setting, a black-and-white-checked overlay and accents in hot pinks, greens, yellows and oranges," he said. "Just real fun, bright and vibrant colors. Keep the consistency of the black and white. That’s going to catch your eye, and the colors will set the scene."
Don’t forget fun activities for the kids. Pallan suggests a game of croquet, using pink plastic lawn flamingos in place of mallets, with rolling cat toys (complete with tails) serving as balls.
"Videotape the party, and there’s a function on your Wii where you can play things backward," she said. "So at the end, before all the guests go home, play the tea party backward. It’s very funny."
Anderson suggests making meringue mushrooms and letting the kids decorate them with colored icing, and then piling them onto a cake for a mushroom forest.
For other foods, Suzanne Sorel, a pastry chef/instructor at The International Culinary School, suggests filling bone-china teacups with pudding or mousse, with cutout cookies sticking out. Make a stencil in the shape of the Cheshire Cat’s smile and use it to sift powdered sugar or cocoa on the top of the mousse, she said, or use melted chocolate to pipe on the smile.
Michelle Vietmeier, chef/instructor at the culinary school, suggests making sandwiches in kid-friendly choices such as peanut-butter-and-jelly, grilled cheese or bologna, and then cutting them in the shape of the card suits. To make Cheshire Cat Tails, she said, cut chicken fingers into long strips and deep-fry them. Make Caterpillar Kabobs, alternating chicken or beef and vegetables, mixing the colors. Or "rabbit stew," using rabbit-shaped pasta from specialty shops instead of the noodles in chicken-noodle soup. Or Tweedledogs, which are essentially pigs in blankets, some with a stripe of ketchup, some with a stripe of mustard.
Mix things up, Pallan said.
"Instead of a cheese sandwich with tomato soup, make cheese soup with a grilled-tomato sandwich," she said. "Instead of mac and cheese, mac and peas. Candy bars with the wrong labels, or labels upside down. And there would be pineapple upside-down cake, giant peanut-butter-and-jelly cupcakes."
Schaeffer planned to serve checkerboard cookies, edible floral arrangements and mushroom tarts. She also suggested marbled-rye sandwiches, maybe with a filling of turkey and cranberry cream cheese; the effect is what’s important.
"When you roll it up, it looks really cool," she said.
Marek noted that Freed’s Bakery does an "amazing" Mad Hatter cake that he has used for several events. Instructions for making the cake — and lots of other mad treats — also are available online.
For beverages, a "shrinking potion" — maybe fruit punch — is a must, in cups or bottles decorated with tags that read "Drink me."
The shrinking potion, Anderson said, could lead to another game. Hide a stuffed cat, white rabbit, deck of cards, stopwatch and other props beforehand. Then, she said, have the kids crawl around — "because they’re tiny" — and seek out the hidden objects.
If you want to go all out, Marek said he has an impressive Johnny Depp impersonator who is adding the actor’s "Alice in Wonderland" character.
Which, it appears, couldn’t open soon enough for Marek.
" ‘Alice’ is going to be a huge hit," he said. "Hopefully it’ll break away from the Barbie parties for a minute and jump into something unique."
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@review journal.com or 702-383-0474.
