Stumped on what birthday party food to serve?

Birthday party food, hmmm? What do I serve? When do I serve? How do I serve it? Do I even need to serve food? These are some of the questions that you may be asking yourself when planning your child's next birthday party.

What food do I serve?

If you are going to serve food, then the answer to this question is endless. This is why deciding what birthday party food to serve can be so frustrating. The single most helpful thing that I have learned is to focus on the theme of your party. This makes the planning and the preparing easier and a lot of fun too. For example, when my son had a Buzz Light Year party, one of the things we served was moon rocks (doughnut holes). At his Halloween birthday party, we served witch's fingers (carrot sticks with almond slivers at the top).

My daughter's Strawberry Shortcake party has been the easiest one by far to plan for. I will be serving strawberries, little angel food cake bites, blueberries, and gingersnap cookies. All it takes is a little creativity and some brainstorming on your part. The kids love it when the food matches the theme and if you do this year after year, your own kids will look forward to what you are going to make for their next birthday. It is a neat birthday tradition that will make birthday memories to last a lifetime.

If you do not have a theme, then our birthday party food staple at our house is pizza. The guests always love it, and it usually goes a long way for your birthday party budget.

When do I serve the food?

This is a great question! In order to answer this question, you must ask yourself a series of other questions as well. Is your party close to a meal time? What type of activities will you be doing if you eat before them? Is my food considered a meal or just a snack?

When to serve the birthday party food is really a matter of timing around your other activities and the time that you are having your party. If your party is around a meal time and you are not serving food that would be considered a meal, then you will want to serve the food at a time during the party that is farthest away from a meal time. For example, if your party is from 4:00-6-00 p.m., then you would want to let the kids eat first thing. However, if your party is at a time such as 1:00-3:00 p.m., you will want to have the kids eat toward the end of the party since they would have just eaten lunch before they came. The other thing to keep in mind when deciding when to serve your birthday party food is to think about what type of activities you will be having the kids participating in. If they will be doing a lot of running, then it probably would not be wise to eat right before the activities as this may cause some kids to get sick. A tummy full of sweets does not mix well with a lot of running and jumping around.

How do I serve the birthday party food?

This is another part of serving birthday party food that I have found so fun to prepare for. Again, this is a question where the answer centers around the theme of your party. Sometimes the cutest and most inexpensive solutions to this part of the planning can be right in front of you. One time my friend had a construction theme for her son's birthday party. One of the neat things she did when serving the food was she put all of the food in the back of toy dump trucks. She just washed them beforehand and made sure they were nice and clean. She then filled them with all of the party food like chips, dips, and other goodies. What a great fun and inexpensive idea! If you are creative enough in doing this, you don't really need to worry about providing theme related food since the serving items match the theme all by themselves. It really doesn't matter what's inside because everyone is focused on the cute birthday party food containers. A wonderful idea for a princess party is to just serve all your food on fancy serving pieces. If you're like me during the week when time is short and dinner needs to get on the table fast, you usually serve dinner on paper plates. When do you ever use those crystal bowls you got for your wedding other than holidays like Thanksgiving? Why not put them to good use and make all your little guests feel special and use them at your daughter's next princess birthday party? Peanut butter and jelly heart shaped or flower shaped sandwiches look just spectacular on a crystal serving platter with little pink tulle bows tied to the handles.

Do I even need to serve food?

Sometimes the answer to this question is a resounding, "No!" There have been many birthday parties at my house where I did not serve birthday party food. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a "cake and ice cream" party. I know some moms who have to go all out at every single one of their kids' birthday parties. For us, this is sometimes not feasible. I have to say that many of the "cake and ice cream" parties that we have given our children have been some of the most stress free and relaxing parties. I also have to say that the kids had just as much fun without all of the birthday party food as they had at parties where I put a lot of time and energy into the preparation of it. I think that the answer to this question depends on your theme, how much of a birthday party budget you are working with, and what time of day you are having the party. These are always the things that I think about before I decide to serve birthday party food or not. If your theme does not lend itself to fun food, it is best to either just serve pizza or not at all. The kids will not miss it if it is not there.

If you are working on a tight birthday party budget as is the case at our house with so many parties to give throughout the year, then you may want to put your time and your money into something else like entertainment or fun activities for the guests to enjoy. Just think of what would bring your child the most joy. If it is not the birthday party food, then skip the food.

What time of day you are having the party is very important as well. If a meal time will fall right in the middle of your party, it would be considered rude to not feed your guests. However, if you do not want to serve any birthday party food, then have your party at a time other than 12:00 p.m. (lunch) or 6:00 p.m. (dinner). Also, if you will be having your party very close to one of these times, be very mindful of the age of your guests. It is very frustrating to some moms of toddlers when you have loaded their children up with sugar and they then have to take them home to feed them lunch and try to get them down for a nap.

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I hope that all of the things that I have learned about birthday party food throughout my many years of giving birthday parties will be helpful to you. There are so many fun things you can do with any birthday party theme. Just have fun with the planning and let your creative juices flow. You'll be thinking of fun birthday party food ideas for your party in no time!