Menus for a Kid's Birthday Party

You may sometimes have to battle with your children to get them to eat the right foods. It should come as no surprise that, given the choice, most kids will choose junk food and sweets over healthy, nutritious foods. Birthday parties should not be a battleground. You can compromise and mix in some healthy foods, but a party is the time to relax a little and provide foods that most kids will enjoy.

Fun Food

A fun way to get children at a party to eat is to set up a food bar where the kids can create their own concoctions. You can set up a taco bar, a potato bar or a pizza-topping bar. For the tacos, set up shells, tortillas, beans, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and salsa. The potato bar can have butter, sour cream, bacon bits, grated cheese, cooked chicken cubes and broccoli. For the pizza, you can purchase ready-made crusts. The kids can spoon on some sauce and choose between grated cheese, pepperoni, pineapple, ham and mushrooms.

Food for Young Children

Sometimes, small children are too excited at a party to sit down and eat. You can make eating into an adventure. Make individual boxed meals, suggests the Express Birthday Planning website. Be creative with the box. It can be a dump truck, a doll bed, a plastic sandbox pail or a Frisbee–gifts that the children can take home with them. You can personalize the boxes by writing the child’s name on it with a marker. Line the box with tissue paper and fill it with fun foods, such as cheese and crackers, bite-size sandwiches, fruit slices and bread sticks.

Sit-Down Meals for Pre-Teens

By the time your child is a pre-teen, she will want a more sophisticated party. A sit-down meal is a more grown-up element. While children this age may act sophisticated, their food tastes might not be gourmet just yet. Kids this age will still enjoy the old favorites, such as chicken nuggets, pizza, tacos, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. Either serve the food to them restaurant-style or let them make their own plate buffet-style. Either way, give them their space during meal time.

Cake Alternatives

If you want do try something different from a traditional birthday cake, birthday cookies are popular with most children. You can buy one already decorated, or you can serve individual cookies that the kids can decorate themselves. They can use cake frosting, sprinkles, whipped cream and small candies. You can serve birthday sundaes as an alternative to cake. Birthday cupcakes are another option.

Favorite Snacks

If your party is not during a meal time, you can still serve snacks in addition to the cake. Serve bowls filled with potato chips, candy, popcorn, pretzels, grapes or carrot sticks with dip.