Help me with kids party food please

[TellerTuesday4EVA]

So although I have attended what seems to be an endless flow of kids parties when it comes to doing one for my DD my mind has turned to total mush!

We've always had hers at soft play or venues where the foods been included this year I stupidly booked the village hall & I'm struggling....

She's turning 5...... There's 40 kids in total 😩 mostly aged 3-6ish with a couple of older family members.

So far I've got

Sandwiches - ham & cheese... are buns or bread better?

Big bowls of crisps / mini cheddars
Sausage rolls
Cheese straws

Cucumber
Carrot
Cherry tomatoes

Chocolate fingers
Party rings

Party sausages
Cheese cubes

Is that enough of a variation... anything else I can add.....

I was thinking some of those little pizzas cut up but can you get them from the supermarket ready done... don't have any facilities at the venue to cook them??

We just had my son and daughters fifth birthday at the weekend. We had.....
A loaf of ham sandwiches and a loaf of cheese.
Sausage rolls
Cocktail sausages
Chicken nuggets
Cold pizza

Party rings
Mini choc chip muffins

Crisps
Cheese savouries

Grapes
Strawberries
Watermelon
Cucumber
Carrot sticks

There was enough for all the children (around 18 children) and for the adults to pick as well

Best party my 4.5 year old went to recently, the parents did little lunch boxes (you know, the cardboard kind you get in the bakers?).

They gave them a sandwich (made up of quarters; cheese, ham, jam and egg), bag of crisps, fruit in a paper cup (melon and berries I think), cupcake, couple of jelly sweets and maybe something else.

No faffing on passing things around, all the kids had same, they couldn't just scoff 20 biscuits etc. Plus the kids were impressed with the box

I wouldn’t bother with party food.

Have you got a slow cooker? If so, hot dogs in rolls, bag of pombears and a mini roll.

Much easier, and less cost/waste as kids don’t really eat party food, but the pombears and mini roll could be taken away and eaten on the journey home.

Another vote for lunchboxes. I did these recently & honestly they are so easy. Much less faff & stress at the party

Another vote for a lunch box, makes life much simpler. You can always have some extra sandwiches and crisps on hand if you want to be able to offer the adults something to pick at.

In my experience, children like their plates, have a bite of eveything, then leave it. I think the hot dogs & Pom Bears idea is great. In the past I've done lots of crisps, cubes of cheese, crackers, cherry tomatoes, mini-biscuits (those tiny jammy dodgers, chocolate fingers,etc) and chocolate mini rolls cut into sliced and piled into a plate.

I did lunchboxes for DS's party a few years ago, you can get them fairly cheaply on Ebay. Far easier to manage and if the children didn't eat everything they could take it home

We put in-

Sandwich
Small pack of crisps
Fruit bag - you can cheat and buy ready made in Asda
Veg stick bag
Biscuit

We made a plate up of spare sandwiches in case some children didn't like what was in the box

I always hated the lunch boxes - how would you know who eats ham or cheese? Who gets the plain crisps and who doesn't like salt and vinegar? That's just wasteful because the kids don't eat it

The tinned hotdogs in a slow cooker is good and I know this goes down well. Keep some rolls back for a few fussy eaters with cheese and ham for the rolls.

You party list is a good one with lots of variety

Don't forget the pop and birthday cake