I was asked to participate in my daughter's christmas class party with another mom. the other mom offered to cover the craft part, and i guess i will cover the snack part. the teacher said she would like it to be with fruit. i found something online for making a 'christmas tree' using pineapple trunks, and then branches (skewers) with pieces of fruit around the trunk. i am trying to visualize it and i wonder don't the branches have to go down, then fruit will fall off? plus the class has 18 kids. how many of these do i make?
better yet, do you have a suggestion? the party is for second graders and the school has a health policy in place, so it pretty much has to be fruit. i cook but i fail at creativity :) so i need you moms to help me out
thanks
L.
Thank you to all for suggestion. Kathleen, darling, i think the snowmen will be it for me. thank you so much
Personally I wouldn't use skewers in a class of 18 kids, no matter how old.
You can do apples and caramel dip
Celery and peanut butter, if pb is allowed, with raisins
carrots and dip
grapes
And bring cookies, a Christmas party is no fun without cookies, is she bringing them?
Added: PB&J has a good idea using toothpicks. I just envision 9 boys running around with skewer swords. Maybe because that's what mine would do.
What if you got a cone shaped piece of styrofoam (one for each table), covered it with fabric if necessary, and stuck pieces of fruit onto toothpicks then stuck the toothpicks into the styrofoam? I did something similar with red and green gumdrops when I was a kid oh so many years ago.
You could even use a piece of starfruit at the top.
personally, I wouldn't put too much effort into making the fruit look decorative - the kids are already going to be excited that it's party time and I doubt any of them will complain that the fruit looks boring (but maybe that's b/c I work in our school kitchen and wash, peel, and slice fruit on a daily basis LOL).
I'd probably just wash a bunch of red and green grapes and cut them into small clusters, and maybe arrange some clementine tangerines on the plate with them. If you want to make it look a bit more decorative, get some bright paper cupcake liners and put a few of the tangerines or grape clusters inside them.
fruit is SOOO messy to decorate with and eat ...
Some other ideas -
Apple slices with yogurt dip
Popcorn (light or no butter)?
Chex mix with the 3 Chex cereals, pretzels,
Trail mix with raisins, cranberries, cherries, yogurt drops (no nuts)
What about doing veggies instead of fruit...you could get a tree shaped platter (or just use a regular one and get crafty) and assemble some broccoli in a tree shape. Use a small pile of stick pretzels for a trunk. You can cut out a star from a yellow pepper and put that at the top. Give each table (or each kid) a small bowl of ranch or hummus to dip the veggies into.
Another healthy idea is to get some water crackers and spread light cream cheese on the top. Then cut up small squares or circles of colorful veggies like pepers, carrots, etc. and decorate the cracker to look like an ornament. If you cut a small piece of the broccoli stem it will look like the ornament hanger when placed at the top of the circle.
If you want to stick with fruit you can always just do a kabob. Get regular kabob sticks (maybe cut them in half) and skewer on fresh and colorful fruits. The kids will probably love it. If you want you can make an easy fruit dip by mixing equal parts cream cheese and marshmallow fluff.
Is it for display only? Kids don't eat that kind of stuff around here. If they like that then I guess it would be okay. I would make it kid friendly and something they would eat.
You can go to family fun online and see what food ideas they have for this activity.
Here are 1760 ideas...LOL.
http://familyfun.go.com/sitesearch/results/q=christmas%25...
You can turn anything Christmassy by having red & green, or by making it into Christmas shapes, or serving it on Christmas plates!
How about little sandwiches cut out in Christmas cookie cutter shapes? You could make a lot of them with regular bread & whatever filling - turkey, cream cheese & cranberry, ham & cheese, hummus for the vegetarians, etc.
Also, you could do caprese salad with red tomatoes, mozzarella & pesto (my kids will eat anything covered in pesto!).
How about making yogurt sundaes with yogurt, fruit choices, and sprinkles?
You could combine efforts and do Gingerbread house/ gingerbread man decorations with graham crackers, cream cheese frosting & different kinds of cereal & dried fruit! i.e. instead of lifesavers, use cheerios; instead of hard candy, use raisins or craisins, etc.
You could take pinapple rings and add green food coloring for your wreaths. then maybe a bow and decorations out of other fruit.
I know you said fruit, but isn't cheese and pretzels healthy too. I saw a picture where they used the laughing cow cheese wedges and put a pretzel on each side for ears. They has red/black dots for eyes. You could make them christmas mice. http://www.cutefoodforkids.com/
There are snowman pops you can make out of banana slices - made them last year - super cute!
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/snowman-on-a-stick-699309/
L.,
Skewers in a school are likely to be out.
If you are going to be there, you might have the skewers then personally take the fruit off individually.
if not, I would try something like muffin cups. OR if you are able to, maybe a little tupperware cup that is refillable by the teacher, making a little gift for the student. Kids like cups and lids for treasures.
Good luck,
M.
PS: not all kids like pineapple. google a watermelon birthday cake. Go from there. : )
make applesauce with kids or a fondue with chesse or choc
Updated
make applesauce with kids or a fondue with chesse or choc
What about lil gingerbread houses using graham crackers and cut up fruit instead of candy. I know my daughter did one on a small milk carton. Not sure what to use to get the fruit to stay on. Sorry, I'm not too creative either but mabey someone else can figure out a healthy way for the fruit to stick.
If you HAVE to stay w/the fruit tree:
Use a styrofoam cone for the tree trunk
The skewers for the branches
So the fruit won't slide off of the skewers, put a green mini gumdrop at the
end of the skewers. (I, too, used to make the gumdrop tree in school.)
Then be sure not to put too much fruit or it will really weigh down the
skewers
You'll have to secure the base of the cone to something as it will get
heavy w/all the fruit. Put a pole in the base & secure that into a pot
filled w/rocks painted as presents?
what about using cookie cutters on pineapple in stars or trees or something seasonal (then you get the leftover bits YUM! lol) and some other fruits, and just put them (like others have said) on holiday plates. Honestly I have been a class mom in kindergarten for 2 years in a row now, and they dont care.. both classes this year (1st and K) got excited that there were MINI cupcakes. (then there are no liners for them to need help with and smaller means less waste, I make enough for each kid to have 2, and then a few extra) But red and green grapes in holiday cupcake liners are cute, all of the ideas everyone has listed are cute.. (OK time for me to stop lol)
I would do a platter of a red fruit and a white one - seasonal and tasty - you could do strawberries and honeydew or other melon. If you were brave you could do pomegranate and a melon. Or ruby red grapefruit slices (peeled).
How about a christmas tree cookie cutter and make christmas trees from pineapple cover with vanilla yougut stuff like thats on pretzels ans decorate with edible markers
