Who doesn’t love a celebration? Birthdays, holidays, end-of-year parties, and events with families are common in child care settings. Celebrations can spark excitement through special activities, music, or foods.
Not all celebrations require food; there are so many ways to celebrate. Celebrations without food take the pressure off educators and parents to supply additional food, and help ensure that all children can participate, regardless of food allergies or other food-related needs.
Reflect on the ways you celebrate in your child care setting. Consider how often celebrations happen. Do you showcase a variety of ways of celebrating with children?
Ideas for Celebrating Without Food
Celebrate with movement, crafts, and activities:
- Honour customs and cultural practices. Invite families to share a special dance, song, or decoration unique to their culture.
- Have a dance party.
- Make decorations for the event or cards to share with others.
- Hold a scavenger hunt. Hide containers filled with crayons, stickers, bubbles, or playdough.
- Plan a field trip to the library, the park, or a farmer’s market.
- Head outside to blow bubbles, make a snowman, or run through a sprinkler.
Celebrate birthdays by allowing the birthday child to:
- be the leader of the day
- wear a birthday crown
- choose the game for indoor/outdoor play
- choose the background music for the day
Celebrations that Include Food
Food can be part of celebrations, and celebrations may offer the perfect opportunity to showcase foods from different cultures. If celebrating with food, include a variety of foods to normalize that all foods can be part of a celebration and can be enjoyed without judgment. Foods offered at celebrations should be offered at regular meal and snack times.
Emphasize foods from the Child Care Menu Planning – Practical Guide, 2024 including vegetables and fruit, protein foods, and whole grain foods. These foods can be served in creative and fun ways:
- Vegetable and fruit platters:
- Arrange into unique shapes, like flowers, stars, holiday characters, or the number of a child’s birthday
- Choose a colour theme; for example, serve green veggies with spinach dip for St. Patrick’s Day
- Get inspiration here.
- Involve children in making their own:
- Parfait: Mix plain yogurt with equal parts vanilla yogurt, then layer with fresh fruit and a tablespoon of whole grain granola
- Fruit kebab with yogurt dip
- Cereal mix
- Fruit salad cones; fill flat-bottomed ice cream cones with diced fruit
- Energy balls made with oatmeal, nut-free butter
- Fruit and yogurt smoothies
- Fruit salad: each child adds a piece of fruit
Many traditional celebratory foods may not meet nutrition guidelines yet play a valuable role in connecting people and cultures. Foods that do not meet nutrition requirements outlined in the Child Care Menu Planning – Practical Guide, 2024 may still be served occasionally at celebrations, however; consideration should be given to the frequency of offering these foods and showcasing the diversity of ways we can celebrate.
When offering food, it is important to adhere to safe food handling practices, consider children’s allergies and dietary restrictions, and avoid offering foods that pose choking hazards (such as marshmallows, gum, or hard and gummy candies).
If outside foods are not permitted in your child care setting, remind parents of this prior to events. Should families wish to contribute to celebrations, encourage them to bring decorations or age-appropriate festive party favours instead.
Consider putting a policy in place. Policies help create lasting change by turning recommendations into staff expectations, guiding orientation and training, and supporting clear communication with families about practices in the child care setting. You can view our sample policies for child care settings here.
