Alternatives to Sandwiches in Birthday Party

[nursemom06]

Hi All!

It's my first time hosting a class party for my daughter this September. She's turning 5.

As the title suggests, I don't really want to prepare sandwiches for the party as we've been to a few celebrations and it never gets eaten. I'm planning to do a buffet for both the kids and the parents. I'm expecting about 30-40 children, plus similar number of adults as I've requested for parents to stay.

Please give me some ideas of any alternatives that I can offer during the party. I'm thinking of pizza and hotdogs in finger rolls. But you might have innovative ideas than these.

Many thanks in advance ☺️

I came on to say pizza! But maybe also something like marinated chicken drumsticks or tenders with a dip.

Pinwheels? Easy to make and usually well recieved.

A sushi platter has always been a hit at parties I've hosted. I made most party food but I would buy the platter.

Garlic bread, and surprisingly salad.

Pizza and hot dogs were always big hits at my kids parties.
We used to take our slow cooker to keep a big portion of chilli warm and serve with tortillas for the adults.

Depends on your budget but dairylea dunkers always go down well with that age group.

These are brilliant ideas!!! Thanks so much for sharing and keep them coming. 😊

Budget is not really a worry. But time is as me and daddy are both working full time ☺️

Chicken nuggets, chips and pizza. Easy peasy, 5 year olds love it and minimal effort. Maybe something a bit better for the adults, though most won't be expecting food and will probably graze on biscuits or leftovers.

I've done the sandwich buffet a few times for kids parties, however the easiest kids party I did I just ordered a load of pizzas and sides for delivery.

It was Saturday early afternoon so there were several takeaways doing lunchtime meal deals, I picked one that did a buy 1 get 1 free pizza deal and 3 sides for something offer. Cost about £60 which was about what I would have spent on bits for the buffet.

Ordered it for delivery at the beginning of the first hour to make sure it arrived on time and they ate it at the beginning of the second hour.

Tidy up was just throwing away the boxes.

I'd advise not just to do pizza as some kids don't like/eat cheese

I've done cocktail sausages, chicken dippers before etc

We did have a back up plan in case the pizzas fell through, which was to send DH to the chippy and just buy a bit of everything for them to choose from.

Experience tells me that the kids couldn't care less about the food at the party. It's a useful half hour for the adults trying to keep control, because it gives you a natural break to rein them all in from the screaming, shouting, running, bashing....... and get them to calm down (a teeny bit). For the kids it's an annoying distraction from the fun stuff, they eat just enough to keep themselves fueled and then get up from the table and back to the fun stuff as soon as they can.

Pile of margarita pizzas for the kids, cheese and charcuterie platters with antipasti for the adults plus good bread. Carrots and cucumber plus dip for kids and adults

@nursemom06 I'm a bit mind-boggled... You say you are expecting 30-40 children plus a similar amount of adults which implies there will be around 60-80 guests minimum.... How big is your house? How many bathrooms do you have? Or are you planning to hold it in a village hall or somewhere? Are you planning on hiring help to prepare the food or are you buying in on a takeaway basis? Sorry, too many questions but they are bothering me!

Pizza, garlic bread and big bowls of crisps

Mini cocktail sausages and cubes of cheese as well.

I think marinated chicken drumsticks could get messy. And do 4 and 5 year olds really like sushi?

@BasilParsley 😂😂🤣

Sorry, I was not forthcoming with the info. It's going to be in a village hall near us. We do live a very comfortable life but I'm a bit of a clean freak (which I think is normal for someone in the healthcare profession😳). So party in our house is a big no-no.

I actually tried it before (with adult guests) but never again. I was more stressed cleaning after everyone than enjoying the party. I ended up bleaching the house the day after as well. I know I'm a bit OTT. 😂😂😂

Daddy wants it catered as it's hassle free. But I do enjoy preparing them myself. I did a 50 person party buffet before on my own (with an 8 weeks old baby), so I know it's doable. 😆

Thank you so much for all the ideas everyone! I'm adding them to my list as you share them. ☺️

i can’t be the only one finding the ‘daddy’ thing weird!

i’d also go with pizzas and sides, maybe drop a text to the parents to ask if their child eats pizza so you don’t have to waste time/money getting an alternative unless necessary.

We did pizza, crisps and watermelon, plus birthday cake. Smaller numbers though, and in our garden. Think we had 8 children, 8adults approximately. We cooked 6 pizzas

Hardly any waste, easy, and kids liked. Did it kind of in stages also. So pizza and watermelon out for ‘lunch’, tidied away, 30 mins later bought out the birthday cake.

The crisps were in mini individually bags in basket available at any time. Only about 1/4 were opened so we just could use those at home at later date for Ds as unopened.

I never catered specifically for the parents. if facilities were there possibly hot water for tea/coffee.

never served sandwiches either. just chrisps, biscuits, fruit/veg. and of course cake.

i gave up making sandwiches
sausage rolls
cocktail sausages
carrots
cucumber
cherry tomatoes
how about cheese
pizza slices

I did hotdogs, crisps, salad and Party Rings for DS’s tenth birthday party. Very easy and all got wolfed down.

We've always done hot dogs, pizza and big bowls of oven chips, followed by build your own ice cream sundae bar (plastic cups, tubs of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, couple of bottle of sauce, mini brownie bites, sprinkles and squirt cream!).

Seems to go down well with all ages, from 5 up to teenagers.

I loooove throwing birthday parties for kids! I'm so gutted mine are all grown up now .

Things that went down really well for my kids parties were the ones I thought were the outliers. Sliced Peppers /carrot sticks and dip, rainbow fruit kebabs and onion bhajis and mini samosas. They were always the first to go.

These are some easy suggestions that can be for both adults and children that can be made ahead and can be set up as a small buffet:

• Breadsticks
• Cheese and fruit on sticks (some can be just fruit)
• Chicken tenders
• Cucumber and carrot batons
• Mini pizzas - cheese and tomato, pepperoni etc.
• Mini sausage rolls - can be veggie and/or meat
• Onion bhajis
• Samosas
• Spring rolls
• Stuffed mini peppers

You can have paper plates and napkins on one end and on the other end have mini water bottles and juice boxes.

There could also be a station with dips etc.:

• Hummus
• Ketchup
• Mayo
• Tzatziki

And for children to take at the end:

• Cupcake boxes
• Party boxes with a slice of birthday cake
• Goody bag with a cute thank you note

I feel like that would be sufficient for 30-40 children and adults which might come to a total of 60-80 in the village hall so you might need to check the capacity.