Kids party food

[gerbilgirl]

More of a would ibu?

It's our daughters birthday in a few weeks and we have hired a local hall and have a mixture of school friends and family coming. She will be 5.

Her sister had a similar party last year (she turned 8) and we did a full spread of sandwiches, sausage rolls, nibbles, crisps, fruit, quiche, etc.

As this party is not over mealtime (2-4pm) would it be unreasonable to just put out some crisps, biscuits, cakes, fruit rather than the full spread?

Haven't actually made up my mind yet, but was curious as to people's expectations?

Thanks for any thoughts

Based on what I saw over 7 years of primary school age parties the ones in the mid afternoon had always tons of food left and wasted. In my opinion most people eat lunch at lunchtime and never expect food served at 3pm to last as dinner.

We had some mid-afternoon parties and only served snacks and fruit plus cakes. That’s still enough to calm kids down but reduce the food waste.

Also, at that age most parents will stay and see how much a child eats and that it needs normal dinner.

I would be fine as long as you told me beforehand. I also usually only give my child a snack before a party.

Similarly for a party between say 3-5 I would only give a snack for dinner afterwards.

I agree with what s previous poster said about a chance to sit down, calm down etc.

Definitely do food!

Soon having a party at the same time slot as you @gerbilgirl and planning snacks rather than full meal also.

Mine would want food.

Serving light snacks is perfectly fine but I think it's good form to make this clear well beforehand so that parents can ensure their child has eaten adequately.
My DS went to a party and they didn't serve any food. Unfortunately, they didn't advise they wouldn't be serving food and the previous year, had served huge amounts of food. So I had (wrongly) assumed that the party was being catered and deliberately didn't feed DS since breakfast so he could join in with the eating. Had to grab a pizza on the way home.

Sounds pretty unhealthy. All the kids parties we’ve been to so far are sandwiches, fruit, veggie sticks, humus etc

Then a small piece of cake at the end.

I’d expect food- do a spread!

If my dc were invited to a party at that time I would give them lunch at 12 as there is no way they could wait until 3pm for a full lunch so would be happy with just snacks

If you make the parents aware beforehand I think it’s fine.

@CassianAndor. I’m with you. It’s totally bat shit. Party at 2pm and no lunch? OP. If I got your invite I would organise lunch and dinner for my child.

Let the parents know if that's the plan, just in case. I agree that food is a good opportunity to get everyone calm. How about individual lunch bags / boxes to limit waste? Could just be in paper bags- also easier to prepare earlier and hand out rather than worrying about trays of food.