Host Your Own American Girl Dinner Party

If you are lucky enough to live in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or Dallas, there's an American Girl Place in your city. For a special occasion, you might treat your young daughter to an outing there, where you can dine in the American Girl Café or Bistro. But if you don't live in or have occasion to visit one of these cities, all is not lost. You can help your daughter host her own American Girl dinner party.

Invitations
The key to an American Girl dinner party is including the dolls. Including the name of the human guest and the doll guest on the invitations is a nice touch. Because playing with the American Girl dolls is part of the intrigue of the party, make sure that one will be available for each girl invited- either her own or perhaps an extra owned by one of the other guests.

Warning, Achtung, Aviso, Avertissement, 警告: While it might seem reasonable to an adult to substitute a similar doll in the event a guest doesn't have an American Girl doll, such a practice is not likely to be well-received among the American Girl doll playing population.

An American Girl dinner party is a perfect opportunity to review with your party host-daughter what information needs to be included on a party invitation and what the notations "R.S.V.P." and "Regrets only" mean.

The Setting
The setting for an American Girl dinner party is extremely important. A linen tablecloth, napkins and napkin holders, formal place settings and stem glasses will give the party a grown-up feel. If space permits, include an empty chair next to each girl's seat for her doll. If not, another suitable arrangement for seating the dolls at the dining table must be found.

The food should be introduced in fancy serving vessels for maximum effect. Multi-tiered tea trays, sectioned hors d'oeuvre plates or other specialty ware works well. A tri-part scalloped silver candy dish will even work wonders for serving miniature portions.

Samantha and Nellie are two of the dolls in the American Girl family.

Credit: American Girl, LLC

Copyright: American Girl, LLC