For my birthday this year I decided that in lieu of a traditional party, I wanted a tea cup exchange. I invited 14 people, more than I can comfortably seat at home, so I picked a restaurant with lovely desserts and drinks.

I wanted to do full afternoon tea and if it had been only women, I probably would have made everyone squeeze into the tiny seats at our best nearby tea shop. But there were 10 of us, including a few men that I wasn’t sure would enjoy afternoon tea, and the nicest tea shop that was also spacious is 25 miles away.

How to host your tea cup exchange:

• Invite everyone to a group-friendly restaurant or your home. Include parking directions.
• Include a few links to tea cups so that everyone knows relative price and quality.
• Make tea favors – I filled old tea tins with inexpensive tea bag holders from Amazon and tea bags from my collection. I customized the tea for each recipient.
• Have a few spare gift bags on hand if someone forgets to wrap their tea cup.
• For guests who can’t make it in person, have them send or give you a tea cup in advance, and you can include it in the swap.

Rules (similar to a white elephant gift exchange):

1. All the bags or wrapped cups are put on the table.
2. Guests draw a number. #1 picks a cup first and unwraps so everyone can see it.
3. #2 gets to either unwrap a new tea cup, or steal the first one.
4. Each guest gets to open or steal a cup.
5. Usually after a cup is stolen twice, it cannot be stolen again (an alternate is that on the third steal, it goes back to the original picker).
6. Swapping is always allowed.

I highly recommend exchange parties, they are really fun and a good way to connect with friends or meet new ones.