Shirley's Party Advice Part 7 - how did they all get so big...

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

They're lovely. I wish you could post me some. We've had the annual "please send your DC into school with a "Festive" packed lunch on the last day of term" letter again and I'm struggling with what to put in.

I think last year I did snowman shaped turkey sandwiches complete with carrot noses but I can't remember what else there was. I need to find the photos.

I was considering turkey tortilla wraps this year and was wondering if I could make them cracker shaped if I warmed the wrap first and then cooled it while tied with string? But what else?

I wish he ate cheese because these are super cute!

The leftovers got scoffed by the boarders at school and by DS at home - TBH I probably could post some, but the timing would be tricky... I am trying to think of a prefab round thing that you could melt a giant milky bar button onto (which is what I did - just stuck a button on top of each hot cake pop as it came out and let it melt) but all I can think of is teacakes - I guess you could pipe icing or melted white chocolate onto those and add sugarpaste holly leaves and berries?

What is the list of things that DS does eat again? I know it's shorter than the list of things that he doesn't....

It's DD that's the picky one. DS won't eat cheese and anything spicy. He's good with pretty much everything else.

Will have a think. Shattered, and need to wrap cakes and bake a Pyrex bowl cake tonight - which went wrong last time I tried it.

I like this idea - if he likes tortillas you could do Christmas tree ones and cracker shaped ones...

I saw that yesterday and was thinking I might do those :)

He won't eat cheese but I was thinking that I could possibly cut holes in the top layer so that you could see the filling through for the baubles?

I've got some chocolate sprouts and snowmen biscuits to go in too.

Need another savoury thing now. I did carrot slices last year. Was considering pretzels or popcorn like in the picture

Or little parcels (trouble is, cheese is the obvious material for those, too)

hi...I was hoping for some Christmas sandwich ideas ( this is what we have been asked to provide for dd's school Christmas party!!!) was thinking maybe star shaped fairy bread (the class were stars in the nativity) but hoping for any creative ideas please.
Thanks

what has everyone else been asked to provide, slp? Only for DD's school Christmas party, sandwiches were pretty much the only savoury option, so most people opted to stick with ham, cheese - and they all seemed to go. If you wanted to be adventurous, you could still do stars - with a mini star cut out of one layer so that you could see what was in it, IYSWIM? That would save a lot of handling of sandwiches IME. Primary age DC are extraordinarily conservative on sandwich fillings, on the whole.

Thanks. There are crisps, veg sticks and that about it I think (the list is at home). It does ask for two different fillings (sweet and savoury). I appreciate what you are saying though so maybe just keep it simple! I just thought I could make the sandwiches look Christmasy as sandwiches can be a bit boring!!!

Thanks again

I think stealth's suggestion could look quite good.

You could make say, jam filled sandwiches cut into star shapes with a mini star cut out of the top layer to show the filling and maybe tree shaped cheese or ham - or turkey - sandwiches with little circles cut out of the top layer to look like baubles.

I'm going to do the savoury version for my kids on Friday as DS needs to take a "festive" packed lunch in (and DD might as well have the same) only I might do mine with tortilla wraps and make quesadillas instead. I would not perhaps try these out on a party though because as stealth said, little kids can be very wary of 'different' food.

If you were feeling daring, you could sprinkle the sandwiches with edible glitter to make them look a bit more exciting. Most supermarkets do it these days. Maybe silver on the stars and a bit of green over the trees? Just be sparing with it as it can be a bit alarming at the other end otherwise

The link that stealth found for me above shows Christmas quesadillas^^

This one

These are the kind of thing you could make with a cutter

These might get eaten too and you could do whatever filling you liked.

Maybe cheese in the snowmen and jam in the trees with little jammy baubles?

Can I ask your opinion please laydees!

I'm doing a buffet for a party and wanted to include a cheese cake/tower. I then wanted something sweet, so a vanilla or chocolate.

Does that sound ok? Or should I do a buffet and then after do the cheese as dessert and skip the 'pudding'/something sweet?

• vanilla/chocolate cake

Cheese and cake sounds good to me - most people will have one or the other, some will have both, everyone will be happy.

I'd be so tempted to do a 3 tier Cheese-Cheesecake-Cake thing just to cover all bases :)

Evil minds think alike Blathers. I was thinking that if you have cheese pretending to be cake, why not cake pretending to be cheese to complete the circle? Like this ?

Just popping in to say merry christmas to my favourite party planners. Have a lovely day tomorrow with your families.

And be back here bright and early in the new year to help me frantically organise a messy play party within 6 weeks!

Mucho stressness....xxxxxxxx

Merry Christmas party planners :)

I got a cake pop maker - and sticks and a stand - from my very prepared sister so I've now got to crowbar cake pops into whichever party I do next. It'll probably be DS in March. I wanted to do a science party but blimey they're expensive!

A belated happy Christmas to you both. I got a paper cutting set, (oh and lots of cutters most of which I already had from SIL) but so far I have been mostly doing stuff with DD - half completed decoupage pig, Lego helicopter, woven friendship bracelet and silk daisy chains now scattered around the house.

Blathers, with a bit of help from your siblings, you could do a diy science party - I have loads of ideas and links from when we did DS's, and DD has already decided that is what she is having next year.

I considered DIY but having never been to a science party, I wasn't sure what I'd do - plus we have the ever present problem of our house being tiny and I was a bit nervous about doing science experiments in a hired hall.

There are plenty of safe options for a hall - I will come up with so easy links for you when I am next on my PC. I have a load of "wish I had done that" options saved up for DD's next party, and some which we will repeat. Also some shopping ideas for next US trip (late Feb).

I am so getting these and these