5th Birthday party - food quantity

[Fragolina70]

Hi
apologies if this topic was already discussed before, I couldn't find it

I am having a party for my son in June who turns 5. We have hired a hall and entertainers. I have to provide food, cake etc (panic!)

I have NO idea on quantity ... I heard from other parents that you normally do too much, but what is the starting point? I am opting for finger food of course, savoury and sweet etc ... but where to start? Many thanks for help!

hi
hope this isnt too late...am also planning a party for next month and having seen the amount of leftovers after the little darlings have stuffed themselves with crisps and cake, have decided to do food boxes (lots on line), eg with a sandwich, cake,etc. maybe also double up as a party bag with a little toy inside, balloon attached? hoping they'll like the novelty of having their own box...
good luck!

Although it's not very imaginative (or healthy!) experience has shown me it's best to stick to the basics that children seem to like: cocktail sausages, pizza slices, crisps, carrot and cucumber sticks. Really wouldn't bother with sandwiches. Then cakes and biscuits and some grapes and strawberries. Or something like choc ices/mini milk lollies. Wouldn't stress too much about providing a balanced diet - it's a party afterall. As far as quantities are concerned I'd allow 2 small slices of pizza, 3-4 sausages and a handful of crisps each. If you have too much pizza it'll get munched by any grown-up guests who are there. To minimise mess I'd stick to juice in individual cartons and water in bottles with sports caps. If it's a hot day and an active party I'd give them a bottle of water about half an hour in (with a name sticker on it) and then a juice carton with their food.

Got lots of experience of doing party food for this age range, my standard buffet consists of:
Egg mayo sarnies
Jam sarnies
ham sarnies
cheese sarnies
sausage rolls
cheese and tom. pizza
garlic bread
carrot sticks
cucumber sticks
cocktail sausages
cheese chunks
huge quantity of crisps, biscuits and buns
jelly and icecream.
Fruit option for the occasional health concious 5year old

IMO the whole point of party food is that you get to eat all the sugar saturated junk that your parents wont let you eat the rest of the time.

Always use top quality white sliced bread, and proper butter not marge, oh, and cut the crusts off. Its amazing what a difference that makes to how many left over sarnies you have. I can do a buffet for 20ish kids, with enough left overs for parents, for about £40.

oh, and better too much than too little!
I normally do 4 warburtons medium loaves, which makes enough sarnies, usually 6 eggs for the mayo, then the rest between jam cheese and (cheap thin sliced)ham. 2 packets each of cadbury choc fingers, jammie dodgers, jaffa cakes and 3 double packets of party rings. 2 jellies, 2 1l tubs of icecream, 48 cocktail sausages, large block of cheddar, 2 large cheese and tom pizza, 3-4 garlic baguettes, catering pack of cheesy puffs or similar, same of skips, and a multipack of bog standard crisps, assorted flavours. I always bake 48 buns, and do a mixture of icing/sugar strands, and butterfly buns, which always go down well. You can also get mini cake toppers for the buns from ebay in whatever character you have chosen for the theme of the party.