Mad Hatter's Tea -25yr- Musical Chairs

For my husband's 25th birthday (ten days before Halloween), I had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party.  The invitation had the white rabbit from Alice & Wonderland on the front, and it read, "Don't be late for this very important date...you are cordially invited to a Tea Party hosted by non other than the MAD HATTER, Come one come all and drink if you dare!" The invitation went on to say the location & time ect. ect., At the bottom, I stated that all attendants must arrive in character! 

I had friends come as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, The dormouse, playing cards, the Queen of Hearts, the white rabbit, The Cheshire cat.  I was Alice and my husband was the Mad Hatter of course.  It was so fun.  We even had a friend of ours come as the Caterpillar, complete with a Hookah!  I had my house decorated with brightly colored streamers and dozens of helium balloons; it had a nice cartoon-like effect. 

I had a sign on the punch (which was spiked) that said, "drink me" and I made cookies and wrote "eat me" on them in frosting.  I made various concoctions of "tea" (mixed drinks; mud-slides, daiquiris, Pearl Harbors ect.) and served them in teapots. Activities included a round of royal croquet, we played drinking card games, and at the end of the night we had a Caucus race.  At one point in the movie, the Governor & Dodo have a Caucus race, where everyone runs around a campfire to dry off, so I incorporated the caucus race with musical chairs. 

It was very comical, adults playing musical chairs, especially because some of my guests had a good amount of "tea".  I played the same song that the Governor sang in the movie during the game, which was a nice touch. (Forward, backward, inward, outward, come and join the chase! Nothing could be drier than a jolly caucus-race. Backward, forward, outward, inward, bottom to the top, never a beginning there can never be a stop to skipping, hopping, tripping, fancy free and gay, I started it tomorrow and will finish yesterday.

Round and round and round we go, and dance for evermore, once we were behind but now we find we are be-forward, backward, inward, outward, come and join the chase! Nothing could be drier than a jolly caucus-race.)  The winner was awarded with a goodie bag, with a deck of cards, a looking glass, and a bottle of Advil (for the next morning).

When it was time for the Birthday cake, we sand the "Very Merry Un-Birthday" song. It was a lot of fun and everyone came in costume.  It was hysterical.