Food for a teenage party

[pinkyponkyplink]

I have 20 teenagers coming to my house this weekend for a party. Never done anything of this size before but it’s for my daughter’s birthday. I’m thinking of pizza, hot dogs and nuggets.

can anyone recommend a supermarket pizza that tastes ok and won’t cost me a fortune?

do I serve the food and leave it out like on a buffet table? What about the hot dogs as they will go cold? I’ve eaten cold pizza and nuggets but not hot dogs.

would you do bottles of fizzy drink or cans?

any other suggestions? Dreading it but hoping it goes well and they have fun.

Pardon? Please show me where I said hash brownies?

I also said 'when they are older' in relation to alcohol. Kids to have a tendency to get older, and sixth form parties tend to have alcohol involved.

Apologies you didn't explicitly say hash but with the alcohol for teens comment it was insinuated it was hash brownies your daughter and her friends fondly remember.

I think you need to pick your mind up out of the gutter @HumbleHun. No way did the poster insinuate hash brownies.

Oh to be so naive and wholesome. I'm.so pleased there are still folk like you around in this cesspit of a world. Keep on being you.

I did not insinuate hash brownies any more than I insinuated giving alcohol to 13 year olds. Have a word with yourself...

It's usually the sex threads that pick up the half term trolls, not the food threads!

Why you bringing up sex now? This is a thread about what FOOD to serve up to a gathering of young teens and so far you've mentioned alcohol, sex and mystical 'brownies'.. quite the achievement and you have gall to call me a HTT?

M and S do a pizza meal deal - two large pizzas and two sides for £12. The sides include chicken nuggets, garlic bread, halloumi fries, chips, so it’s really good value.
I’d get five deals for 20 people.

Lidl, cheapest pizza (£1, and garlic bread. Put some extra cheese on. Teens will demolish it.
You could get a big box of doughnuts too (if you go in a few days before the party you can usually ask them to make you a load of doughnuts for collection) -can't go wrong for 40p each.

Another vote for the cheaper supermarket pizzas. We’ve also got the Costco ones a few times, also the cookies that come in a box of 20 or something always get eaten. If you have Costco card.

I would always go for large bottles of soft drink with plenty of paper cups and access to water. My teens asked for those large red cups recently, seem to be the in thing. I rinsed and recycled after.
if you get cans they’re expensive and people take one and leave them around so there is a lot of waste.

if you have leftover drink in bottles the next day I’ve found that if you put them on a recycling app like Olio they usually get taken as only open for a day or so, which means we don’t have to keep drinking fizzy for a week and they get used somewhere.

Get lots of napkins, crisps, birthday cake etc.

Over the summer my DS hosted a World Cup party and i did hot dogs that time and got those red and white hot dog boxes, I think from home bargains, DS said his friends really liked those.

for a 16th we made a non alcoholic punch which no one really drank! Possibly a bit old fashioned 😂

We’ve hosted a LOT of teenage parties.

What on earth is wrong with hot dogs?

For 20, steer clear of pizzas cooked at home. Even with a double oven you can still really only cook 4 at a time. If you can afford domino’s (they do hefty discounts on large orders) go for this - pad out with home cooked chips and garlic bread. Hot dogs easier but for teens you have to make it “bougie” - so cook a chilli, have toppings like chilli and cheese.
for my daughter and that number I’ve done poke bowls in the past - everything prepped in advance then a big bowl of rice to cook.
Ive also done a burger bar and pasta bar - a ton of fresh pasta cooks in moments and then a few sauces they help themselves to.

Do you know what's in a hotdogs and how they are made? Don't confuse hotdogs with bratwurst or frankfurters. No one serves hotdogs anymore to either guests or customers. If you boiled up 5 tins of hotdogs md left finger buns out for teenagers they wouldn't get eaten amd the sad sight would ne ll over Instagram being mocked for being put up.aa a birthday treat. Do you actually know people that still serve hotdogs at parties in 2026

Do you know what's in a hotdogs and how they are made? Don't confuse hotdogs with bratwurst or frankfurters. No one serves hotdogs anymore to either guests or customers. If you boiled up 5 tins of hotdogs md left finger buns out for teenagers they wouldn't get eaten amd the sad sight would ne ll over Instagram being mocked for being put up.aa a birthday treat. Do you actually know people that still serve hotdogs at parties in 2026? Thought not.

Sainsbury’s and Tesco both do a takeaway pizza meal deal, 2 pizzas, sides and a dip for £10. They are pretty decent so maybe grab a few of those.

Not sure what’s wrong with you on this thread… but FWIW I served proper sausages and hot dog rolls, not those things you get in a tin. HTH

Well yes then we have crossed wires, hot dogs are the things you buy in a tin of brine that were a staple of the 80 and 90s kids party's, serving a proper sausage is a million miles away from that and certainly would let be refereed to as a hot ddog, be like serving pizza and saying its cheeses on toast.

I second Dominos, yes it costs more but it is SO much easier and gives you a break.

Make the dough now (3 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 pack yeast, 1 cup lukewarm water warm water) makes 2 large pizzas, so make 3 - 4 lots of this then have a bowl of passata, grated cheese, sliced pepperoni, sliced peppers, sliced onions, drained sweetcorn maybe and make smaller bases (precook for 5 minutes before they arrive) then let them make their own pizzas, it’s an activity as well as dinner. Have a buffet of dips with carrots, breadsticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, chicken drumsticks maybe (don’t put anything on them as that covers you for a lot of allergies) plain bagged ready salted crisps which again covers a lot of allergy potential issues. I wouldn’t bother with hot dogs, perhaps just do a load of those little frozen sausage rolls and the cheese and onion ones too, see the Christmas ranges for cheap filling options

I actually would do chilli and baked potatoes as a far easier alternative, then grated cheese, guacamole and sour cream to top plus tortilla chips. I served this for a party (a meat one and a vegan one) as I had known allergy issues with a guest, everything was gluten free, and as long as you avoided the toppings, dairy free

Wowsers.

You can get some nice vegan hotdogs - I’d be very happy if somebody presented me with a couple at a party with a load of fried onions and American mustard.

Agree that pizza for twenty would be a nightmare.

Chilli could be a good option.

With respect, don’t do this - they’re teens and don’t need an activity, this sounds lovely but would be more suitable for younger children.

It would be carnage. Who’s got a kitchen big enough for 20 teens to be assembling pizzas in?!

How is pizza a nightmare - it’s literally the easiest party food in the world (if you don’t try and get kids making their own), and suitable for veggies, GF etc.

Because who has an oven big enough to make enough pizza to accommodate 20 people at once? Not me. They'd be waiting ages for a slice.