10 Healthy Christmas Party Foods

Today I’m joining a new linky where we choose 3 of our favourite pins to share. The criteria is that they should be helpful and relevant to teachers (and others) planning for December with little ones. So here goes…

Obviously, this is more than 1 pin, but it’s 1 theme and I couldn’t resist these great ideas!

Class parties are pretty exciting in early childhood but sometimes it’s a challenge keeping the foods healthy. If your parents are sending foods in to school perhaps you could suggest some of these. Or instead, rope in a couple of parents to come to school and quickly prepare these together just before the party. I like these because:

• they’re yummy & sure to engage the kids’ attention
• they won’t make a mess when devoured
• they’re (mostly) super quick to prepare

You can link to these pins here:

1. Christmas Pops from Cutting Tiny Bites – they’re only fruit and yoghurt
2. Santa Eggs (picture only) – mostly egg and carrot, I’ll admit I’ve no idea what the eyes and buttons are. Any suggestions?
3. Snowman Noses from Kara’s Party Ideas – it’s amazing how a clever sign can make a little carrot completely desirable!
4. Watermelon Christmas Trees from Eating Vibrantly – pics and instructions to cut them quickly
5. Apple Christmas Trees from Clean and Scentsible
6. Kiwi Lollipops from School Bites which can be fresh or frozen. Rawdorable also suggests Strawberry and Melon Ball Lollipops.
7. Fruit Salad Christmas Trees from Little Wonders’ Days. If you have Christmas-shaped cookie cutters you could also make single servings of fruit salad so you wouldn’t have to worry about little fingers wiggling all the way through the tree!

Follow this link for a post on 9 Healthier St. Patrick’s Day Treats.

While we’re in the holiday food mood the kids may as well pitch in, they’ll love it for sure. And the snowmen and bananas can be made a few days before the party so that makes it more manageable and less stressful.

You can link to these pins here:

1. Winter Bananas (picture only) – here they’ve used tiny cupcake papers for hats but you could also have the kids make tiny green cone shapes decorated to look like a Christmas tree to pop on top. Or cotton balls to look like snow!
2. Candy Canes from Natural Girl Diary – the cutting practice would be great for their fine motor skills, just make sure they wash their hands first! If you want them to make their own give each child 2 strawberries and half a small banana and see what happens.
3. Cheesy Snowmen from Do It and How – Yay! No danger of fingers all over the food with this one, although I bet some of the poor snowmen end up nicely squished.

 

I LOVE monster art activities that a) let little ones really go for it, b) are collaborative (and therefore much more fun) and c) look awesome at the end. I’d suggest making sure their sleeves are properly pulled up before they touch the paint!

This Christmas Tree is from Playtivities and comes with plenty of pictures and instructions. This is a versatile idea which can easily be adapted:

• make smaller versions, paint both sides and hang them from the ceiling or put a hole in the top and turn it into a decoration to hang on the tree.
• a smaller version can also be glued onto a piece of bright red or green card and turned into a Christmas greeting.
• as an early childhood teacher I have a glitter fettish so I would definitely have the kids sprinkle a handful of glitter straight after they’ve applied some paint and it will stick valiantly and look super.

I do hope you are able to use some of these ideas. There are many, many more pin picks you can check out via the links below. If you have a post you’d love to share please link up below, it will be open for the whole of December.

I wish you happy teaching and learning.