Please critique my food ideas for 4yr old party...

[lisbapalea]

I am planning a party in the local village hall for my DD's 4th birthday party in a couple of weeks' time. Having just had DD2 I am keen to keep things simple so I think I will do party boxes with the kids' food in, along with a few little 'presents' to save the hassle of prepping an actual meal, and to save doing full on party bags.

So my thoughts for the food contents of the boxes would be:

• ham / cheese sandwich (will ask preference on the invite). Do you think two small sandwich triangles are enough, based on the fact most kids ignore savoury food at a party?
  
• babybel or similar individual cheese
  
• sasuage roll or a couple of cocktail sausages
  
• small pack of crisps
  
• a couple of cherry tomatoes
  
• a few grapes
  
• yogurt tube thing
  
• small pack of sweets or choc buttons
  

There will be jugs of water or squash so I won't buy individual waters etc. I also figured that the birthday cake can be pudding.

Is that too much / not enough food stuff in the boxes?

Any recommendations for party bag gifts for 4yr olds?

Thanks in advance - any feedback welcome!

[bonvivant]

I think you're going to too much trouble - I wouldn't ask for preference on an invite. Half the time, you're lucky to get a response to invites!

Also, children don't eat much at parties. I would cut down the food down a little - skip the yoghurt, sweets and tomatoes.

For party bags, I tend to buy some nice bags off Ebay in a cone shape and fill them with sweets. Most things in party bags never get played with and you're just left with lots of plastic stuff.

[bigbadbarry]

They'll never eat all that :)

[sonlypuppyfat]

I think my DCs would have prefered a small cake or small bag of iced gem biscuits rather than a yogurt. The rest sounds nice though.

[Pancakeflipping]

Far too much food.
Save yourself some money and a lot of waste by cutting back.

For party bags look at getting a load of books from the Book People or other such places or sticker books.

[Ruprekt]

I would not bother with individual boxes as kids eat vv little at parties.

Bowls crisps, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, babybels, mini sausages, grapes, breadsticks, party rings.

Juice
Cake

Job done....much cheaper, less waste as parents can then tuck in!

[Ragwort]

Agree too much faff/trouble - sorting out the boxes will be a pain, just put out a few platters of stuff. They don't eat much at that age.

[sonlypuppyfat]

I went to a nice party once they were given a nice plastic cup with a few sweets in instead of a party bag.

[smallandimperfectlyformed]

Are you going to have food there for the adults as well? I wouldn't leave my 4 year old at a party so I would expect some kind of nibbles for the grown ups, even if it's just a couple of bowls of crisps.

[lisbapalea]

Wow - thanks for all the speedy responses! I will cut back on the contents of the boxes based on all of your feedback!

I do prefer the idea of doing boxes though, to laying food out as that to me seems more hassle for managing on the day (based on experience of doing that last year), whereas I can prep the boxes the night before and then hopefully forget about them on the day. I am also going to use the boxes to double up as party bags so will shove a couple of small gifts into each box - also a reason why I should cut back on the food I suppose!

I will lay on some coffees / teas and treats for adults too. I did homemade stuff last year but this year I think I'll get some of those boxes of flapjack / brownie minibites from Sainsburys and save myself the bother!

[slug]

The one thing that got hoovered up at DD's 6th birthday party was the old Kiwi favourite, Fairy bread. White plastic bread spread with marge ( or spreadable butter if I'm being posh) sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and cut into small triangles

[heather1]

I did a party with boxes. There was a lot less mess. Kids loved the boxes and it was easier to clear up after.
For drinks I offered cartons of juice different flavours (not the Capri sun pouches as they are difficult to open) and glasses of water.
Boxes are th way forward IMO.

[EirikurNoromaour]

One jam and one cheese sandwich per box, jam on brown and cheese on white. A packet crisps, a biscuit, a fairy cake, some chopped fruit and veg like carrot. That will do.
For party bagesque gifts the book people are very good. You can get multipacks of books that work out at £1-2 each which cost £4-5 individually in smiths. £25 and it's free delivery so put some extra things in the basket for future kids birthday presents.

[toykitchen]

I've been to a couple of parties that have done the food boxes and I think they're great. So little mess and the kids love them. Drinks have usually been sports cap mini bottles of water or fruit shoots - so no drink spills or washing up there either.

[ShoeWhore]

I think you get a lot of food wasted with boxes tbh. I usually make up big platters of everything in advance and cling film it all. Then they can take the bits they like and avoid the stuff they don't and you don't need to know in advance who's veggie etc.

If you really want to do boxes though, I'd do:

2 triangle sandwiches
Packet of Hula Hoops
Little sausage roll
Grapes if you absolutely must
Fairy cake
Couple of party rings or choc fingers.

Tube yoghurts will go everywhere so don't do those. Small children v hit or miss with tomatoes so I wouldn't bother with those either. I would consider doing an individual drink in the box instead though.

Just thinking though are most of those bits in the box going to need wrapping individually so they don't go stale? Sounds like a lot of work to me!

[cece]

I always do boxes. I find them easier and less waste imo.

I do 3 triangle of sandwiches - 1 jam, 1 tuna and 1 ham (I have dairy free child)
3 or 4 mini sausages
1 pack of crisps
some sort of cup cake or biscuits
little bag of grapes/strawberries
carton of drink

Then also a birthday cake.
I don't provide food for parents. I wouldn't expect any myself either. Although a drink would be appreciated - either a coffee or I got offered a can of diet coke the other day which was nice.

Alternatively, if there is an oven I would do fish fingers and oven chips for all. I always put DH in charge of this. //wink

[HauntedNoddyCar]

Increase the number of cocktail sausages. At every single one of dd's parties I have been astonished by their ability to demolish them. A pack of 40 disappeared within 2 minutes among 18 girls at the last party.

[Parrish]

Hotdogs in rolls. (Heated at home, kept warm in a bit of hot water in Tupperware). Ketchup on tables. Popcorn in big bowls. Fruit pieces on skewers. Cupcakes.

Virtually no waste as almost everything was eaten!

[DisneyAddict88]

I did boxes for 4th bday and found kids didn't really eat it all so last year for 5th I cooked a couple of big pizzas - chopped and cling filmed. then did trays of crisps and chopped grapes. then a cake pop after. was plenty and not loads of waste!!

and agree re adults I dont expect to be fed at a party - tea would be great if possible and I normally buy a box of biscuits

[lisbapalea]

Thanks all - lots of ideas here!

[MsAspreyDiamonds]

Dont forget the vegetarians or those on faith specific diets like kosher or halal as they wont be able to eat pork/meat products. Quorn do mini cocktail sausages so I bought a few packs of those with small bowls of ketchup. Sign up to costco & buy the food & drinks in large catering packs which will be cheaper than buying individual units from the supermarket.

[Oblomov]

Sounds fine.
I always eat a few of ds's bits at a party.
Bad mummy
Thus I always provide a few savoury bits for parents.