Buffet or party box.

[Heavymetalmater]

Trying to decide if its easier to do pre made party boxes for my sons 5th birthday or a buffet. Dont want wastage which i have witnessed before with buffets. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on which is better.

I did picnic bags for DS' s 4 th birthday last year. Worked brilliantly with very little wastage. Each bag had - sausage roll ( or veggie sausage roll), warmed up and wrapped in foil just before party; a bag of Hula Hoops ; a carton of apple juice; a bag of party rings, a Babybel and a tangerine. I got the paper bags from eBay. There was a bit of adult intervention needed for the tangerines, but I thought they'd be more robust than apples because the party was in.the park and and packed up the picnics before hand.

I'm wondering the same for DD's birthday - I think I'll go for boxes (I've found them on eBay and Amazon) because there is not much DD loves more than getting one of the lunch boxes when we have lunch at the cafe

I did party boxes of food and it worked brilliantly. I put a cheese sandwich, crisips, cupcake and grapes in each. A few children moaned about the selection but it made it a lot easier on the day and very little waste, I will always use them now.

I've never done them, my DCs much prefer being able to choose from a selection at a table. We had ond soft play party where they were provided and it took all the sociability out of the food part, the children were all sat hidden behind their boxes, much nicer to see them passing plates of food to each other and chatting across the table. For a picnic it might make things a lot easier though.

yes to party boxes. we used them this year the kids all loved it.

one cheese one ham sandwich, packet of crisps and some haribos and a couple of smal sweets.

then on the table we had chocolate dipped strawberries jugs of orange/blackcurrant juice.

so much easier to tidy up and less waste.

plan for a few more in case siblings turn up or something.

Hot dogs, tomato sauce, bottle of pop and packet of crisps always a winner, never any waste.

It wouldn't be a winner with my DS Always, he wouldn't eat a hot dog if it was the last food on earth. This is another problem with them, if a child is fussy (and one of mine is) it is really sad seeing them open their box and finding they don't like anything in there, which I have witnessed on more than one occasion at this type of party (not just my own DCs either).

I had this dilemma for my DDs 5th birthday last month.In the end I decided it was cheaper to put out platters of food but but I kept it really simple and suppressed the urge to over cater.

I've done the party box thing before and just found it harder work and you get kids moaning that they don't like this and that.

We ended up with just enough food over to offer around to the parents once the kids had finished.I had wasted food so was really pleased.

I had 35 kids and did :

1 loaf of cheese spread and 1 loaf of jam finger sandwiches
Chicken dippers ( about 90 of them)
Cocktail sausages ( about 60)
Crisps ( three large sharing bags)
Grapes

Selection of small cakes and biscuits

I also did a platter of sausage rolls and a platter of biscuits for the adults.

I hate wasted food - not had! Sorry.