Recently my sister and I went to “Eldon House”:http://www.eldonhouse.ca/ for one of their Christmas Teas. The tea was held in what was the coach house that is now used as a meeting room/interpretive centre. There was a young woman playing the piano next to the Christmas tree, a screen set up showing the various rooms of Eldon House decorated for the holidays, and a few people dressed in period costume. I ran into one such lady wearing a voluminous skirted dress in the toilet and she joked she was about to find out how the ladies in the 1800s managed with these skirts! She went into the handicapped stall so she had lots of room to maneuver.
There were nine tables laid out for tea, each set for five and we were lead to our table after checking in at the door. We were served a small carbonated apple juice before our tea pots were brought to the table. My sister and I were provided one pot and the three friends who made up our table were provided with another pot. Our server was very friendly and accommodating, refilling the pots whenever needed. The tea was a Christmas blend from the Tea Hauss at “Covent Garden”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review?id=176803. The food was provided by the Petit Paris Crepery and Patisserie, also at Convent Garden and consisted of a variety of sandwiches, scones, biscotti, pistachio macarons, mini fruit tarts, chocolate cake and mini cheesecakes and it was all delicious. We all also had Christmas crackers and candy canes.
The other ladies at our table had eaten lunch before coming as they’d been to a tea in the summer in the gardens and had left hungry. They said this tea had more food than the summer one had and, because they had eaten lunch, they were unable to eat it all. The servers packed up all the leftovers for people to take home.
The afternoon was rounded out with a self-guided tour of Eldon House all dressed in its Christmas decorations. There is a lovely collection of Victorian Christmas cards on display in the various rooms and a delicious tea set out in the Drawing Room. The display case in the upper hallway included Christmas excerpts from the Harris family diaries with matching artifacts. My favourite was a children’s storybook with a swan on the cover.
It was a lovely festive event to attend to start off the Christmas season. The cost was $47.94 per person, including taxes. There were two sittings per day on the first weekend in December, 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm. There is street parking in the area and a few parking lots. Street parking is free on Sundays.
