A child’s birthday party can be quite a big thing to organise if you’ve never done anything like it before. There are many things to take into consideration - the decorations, the games and activities, the entertainment and the food and drink. We’ve put together a little guide that we hope will aid you in your preparations for the day

Food And Drink For Your Kids Party

The first thing to think about when considering what to serve up at the party is if there will be any children with allergies or medical conditions which will need to be taken into account. This is very important as some allergic reactions can be very serious, a nut allergy, for example, while not too common, is one of the more serious you have too look out for.

The best way to deal with this is, when you’re organising the party list a couple of weeks beforehand, check with all the parents of the kids who will be arriving on the day to find out if there is anything you should be aware of when preparing or serving food.

Once you know what you can’t cook, the even more difficult part is choosing from what you can cook!

Kid Friendly Food

There’s quite a range of foods you can serve at a kids party, depending on who’ll be coming and what sort of menu you want to lay out. Here are some suggestions

• Ice cream - the old favourite, serve in bowls or in cones with cream and cherries. Brilliant!
• Fruit - grapes, strawberries, raisins. Nothing too tough for little teeth
• Sandwiches - Use mainly sweet fillings, things like cheese and ham also go down well
• Cinnamon buns
• Sticks and dips - sticks of carrot, celery with individual dips. You can buy packs like these readymade at most good supermarkets
• Pancakes
• Juice with colourful frozen icecubes - Freeze colourful juices in the freezer to make these funky cubes!
• Potatoes, mashed or baked - healthy and a firm favourite with a lot of kids
• Pizza - cut into small squares rather than slices, and go for healthy toppings. It’s a great way to trick kids into eating vegetables!
• Nuts and olives - watch out for nut allergies though. These sort of things go down well with the grown ups too

Themed Food

You may want to consider thinking about how the food will blend in with the theme of your party - if your party has a particular theme. Perhaps for a pirate party, you could have things like chicken drumsticks, pizza and other “hand food” to be eaten just like a pirate would. Yarr! Frozen juice ice cubes can also be used as expensive floating “jewels” in the drinks.

Or, for a Hawaiian party, try a variety of chicken or pork with pineapple or cherries on top. Or perhaps a chicken salad in a hollowed out pineapple, tropical fruit salad or exotic ice cream flavours. Whatever you choose, choose something you know you’ll have fun making too!

Party Food Boxes

These are a great idea, and can be used like a party bag at the end of the day to let the kids take home a few snacks and treats. You could also, in the style of a McDonald’s happy meal, put in a little toy or game for the kids to play. We have a selection of these you can browse through in our online store, The Party Basket.

Food For The Grown-Ups Too!

Keep in mind that it probably won’t only be kids at the party, quite a few parents and supervising adults will be there too, so make sure the food you put out will be appreciated by children and adults alike. Things like cocktail sausages, sticks and dips and mini nibbles are all good for this.

Ordering Food From An External Caterer

If you are too busy to prepare anything yourself, then you can always purchase food from a caterer to be delivered on the day. There are many companies you can choose from who will offer this sort of service and you will be left with more free time to organise the other elements of the party, games and activities etc.

Sometimes though, the food you want for the party, especially if it is something quite specialised would be quite expensive. (you might come up with some sort of fantastic idea for themed party food that just cant be ordered! Chocolate coated strawberries, for example) In this case, it is cheaper, and more fun to make these sort of things yourself! Your kids will have a great time helping you out with the fun foods too.

Heading For a Meal Out

If your budget permits it, you might want to consider taking the party to a restaurant for food. There are many places which will cater for large groups of kids (And I’m not just talking about McDonalds!) Have a look in the Yellow Pages or search the internet and you will most likely find a fun and interesting restaurant nearby which will happily accomodate a kids party.