Birthdays are an excellent opportunity to create wonderful memories and make sure your kid is going to appreciate you for organizing the best Birthday Party Food Ideas in your plan.
However, besides all the opportunities such a celebration brings, it can also set you up for some real traps if you’re not careful about the details. So, you need to make sure everything is perfectly planned, and deciding what food to serve is one of the biggest challenges. Not that the games at a kids’ birthday party aren’t important; however, in that aspect, they can also improvise and take care of themselves.
When it comes to food, on the other hand, it’s all your responsibility, and you need to be prepared for any circumstance. You don’t need to panic. The situation isn’t as serious as it sounds. However, just like you review the kids’ party games before adding them to the schedule, it won’t hurt to get some inspiration about what foods to serve.
We’ll leave the kids’ birthday party ideas for another time and focus this article entirely on the foods that will help you throw an excellent party for your kid. Remember, it’s his social life we’re talking about, so you need to bring your A-game.
Best Kid’s Birthday Party Food Ideas
1. Mini Pizza – Best Birthday Party Food Ideas
No kid on this earth doesn’t love pizza, so it’s no wonder we start with this suggestion. Once you’re done checking out party places for kids, you should consider having mini pizzas as one of the dishes. It’s very easy to handle even during the games they play, and the best part about pizza is that it comes with various options for the topping.
You can either let the kids choose the toppings from a list of available options through a makeshift toppings bar. Or you can simply cover the most usual choices like – cheese, ham, mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes, or tuna.
2. Taco Bar
Our next idea for a kid’s birthday party from a culinary perspective is a taco bar. Just like pizza, tacos are widely appreciated by kids and they make very easy dishes to prepare. Once again, we’re talking about finger food, so you don’t have to worry about setting up a table and deal with all those plastic dishes and trays.
You can either prepare the tacos upfront and just serve them in the taco bar, or chop up the ingredients and let them mix and match the way they want.
Of course, this second option leaves you with a lot of cleaning up afterward, however, what’s some hard work cleaning for seeing your kid happy on his or her birthday? When talking about the ingredients to chop up to add in the taco bar, you can go with beef, chicken, onions, bean, corn and even tomatoes. Of course, don’t forget the guacamole!
3. Veggie Platters – New Age Kids Birthday Party Dish
Admittedly, this isn’t exactly a kids’ party food hit idea. However, the myth of kids not liking vegetables is less and less true nowadays. Lots of kids are educated as vegan or vegetarians, so you can’t fail with adding some veggie platters on the table. Even if you’re putting together a kid’s dance party, some baby carrots, cucumbers or radishes can serve as a great snack in between two exceptional songs.
Of course, even if some kids love vegetables, this doesn’t mean you can forget all about being creative. It’s still a great idea to present the platters in a very creative way so that you boost interest even from those kids that aren’t huge fans of vegetables.
4. Fruity Fun
You don’t need a kid’s party decorator to tell you that fruits will always be a hit. So, while you’re here researching party foods ideas for kids, make sure to include fruits on the shopping list as well. You can put the fruit pieces on ice cream sticks or carve interesting characters out of fruits.
Minion banana is actually a thing, you should look it up! Besides looking great and tasting good, the fruits will score you plenty bonus points with your kid. Also, when serving fruits, you won’t have to worry about getting the best high chair, since they’re going to eat them standing up anyway.
5. Pretzel Wands
It is more like a snack that you serve at a birthday party for kids. However, all ground has to be covered. It’s all Hansel and Gretel with these pretzels covered in chocolate and whatever you can think of. Plus, we all know that Harry Potter never goes out of fashion, so having their magic wands is always going to count as an extra perk for the little ones. Add some kids paint party ideas to the mix, and you will have a yard filled with sorcerers.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can arrange some chocolate fountains for the party so that the kids can choose what to add to their wands. It will sure score you huge “cool parent” points with the kids. The only thing to worry about is what their parents will say when they go home, all filled with sugar and energy.
6. Mini-Burgers – a Must at a Kids Birthday Party food list
Especially if you’re throwing an outdoor party, you can’t possibly avoid serving burgers. Or at least the miniature version because it will be kinda hard to keep them in one place to enjoy one full-sized burger. However, mini-burgers or even traditional sandwiches are going to always be a huge hit at any birthday party. So, while you may be excused for forgetting face painting for kids party arrangements, not serving burgers and sandwiches is a major offense.
The sky is your limit here. You can come up with various combinations as long as they look delicious, and don’t forget to offer the kids a wide variety of sauces to add on their sandwiches. For vegan or vegetarian kids, you can go with soy burgers or falafel rolls and make sure everyone eats the food they love.
7. Tortilla Chips and Dips
The final entry in our ideas for the excellent menu at a kids’ party, tortilla chips. Sure, it may sound like a messy business that you don’t want to get tangled in. However, kids love tortilla. So, unless you have some really cool kids party music ready to keep them dancing the entire time, you will have to seriously think about serving tortilla dips.
The best part about tortilla is that you can just place it in bowls and let the kids decide which kind of dip to go for. Sure, preparing the dips won’t be exactly easy since you will have to come with various versions for all tastes. However, just like with the sandwiches, the sky is your limit.
You can either go for avocado dip, hummus dip, cheese, tomato, or even egg dip. You will be able to find lots of dip recipes online, and this is actually very helpful when you’re throwing a party of your own. Tortilla chips and dips are great for adult parties as well!
Conclusion
We hope you’ve learned by now that throwing a kids birthday party is no easy task. We didn’t mean to scare you in the introduction. However, you need to make sure you’re giving 110% for this party to go well. Remember, your kid has lots of expectations from you, and if you’re too busy with work or think you can get off the hook easily, you need to think again.
As always, we ask our readers that are already kids birthday parties veterans to share their past experiences and the aces up their sleeves. Use the comments section to share your adventures with other readers, and let’s make sure all our kids are happy and having a great time.
Author’s Bio
Rachel Burns works as a chef at a prestigious restaurant in Vancouver during the day. However, at night she puts on his superhero robe and transforms into a wordsmith always ready to save anyone who needs some advice on what to serve at certain events.
With his over 5 years of experience in preparing all the most interesting dishes in the world, you can count on Rachel to always deliver exciting solutions, no matter if you’re throwing a baby shower or a business diner.
