Food box or Buffet?

[Chococakes]

I am trying to plan my DS 3rd birthday.

It will be at a soft play area with instructor. It will be an hour or organised play plus 30min for food/cake.

Shall I bring food boxes for the kids? Will it look like the cheap option? Shall I have Buffet for both adults and kids?

I have never done a kids party before and it’s an unknown territory to me (not I have been to any kids party recently)!

I don’t want the cheapest option, I want something decent.

Am I unreasonable to worry?

Any advice? What does a lunch box has? What would you do?

It will be just 15 kids!

If they’ve only got 30 minutes then I’d go for boxes: by the time everyone has crowded around and faffed at the buffet choosing it isn’t a lot of time to eat. You could include pizza, good quality cupcakes, homemade sausage rolls, dessert pots, little mixed fruit salad pots, jellies. Loads of options. It won’t look cheap if you put in half decent stuff.

Are you allowed to take your own food to the soft play rather than have to buy their food?

If you can take your own then, at least in our area, you just feed the children. I don’t know any adults that would expect to be fed too. If it’s just 30 mins for food then a food box sounds ideal. That way they just eat what’s in there rather than spending time picking and choosing.

Food box.

Definitely food box! Juice carton, roll, crisps, pot of carrot and cucumber, little chocolate bar/packet of cookies; we asked for parents to pick ham or cheese for the roll in RSVP and asked for any other allergies etc. Also turned out a coupler big bowls of nibbles for the grown ups and water. Went down a treat!

Will you be making the buffet or boxes or do you buy them from the venue?
Small children and a buffet means it will take ages and parents will be involved throughout.
The easiest kids party tea I ever did was using cardboard colour in party boxes: we took them flat to the venue with a box of food and treats then popped them up and filled them really quickly: each one got a packets of crayons, a toy, a balloon, 3 mini sandwiches (Jam, ham, cheese spread), a fairy cake, a fruit bag, a packet of Pom bears and a fruit shoot. Anyone who lost interest or wasn't hungry could colour in their box before they went home.

Food boxes , you don’t need to feed adults .

Totally depends on soft play centre, none round here allow you do d your own food.

Thank you all!

It may sounds stupid but when you say a “pot of fruit” or “pack a sandwich” how do I do that?

Can I buy pots for one use? Do I pack sandwiches in foil paper?

I know it’s a stupid question but I haven’t seen a party food box in the past to appreciate the logistics and understand how to prepare it!

Where do I put the pizza, the rolls etc.?

We bought regular paper cups to put the fruit and veg in and individually wrapped the little rolls beforehand. Think I bought the boxes flat-packed from eBay! Didn't bother with pizza 🤔 I've done at least 8 kids parties over the years and would never go buffet again! Too much faff and lot of waste IME

So do you know that you can take your own food? Usually you can't. Most soft play parties are food for the children only.

Boxes. Can also put out a few plates of things on the table too

Contact the venue first to find out if you can take food or if they provide it, you may be worrying unnecessarily. If you do provide it then I would do a platter or ham sandwiches, a platter of cheese, cucumber, carrot and pepper sticks and then some fruit, crisps and cupcakes. Don’t overdo it, 15 kids will not eat that much.

Do they allow you to bring the food? At any soft play parties we’ve held or been to, the soft play provide the food, we just brought the cake and party bags along.