Party Lunchbox Contents

[Cobblersorchard]

DD 5th party, most kids coming will be 5 or thereabouts with a couple of toddlers and a few older siblings. Village hall 3-5pm.

We are definitely having lunchboxes for the food. DD is quite a big eater so I’d like a sense check on the amounts I’m thinking of.

No veggies. A few with dairy intolerance so making the contents as easy as possible to accommodate them.

3 triangles of sandwich (cheese, ham, jam). No cheese for dairy intolerant. All with dairy free spread
Pom bears (no dairy)
Bag of mini party rings (no dairy)
4 cocktail sausages (no dairy)
Cucumber and Pepper sticks (3 of each?)
Frube (non dairy yoghurt pouch for the dairy intolerant)
Juice carton (water and fruit shoots also available)
Tangerine

There will be party bags with a toy, small chocolate bar, haribo, lolly and birthday cake (non dairy cupcake and chocolate for those it applies to).

Too much or not enough? We have had similar at other parties but I can’t remember how much of each thing there was.

I want minimal prep and tidy up due to lack of adults! There will be soft drinks and tea/coffee for adults but I’m not feeding them.

I think thats far too much for a party! They won't eat it all but expect some to keep the crisps and party rings for later maybe?

I would take out the frubes and party rings/fruit/veg sticks personally

I’d replace the fruit, veggies and frube with chocolate fingers

They aren’t dairy free….

If you’re trying to avoid waste I’d cut down to two triangles of sandwich. I’ve never seen a child eat more than two small sandwiches at a party.

Definitely ditch the tangerine - none of them will eat it.

If you do veg sticks I’d do cucumber and carrot as pepper stains party clothes.

I’d probably not bother with the frube either as lots will need help opening it.

I’d just do fruit shoots not a carton. Far less mess.

Too much. I’d do the sandwiches, pom bears, party rings, juice and leave it at that.

We definitely had all these things at the last 2 parties (different crisps) as I took note for blatant copying but I can’t remember how many sausages or how many veggies. DD ate all of it though (and that would be similar to her nursery packed lunch without the juice), but I know she eats very well (stick thin too!)

They can take the boxes with them though.

Maybe fewer sausages and 2 sticks of veggies? DD would literally eat half a cucumber though…..

The birthday girl won’t have fruit shoots, she only likes fruit juice so we will have to have both. I don’t mind if there are leftovers of things I can keep as we will use them up though. But yes agree cartons can be messy!

The / were to say take out one of them.

Personally I think its too much as mine wouldn't eat half of it. However, if you are happy to have them take the box away then do that.

I really would ditch the frubes and tangerines though and just go for 2 sandwich options. At the recent parties I've been to kids barely touched the ham or jam.

Good to know it’s probably too much though. I’ll happily ditch the tangerine if most think not needed. I wanted something that didn’t need prep (DD would like strawberries but that is too much hassle to cut and wrap).

Aim is to make up the boxes with the non perishables in advance then just chuck the fresh in at the last minute. I can cope with making sandwiches and wrapping veggies and sausages but don’t want anything else really that needs effort.

At this age I always find eat so much less at parties than they would at a regular meal as they’re over excited and want to go back to playing and running around. Based on what I’ve seen at parties it wasn’t until about age 7 that they actually started eating properly as opposed to nibble to corner off a sandwich and then try to rush off. I also wouldn’t want to take home a warm frube, bashed up orange, half eaten sandwich etc. and that’s if I could even identify which box belonged to my kid. Go with all of that and I reckon you’re going to be binning most of it after the party.

We kept party food very simple - tried and tested - pizza, crisps and chocolate fingers.

Definitely take out the yogurt, too messy!

I recently did:
Two squares of sandwich,
Mini cheddars
Choc fingers
Yoghurt raisins
All in the lunch box.
Then strawbs and blueberries and cucumber on sharing plates.
Seemed about the right amount.