Mobile Bay / December 2011 / Tea and Tradition

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Tea and Tradition

A holiday kick-off party creates fond memories for four dozen UMS-Wright classmates.

The house rattles with the sounds of clanking porcelain cups and 30 tweens crooning “Jingle Bells.” It’s time for the ornament pass — by far the most beloved part of an annual mother-daughter Christmas tea.

For the past seven years, Sam Slaton and Pam Parker have hosted a get-together for their daughters, Helen Gray Parker and Susan Slaton. The event began when the now-eighth graders were in second grade. Pam got the idea after Helen Gray was invited to a similar occasion for a UMS-Wright senior. “We had such a wonderful time, we thought we’d start our own,” she says.

She and Sam decided that the gathering would be a great way to get to know the other mothers and daughters. What started out as a social for a few close friends soon blossomed into a grade-wide fete.

Then, four years ago, the moms decided to host a second party for their two youngest daughters, Callen Parker and Margaret Slaton, then in first grade. Three other grades at UMS host similar soirees so the Christmas tea has become somewhat of a school-wide tradition.

In addition to the customary ornament pass, the party features the same menu: crabmeat dip, finger sandwiches, pralines, fudge, brownies, cookies, punch and, of course, hot tea. Though the gathering has remained the same, the young women themselves have changed. The first couple of years, Pam says, most were hesitant to drink the tea, but as the children have matured, they’ve embraced the prim and proper drink. The mothers hope the social is a ritual that their girls will carry on as they become young women.