To not do food at a 6 yr old birthday party?

[yellowgecko]

I’m organising a village hall party on a Saturday, 2pm-4pm. The plan is to do a kids disco, and put out bowls of sweets and crisps, do the cake towards the end and give everyone a party bag on leaving.
I think we’ll end up with around 25 kids. I’m just fed up of going to parties and seeing all the food waste!

AIBU - yes you need to do a buffet / proper food
YANBU - snacks are fine, no one will starve

Surely they will have lunch before and dinner after? I think crisps/carrots/cucumber would be fine. I’d probably save the sweets for the party bag.

If you are not going to do food it would be very unusual and I would expect you to make it very clear on invitations.

To save lots of waste we always did lunch box/ bag style food. Sandwich, crisps and a piece of fruit each. Then you could also have those sweets etc available.

at that time of day i think it's fine as it's too late for lunch and too early for dinner. Snacks and a drink should be ok. I wouldn't leave snacks out while the disco is on though, have a break for snack time.

You will need to say it on the invitation. Please don’t put sweets out. Choking hazard if kids are running around.

I think you need to provide some food, more than just crisis and sweets. Some parents will give their kids a light lunch anticipating they’ll eat at the party .

Make it simple - cut up pizza, sausage rolls, crisps and small muffins . Avoid the food that’s left behind.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I would suggest making it clear that snacks are provided but not a full meal so parents can plan meals around it

I think bowls of things are fine but I agree not sweets.

But yeah tbh I would see it as a bit unusual, every single party i’ve been to had food regardless of time of day.

I think from 2-4pm then just snacks and drinks are fine. It’s not over a meal time so I wouldn’t expect my kids to be fed.
I might add some extra snacks like biscuits, cheese and fruit (some kids get really hungry running around) but I don’t think you need to provide a full buffet/meal.

I cannot conceive of not having food at a child’s party.

Never been to, held or heard of a children's party without food. Pizza became my go to as they aged but otherwise the usual sandwiches, crisps, fruit, carrot sticks etc. Never sweets except in the party bags. A sit down time in the middle breaks it up nicely!

I still remember the six year old’s party my daughter went to and they didn’t serve proper food. My daughter is now 24 ;-)

I think it’s very unusual not to have food (I’ve never been to one where a small meal wasn’t served) BUT the timing of it doesn’t necessitate food so if you’re not planning on serving anything then please make sure it’s very clear on the invites

If you cant afford to do the party properly then don't bother at all.

This is how they do it in where we live in France, my dd asked where the food was at the first party she attended and hence we moved. We have now adopted this style and I love it. Parties are generally 3-5pm for the afternoon goûter. I would feed my kids before 2pm so I doubt they would be hungry at the party anyway.
Some fruit and cake would suffice.

I hope you’ve got some other activities lined up - 25 kids spending two hours dancing/running around sounds like hell. Why don’t you supply food that will keep a couple of days or can be frozen if left over? Put a small amount in bowls and restock as needed.

Is it really that hard to make a few sandwiches?

Food at birthday party is ridiculous in my opinion. No one needs pizza or sandwich at 3pm! I would put biscuits, fruits and maybe a few candies.

But i expect some parents to be offended by the idea, so I would make sure it's mentioned on the invitation or maybe an acknowledgement text so everyone is aware.

That sounds like there will be food tho?

Absolutely no food i think is a bad idea.

Snacks (especially if you can have extras still sealed incase they are all starving) at a totally non-meal time seems fine.

YANBU. I wish people would write drinks snd snacks provided on the invite. I hate not knowing, esp if no cafe! I would put that on op.

Then you're a very poor host.

Absolutely fine just to have a few snacks. I'd keep the sweets for the party bags.

If the children are hungry then the parents can feed them a larger dinner.

They are not going to struggle without food for 2hrs.

I'd keep water available though.

Food wastage is a much bigger problem than a mildly peckish 6 year old.

Part of the reason for serving food at a party for small children is to get them to sit down and calm down for a little while. They get a break, the supervising adults can take turns to monitor the children eating.

From a safety perspective it’s not great to have children running about while eating .

If you dislike food waste then rethink your food. Some supermarket pizzas , chicken nuggets, carrot and cucumber sticks, maybe garlic bread, followed by.something simple like fairy cakes, or the actual birthday cake if it’s not too messy.

Is it really that hard for kids not to eat dry cheese sandwich in the middle of the afternoon?

Do this. This is what we did (and went to several who did the same) and there was very little waste and really easy to clear away. Doesn't need to be excessive. Don't put in stuff that won't get eaten .

Bowls of sweets I would avoid as they will be hyper

and sticky and messy as will crisps

in some ways getting them to sit and have a sausage roll and some cheese and grapes would be less troublesome but agree that a full on buffet is daft