Kid’s party food in mid 1990s onwards - what have a missed!

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So we are looking to do a typical late 1990s/early 2000s “kids party buffet” to celebrate adult DC’s birthdays (think 24 years+)

This is their ask not me being weird!

Obviously we did shopping and catering then but blowed if I can remember beyond obvious what was in the menu - so what have I missed (obviously generic here!)?

Colin the Caterpillar cake (Obvs)
Sandwiches - egg, ham, chicken, cheese
Pineapple on sticks (why?)
Sausage rolls
Salad (to look good)
Crisps/tortillas
Hummus, dips and olives (exotic at time!)
Crisps - no idea what they had (pombears?)

Any other nostalgic suggestions?

Space raiders
Swiss roll
Rainbow drops

Push pops for the party bags

You're forgetting the pickled onion with a cheese cube on a stick also. It should be a combination of cheese and pineapple and cheese and pickled onion. I've never seen or heard of a sausage or hot dog, but yes to the foil covered grapefruit. If you're feeling fancy you could add vol au vents with egg and tuna mayo.

Oh and some viennetta for desert

Cheese puffs or monster munch!

Battenburg & Viennese whirls or Mr Kipling cherry bake wells. They are still around now and still very exciting.

Guys. Some of you are too fancy. You want:

• a white iced birthday cake with a wafer princess or superhero motif on the top (no one would have had a Colin).

• A cheese and pineapple on sticks hedgehog.

• Sandwiches cut into triangles. Fillings were ham, marmite, cheese or jam.

• Jam tarts.

-Wotsits and ready salted crisps.

• Pink wafers and party rings

• Cheap squash.

SunnyD!

This thread is weird. So many of these suggestions are typical seventies / eighties fare. OP has asked for suggestions specific to the late nineties. Colin the Caterpillar - yes. Sunny Delight - yes. How about sour sweets like Toxic Waste? Were Percy Pigs late nineties? As it’s for adults could you include nineties-era alcopops (Hooch, Two Dogs)? I also remember alcohol-laced jelly in the late nineties.

Loads of articles like this online www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/remember-the-90s/amp/

We used to do regular parties in my twins club. We attempted to be a bit healthy, and did cherry tomatoes and grapes; but never salad!

Our children’s parties always had jelly in individual cases. Obviously, always the chocolate caterpillar cake!

Bagel bites, Dairy Lea lunchables, Muller corners, pop tarts, rice Krispy squares, potato smiley faces, pizza with stuffed crust. I’m on a roll now!

Party rings
Iced gems
Sometimes those chocolate covered mini animal biscuits
Pink wafers
Cadbury chocolate fingers

Hula hoops
Skips
Wotsits
Twiglets
Supermarket crisps

Cheese and pineapple on sticks, yes.

Colin wasn't a thing in my childhood but definitely was in equivalent aged friends.

Essentially all I ate at children's parties was biscuits and cake, hence that's I can remember!

Yes to Sunny Delight as well!

@VashtaNerada

Bagel bites, Dairy Lea lunchables, Muller corners, pop tarts, rice Krispy squares, potato smiley faces, pizza with stuffed crust. I’m on a roll now!

I was born in 86 - these suggestions are way off the mark for a typical kids party!

- a white iced birthday cake with a wafer princess or superhero motif on the top (no one would have had a Colin).

We never had a Colin unless it was a homemade affair - always the sugar paper topped fondant icing cake!

Tbf the standard kids party buffet hasn’t changed all that much. I think you also need mini sausage rolls (frozen ones you cook at home so that some are anaemic looking and some burnt), cooked and cold chicken nuggets.

Twiglets.

I first came across Pombears when my nephew was about 18 months old, and he is 23now, so they have been around at least 21 years.

Sausage rolls
Cocktail sausages
Sandwiches - which never get eaten
Chicken nuggets
Cucumber and carrot sticks
Wotsits
Frazzles
Party rings
Chocolate fingers
Fairy cakes
Iced gems

This is stuff from when I was a kid, when my kids were little and now! Classic party food.

@Yaottie I suppose it depends whether OP wants a ‘nineties-themed party’ which would be stereotypical food from the era, or a party which genuinely replicates a party from the nineties. I’m definitely overthinking this now!

Many of these suggestions are 70s/80s and not mid-90s!

The things I specifically remember as a child in the 90s (mostly recall sweet things my mum wouldn't buy me at home so I made a beeline for haha)

• pombears
• cocktail sausages, maybe mini sausage rolls
• jam tarts
• party rings
• iced buns
• pink wafers
• butterfly or fairy cakes
• Cadbury chocolate fingers
• caprisun, ribena
• jelly and ice cream
• swizzels lollies

Also recall bowls of crisps generally like walkers And lots of small triangle sandwiches with ham, cheese, cucumber in etc Everyone also seemed to have the typical birthday cake with the standard jam filled sponge covered in thick white icing, that was way too sugary

Foods I remember from 90s bday parties:
White bread sandwiches with cheese, ham or jam
Chocolate fingers
Party rings
Fondant fancies
Iced gems
Tunnocks Teacakes
Sausage rolls
Cocktail sausages
Crisps (something ‘fun’ like skips, quavers, hula-hoops, wotsits or chipsticks - pombears weren’t mainstream and were available in health food shops so seen as far too ‘healthy’ for a birthday party. Pringles came out in late 90s and seemed very exotic!)
Fizzy drinks - lemonade, coke or Lilt
Crudettes (carrot, cucumber) and breadsticks with dips - not hummus, more like the 4-pack of dips with sour cream & onion, thousand island, cheese & chive and garlic mayonnaise.
Jelly & ice cream

there was always, always a quiche involved at our. Most of the stuff that sounds 80s or 70s rings true to me as an 80s baby and 90s kids party stalwart. As a PP mentions, I'm just not sure children's party food moved on much. there were a lot of multi pack dips with crudités which may have been new, and pringles when they came in.

Early to mid nineties, so possibly a bit early:

White bread sandwiches with cream cheese and cucumber or ham, cut into triangles
Chocolate fingers
Party rings
Iced gems
Fairy cakes with white icing and those little jewel sweets, or butterfly cakes, or with lurid food colouring in the icing e.g. bright blue and green
Mini boxes of Smarties, possibly in the party bags along with bubbles, one of those whistles with the long paper tail that inflated as you blew, and a pencil case/jigsaw/inevitably quite babyish book
Cadbury's mini rolls
Either somebody's mum's non-Instagram-worthy but delicious homemade cake in some sort of simple design (e.g. princess, teddy bear, hedgehog) or very bland shop bought cake with jam and white icing in a slightly more sophisticated theme (car, pirate etc).

Oh, and Ribena!

And yy to hula hoops and a choice of ready salted/cheese and onion/salt and vinegar crisps