Children's party catering advice

Savvy_Sue

skintchick wrote: »

Pizzas and fruit with ice cream to follow us plenty. My DD is 3 and will eat half to one mini pizza, so I'd allow 3/4 each the round up to the nearest pizza. They're so easy and all kids like them.

:rotfl: You've obviously missed my pizza hidden in the washing machine story ... DS1 did not like pizza, even though he liked bread, melted cheese, and tomato sauce. I got a stubborn mood on one day, so did he, and that's when we discovered that if you hide pizza in the washing machine, it doesn't go away and will leave a nasty mess. :rotfl:

He'd probably have eaten it for you, though!

PinkLipgloss

CATS wrote: »

Crisps, jelly, biscuits, grapes, strawberries and sweets to stay on the table during the party. McDonalds happy meals when it's time to eat, send hubby and brother out to get them, no work needed on your (my) part or hot dogs and oven chips always went down a treat when my son was little. Even then they didnt always finish the food

I'll probably get flamed for this but here goes.....

I'd quite honestly by horrified if my son went to a birthday party and was given a McDonalds happy meal.

CATS

pinklipgloss, no, all parents were told in advance, tbh I think they were just glad to get about 5 hours peace, where they knew their kids will be fed, will have a bouncy castle, face painting and magician to entertain them and will be very well looked after. I think most were willing to sacrifice their kids having a McDonalds for the day

Mojisola

skintchick wrote: »

all kids like them.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

:rotfl: You've obviously missed my pizza hidden in the washing machine story ... DS1 did not like pizza

Another two in this house who would go hungry rather than eat pizza!

skintchick

Mojisola wrote: »

Another two in this house who would go hungry rather than eat pizza!

Ok I should have said most. But it's easy to whip up an slternatuve for one child if everyone else has pizza. My OH doesn't eat pizza either actually because he doesn't like melted cheese.

mrsa

I actually would also not like my kids to be given McD happy meals! Pizza is hit and miss.
I have done lots of kids parties (get lots of compliments on them!) Kids love novelty so I got some cookie cutters and used them to cut sandwiches into shapes (makes x4 shapes per 2 slice sandwich)
Biggest hit was pre-filled paper plates on each was:
x1 jam sandwich shape
x1 ham sandwich shape
x1 cheese spread sandwich shape
x2 red grapes
x2 green grapes
x2 carrot sticks
x2 cucumber sticks
x1 mini sausage (cold)
x1 sausage roll (cold)
then slip each plate into a sealable sandwich bag.
All these are pre-prepared at home few hours before party and just handed out. No waste, no kids overflowing plate and leaving most of it, no platters, no handing round, no arguing as all the same.
Crisps in bowls to share.
Then cupcakes and flapjacks (homemade) one each per child. (and few extras for adults!)

Also another hit is buy boxes from amazon and pre-fill with sandwiches, crisps, carton drink and sweet treat (fruit/cherry toms in bowls on table)

skintchick

My DD won;t eat jam or cream cheese so those wouldn;t have worked for us!

I think maybe there is no perfect answer, so just do whatever is easiest for you personally.

(although I agree re the Macdonalds; I wouldn't be happy either although DD would be!)

System

PinkLipgloss wrote: »

I'll probably get flamed for this but here goes.....

I'd quite honestly by horrified if my son went to a birthday party and was given a McDonalds happy meal.

Do nobody remember the days of McDonalds birthday parties? :eek:

I went to loads when i was a kid and had one or two

They were awesome..if you were lucky Ronald McDonald would make an appearance

Funnily enough i think they have stopped doing them now.

meritaten

two triangles per child - and they don't have to have the same filling! marmite isn't that popular with kids. funny thing is they usually like jam or ham!
No fast food - not every parent approves of muckyDs or even hot dogs!
pizza slices, crisps, chicken kebabs, fruit plates (strawberries and grapes are most popular but some kids like melon or fresh pineapple), then little cakes - fairy cakes with icing are well received - especially if they have little sweeties on top! not all kids like buttercream, I find that most prefer icing. ice cream is acceptable - but kids seem to like chocolate sauce on it! or sprinkles.

chewynut

We do childrens parties where I work.

Cold buffets for 20 kids would involve 2 loaves of bread with ham, cheese and seedless strawberry jam. I'm trying to get it changed to chocolate spread because the kids don't seem to like the jam. 3 mini sausages, two little sausage rolls, 12 fairy cakes, 12 mini cakes and 12 tea cakes (because they're cheap, shush. I hate the tea cakes with a fiery passion because all the kids do is bite the chocolate off the top and then the marshmallow ends up trodden into the floor.)

We do offer more healthy things like brown bread and fruit and veg platters but I'd say only one party in seventy takes the healthy options up.

Hot buffets would have 3 big bowls of chips, 3 pizzas, 3 fish fingers or chicken nuggets each. Sometimes we do mini hotdogs. If they don't want cakes, they can have ice cream with sauce and spinkles which goes down very well! Jelly does not. Poor mums make jelly in seperate pots and the kids don't seem to touch it these days!

But the main thing I've noticed is that the kids don't even notice what decorations you've got or what the food's like when there's something AWESOME like a bouncy castle or entertainer. Even party games or discos fall by the wayside when there's a bouncy castle.