A Virtual Christmas Tea for our Women's Ministry

The Annual Women's Luncheon at our church had to be moved online due to Covid restrictions. Instead of singing carols, hearing a Christmas message and eating lunch around beautifully decorated tables, the event became an online tea party. I got to help coordinate the goodie bags. Take a look.

The event consisted of:
-Christmas music sung by one of our church's members.
-A special Christmas message from a well-known speaker in our denomination.
-Breakout rooms online to fellowship and create an ornament with.
-More music to close our time together.

Tickets cost $10. Proceeds went towards the speaker, goodie bags and donating to a special organization through our church.
Women were able to purchase up to 8 tickets to buy an 'online table'. These 'table' guests were put in an online breakout group to interact together during the event.

2 weeks before the event, goodie bags were packaged and distributed. Women who lived locally picked up their bags at church. Others were mailed to out of town guests.

We advertised our event online with our church services and my friend and I made some short videos explaining the event.

Our event began at 10am and ended at noon. 
All ladies were muted until breakout groups.
Here's how our event timing worked:

10am- Welcome and Announcements
10-10:15am- Christmas carols sung by church member.
(Because everyone was muted, we were able to sing along!)

10:15-10:50am Christmas message


10:55-11:55am  Breakout rooms 'online tables'
      (conversations, ornament making, discussion on message, etc.)
11:55-12pm Prayer and Final Christmas song, dismissal.

Included in the goodie bags:


-sheet of instructions
-message note taking sheet with a church pen


 (affiliate links mentioned to help you locate products.)
-Twinings Christmas tea bag
-nut-free cookie
-Christmas napkin

These were enjoyed during the video message.


-bookmark and postcard with church related events and information.


 (affiliate links mentioned to help you locate products.)
-gift book wrapped. We gave the ladies this book.  A 12 Month Guided Journal Experience to Grow in Faith with a One Word Focus.

-bag of ornament making supplies with instructions.

All goodie bag supplies were packaged up in cellophane bags and tied with ribbon, a nametag and a small ball ornament.

The ornament craft was designed to be very simple to assemble. We didn't want anyone thinking they couldn't do this craft!

(affiliate links included to help you locate products.)
We used these flat wood ornament shapes with twine and designed Avery labels to fit perfectly. One for each side of the ornament.
 

(affiliate links included to help you locate products.)

Greenery stems were cut to be wrapped around the tops of the wood ornament.

(affiliate links included to locate products.)

Raffia ribbon was tied into bows and these plaid bows added a bit of color. The bows were applied to the ornament using Glue Dots. 
The ornament was assembled in the breakout rooms, step-by-step being completed together as a group.

Our Christmas Virtual Tea was wonderful! The ladies had such a great time seeing each other online. Many commented that the breakout rooms were even better than sitting around a noisy table not hearing each other.

This was a picture of my table from Christmas 2019. 

Yes, there has been some surprising blessings of having virtual events, but I still miss the in-person interactions, the hugs, smiles and fellowship of physically being together. I'm waiting impatiently for those days to come again. I know you are as well.