diff --git a/src/dev-app/theme-token-api.scss b/src/dev-app/theme-token-api.scss
index 5a2d16ddf317..2831159cce03 100644
--- a/src/dev-app/theme-token-api.scss
+++ b/src/dev-app/theme-token-api.scss
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 @use '@angular/material' as mat;
+@use '@angular/material-experimental';
 
 dev-app {
   &::before {
@@ -15,4 +16,38 @@ dev-app {
   }
 }
 
-@debug 'Generated M2 tokens:' mat.m2-tokens-from-theme();
+.demo-unicorn-dark-theme {
+  background: black;
+  color: white;
+}
+
+@include mat.core();
+
+$dark-theme: mat.define-dark-theme((
+  color: (
+    primary: mat.define-palette(mat.$blue-grey-palette),
+    accent: mat.define-palette(mat.$amber-palette, A200, A100, A400),
+    warn: mat.define-palette(mat.$deep-orange-palette),
+  ),
+  typography: mat.define-typography-config(),
+  density: 0,
+));
+
+// Set up light theme.
+
+@include material-experimental.theme($components: (
+  material-experimental.card(),
+  material-experimental.checkbox(),
+));
+
+// Set up dark theme.
+
+.demo-unicorn-dark-theme {
+  @include material-experimental.theme($tokens: mat.m2-tokens-from-theme($dark-theme), $components: (
+    material-experimental.checkbox((
+      (mdc, checkbox): (
+        selected-checkmark-color: red,
+      )
+    )),
+  ));
+}
diff --git a/src/material-experimental/_index.scss b/src/material-experimental/_index.scss
index b862e70da073..fd2a45e8fc61 100644
--- a/src/material-experimental/_index.scss
+++ b/src/material-experimental/_index.scss
@@ -4,4 +4,7 @@
 @forward './popover-edit/popover-edit-theme' as popover-edit-* show popover-edit-color,
   popover-edit-typography, popover-edit-density, popover-edit-theme;
 
+// Token-based theming API
+@forward './theming/theming' show theme, card, checkbox;
+
 // Additional public APIs for individual components
diff --git a/src/material-experimental/theming/_theming.scss b/src/material-experimental/theming/_theming.scss
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..016f2db8801e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/material-experimental/theming/_theming.scss
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+@use 'sass:list';
+@use 'sass:map';
+@use 'sass:meta';
+@use 'sass:string';
+@use '@angular/material' as mat;
+
+// Whether to throw an error when a required dep is not configured. If false, the dep will be
+// automatically configured instead.
+$_error-on-missing-dep: false;
+
+// Applies the theme for the given component configuration.
+@mixin _apply-theme($tokens, $component) {
+  $id: map.get($component, id);
+  $tokens: map.deep-merge($tokens, map.get($component, customizations));
+
+  // NOTE: for now we use a hardcoded if-chain, but in the future when first-class mixins are
+  // supported, the configuration data will contain a reference to its own theme mixin.
+  @if $id == 'mat.card' {
+    @include mat.private-apply-card-theme-from-tokens($tokens);
+  } @else if $id == 'mat.checkbox' {
+    @include mat.private-apply-checkbox-theme-from-tokens($tokens);
+  } @else {
+    @error 'Unrecognized component theme: #{id}';
+  }
+}
+
+// Gets the transitive dependency configurations for the given list of component configurations.
+@function _get-transitive-deps($components, $configured: ()) {
+  // Mark the given components as configured.
+  @each $component in $components {
+    $configured: map.set($configured, map.get($component, id), true);
+  }
+  $new-deps: ();
+
+  // Check each of the given components for new deps.
+  @each $component in $components {
+    @each $dep-getter in mat.private-normalize-args-list(map.get($component, deps)) {
+      $dep: meta.call($dep-getter);
+      $dep-id: map.get($dep, id);
+      @if not (map.has-key($configured, $dep-id)) {
+        @if $_error-on-missing-dep {
+          @error 'Missing theme: `#{map.get($component, id)}` depends on `#{$dep-id}`.' +
+            ' Please configure the theme for `#{$dep-id}` in your call to `mat.theme`';
+        } @else {
+          $configured: map.set($configured, $dep-id, true);
+          $new-deps: list.append($new-deps, $dep);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Append on the new deps to this list of component configurations and return.
+  @if list.length($new-deps) > 0 {
+    $components: list.join($components, _get-transitive-deps($new-deps, $configured));
+  }
+  @return $components;
+}
+
+@mixin _theme($tokens, $components) {
+  // Call the theme mixin for each configured component.
+  @at-root #{& or body} {
+    @each $component in $components {
+      @include _apply-theme($tokens, $component);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+// Takes the full list of tokens and a list of components to configure, and outputs all theme
+// tokens for the configured components.
+@mixin theme($tokens: mat.m2-tokens-from-theme(), $components) {
+  @include _theme($tokens, _get-transitive-deps(mat.private-normalize-args-list($components)));
+}
+
+// TODO(mmalerba): What should we call this?
+//   - update-theme
+//   - adjust-theme
+//   - edit-theme
+//   - override-theme
+//   - retheme
+// Takes a list of components to configure, and outputs only the theme tokens that are explicitly
+// customized by the configurations.
+@mixin update-theme($components) {
+  @include _theme((), $components);
+}
+
+// Configure the mat-card's theme.
+@function card($customizations: ()) {
+  @return (
+    id: 'mat.card',
+    customizations: $customizations,
+    deps: (),
+  );
+}
+
+// Configure the mat-checkbox's theme.
+@function checkbox($customizations: ()) {
+  @return (
+    id: 'mat.checkbox',
+    customizations: $customizations,
+    deps: (),
+  );
+}
diff --git a/src/material/_index.scss b/src/material/_index.scss
index d5ba704d2437..aaa7c6fca1a3 100644
--- a/src/material/_index.scss
+++ b/src/material/_index.scss
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 // The form field density mixin needs to be exposed, because the paginator depends on it.
 @forward './form-field/form-field-theme' as private-form-field-* show private-form-field-density;
 @forward './token-theming' as private-apply-*;
+@forward './core/style/sass-utils' as private-*;
 
 // Structural
 @forward './core/core' show core;
diff --git a/src/material/core/style/_sass-utils.scss b/src/material/core/style/_sass-utils.scss
index b4922910b83e..10a8e45ddade 100644
--- a/src/material/core/style/_sass-utils.scss
+++ b/src/material/core/style/_sass-utils.scss
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
+@use 'sass:list';
 @use 'sass:map';
+@use 'sass:meta';
 
 // A version of the standard `map.deep-merge` function that takes a variable number of arguments.
 // Each argument is deep-merged into the final result from left to right.
@@ -9,3 +11,10 @@
   }
   @return $result;
 }
+
+// Normalizes a list of arguments to ensure it really is a list and not a single arg.
+// This should be used when dealing with user-passed lists of args to avoid confusing errors,
+// since Sass treats `($x)` as equivalent to `$x`.
+@function normalize-args-list($list) {
+  @return if(meta.type-of($list) != 'list', ($list,), $list);
+}