Here's a "few" suggestions!

You might want to google some places that serve tea and see what they offer, to get some ideas.

Enjoy

Funny you and I had same thing in mind. Have u heard of cream cheese strawberry and spinach sand before? She has eating probs and had those recently. Haven't been able to find recipe. Could wing it. Thnks for response.

Check out this current post for some suggestions.

LINK

I would do a couple of sandwiches -- a chicken salad one (which you can buy already made from the store) and a cucumber one on that party rye bread. Mix cream cheese and Ranch dressing mix and spread on bread, top with a thin slice of cucumber and then sprinkle dill weed on top. I would not do scones but rather cakes and cookies and tea bread. You can cut the cakes into smaller squares (like petit four size), cookies made smaller than normal and banana bread that sort of thing, baked in the miniature pans and then cut into slices. Good cookies are the thumbprint ones, Mexican wedding cakes, == that sort of thing. I would ask your Grandmother what her favorite cakes and cookies and serve those adjusting to make them more like tea food. I think often people have too many choices. I believe in LOTS of fewer choices. Easier for you and there should be a nice selection.

I make a chicken salad for sandwiches that has had lots of acclaim. I just cook chicken breasts....simmer in some chicken broth, when cool chop very fine....I use the pulse on the food processor, be careful not to make mush just a very fine mince....then add good mayo to moisten, lots of fresh lemon...about 2 T. lemon juice to every 1/3 cup of mayo, and very very finely chopped celery, about 1/4 cup celery to every cup of chicken. And I make sandwiches using those little appetizer buns, or sometimes I buy a loaf of French bread and cut it about 1/4 inch slices with an electric knife and cut those rounds in 1/4s.
and I am all about cucumber sandwiches with party rye.
Never heard of cream cheese, spinach and strawberry sandwiches, but I would squeeze frozen spinach very dry, chop and chop again so it's really fine and mix with cream cheese and perhaps a bit of lemon, spread a round of bread and add sliced strawberries....and perhaps just a dot of balsamic vinegar.
And lemon bars....always a good thing, brownies cut into 1 inch squares, cut out sugar cookies, no frosting just sugar sprinkles, a bowl of mints and perhaps a plate with tooth picks holding a pineapple chunk and a strawberry.
Will you be serving punch? or just tea and coffee?One of my go to punch recipes is simp[ly cranberry juice ( not cranberry cocktail) and an equal amount of 7-up, float lime slices for pretty.
And another punch that is not that sherbet stuff is steep 2 cups of strong tea ( 4 tea bags per2 cups water) and add a few slices of fresh ginger to the tea as it is steeping. Then add 2 cups pineapple juice, a can ( small size,,,6 oz) of lemonade concentrate and half a 2 litre bottle of gingerale. Male all ahead and chill and add the cold gingerale just before you serve.
If you are having it for the "church ladies" you want to up the wow factor...lol...but I don't know how you will get away without a sheet cake with "Happy Birthday" written on it!

Happy birthday to your grandma!! I am sure you will do her proud!

So many great ideas. Big thanks to everyone. Specially the balsamic idea with strawberries. Yum.

Old people = easy to chew! Nothing too crunchy. My SO is only 62 and his teeth are shot!

Not sure why so many think "old people" have so many special needs. I am old enough to be Annie and lPink;s mother and don't have trouble chewing, nor do my friends, many who are older than I am. I like spicy foods, as do my friends....we often have a night out at one of the local Mexican places. We stay up until mid-night and often drive to vacation spots over 1000 miles away....even at night!
Old people today have their knees and hips replaced so they can play golf and tennis, they have cataract surgery so they can see at night, they take care of their teeth so they can chew and if necessary have a pacemaker implanted so they can still water ski and ski at high altitudes.
I have and have had friends in their 90's who munch a celery stick and a crusty loaf of bread, not to mention a good sirloin steak...please don't assume anyone over 70 is a toothless, dyspeptic stick in the mud...because most of us are not!

I was kidding Linda! I am old too! I still like to chew too . . .

Edited to add that to me, the term "old" is not bad or pejorative, just a sign that I have lived life and been around the block a couple of times to hopefully acquire some wisdom and experience. My teeth and SO's teeth have gone to heck (not because we are old, association does not prove causation) and we can't eat as many crunchy things as we want. We both can only chew well on one side of our mouths. I'm in my mid 50's and he's in his early 60's. So the joke is really on us, or the tragedy really, because neither of us has the time and money to get proper dental work done. SO recently managed to carve out some personal space (after me nagging him incessantly) and spent quite a bit of time and money in the dentists chair, and now can chew on both sides! He went out and got nuts and hard pretzels to celebrate. Hopefully I will get to where he is eventually too!

LOL, Linda, I don't know that you're old enough to be my mother, now that I'm old enough to be retired. (grin) And my teeth are just fine, thank you, I've often remarked that I my favorite steak is sirloin, as the flavor is pronounced and I can still chew. I'm never in bed before 1 am, and I can still ride a horse, clean a barn, throw hay and load a 2,000 pound bull in a stock trailer, as well as spend 8 hours in the garden with a hoe and still have energy to walk a mile of fence. I'll be 61 in a few months, but I'm not decrepit, I don't think. So far nothing has been replaced, I have my own body parts. However, I'm also not 90!

Oh, but you can have the spicy stuff, I've never liked it, not even when I was much younger. It gives me horrible heartburn. It did when I was 16 and it still does. And I do not ski, because I'm horribly clumsy.

Now, food? Cookies are always nice, and I've found that old fashioned cookies like molasses and snickerdoodles are happily welcomed, simply because people don't bake them much anymore and they're still delicious and slightly nostalgic, but I think LindaC is right, you need a birthday cake. Or maybe cakelets, or some kind of dessert tray. When my girls were still home we had tea parties with the "church grandmas" and they liked tiny homemade rolls with chicken salad, small two bite sweet potato biscuits with a sliver of ham and tiny puffs made of choux dough filled with a seafood salad. All are small and easily handled, so no knife or fork is needed and a person can eat more than one kind. Cheese and crackers or good bread is always nice melon wrapped with prosciutto is a nice fruit offering.

Happy Birthday to your Grandma!

Annie