My Kiddie Party with DIY Candy and Dessert Buffet

For my baby girl's first birthday, my husband and I thought that an all-out kiddie party with mascots, magicians, clowns, face painting, etc are not worth-it since our kid won't be able to enjoy them yet. We opted instead to plan for a toned-down kiddie party that will focus on good food and more opportunities for interaction between our families.

Venue: Shanghai Bistro (Good food that adults and not-so-little kids will appreciate)

I opted to hire a sorbetes cart for various reasons:

1. The colorful sorbetes cart itself is visually appealing. It adds character and acts as part of the overall decor as well :P
2. "Dirty Ice cream" is nostalgic for adults
3. Any kind of ice cream is something kids will love, especially if they can have as many as they want!

As my main DIY project, I had to have a candy/dessert buffet.

So, after researching endless blogs, forums and FB groups, I've come up with my list of needed things to order, keeping in mind the total number of guests and the number of kids within the total:

Sweets

• Assorted Candies
• Gummies - there's the normal "sticky gummies" and there are the sugar-coated gummies. I suggest you have at least one of each.
• Gummy Bears / Worms - easily recognizable, better chance the kids will grab the tongs for this one :P
• Chocolate Candies - I had to have at least one chocolate in there. But they shouldn't be the kind that can soften or melt easily because that just won't look good and will be a mess!
• Candy-coated chocolates
• Choco Marbles - very nice to look at, very classic
• Sunflower Seeds Chocolate - i'm biased because this  is my favorite :) kids loved this also
• Nips / Lentils / M&Ms - some sellers stock these in single-color packs which may look more visually appealing in some cases and can complement your theme
• Wrapped Chocolates 
• Kisses - easily recognizable. beware, the adults will grab for these also! :)
• Gold Coins Chocolates - fun! you can even stack these or have a pile in a box to look like treasure. But it might not suit all themes :)
• Hard Candies - there are lots of options for these. I would advise staying away from round candies that can become choking hazards. That's the last thing you want in your kiddie party
• Mint Candies - this is good to have, not just for dessert. We put ours in the dessert table, but you can have small amounts of these in each table so that guests can take one after the meal
• Lollipops - the swirl lollipops are the most visually appealing. Lots of online sellers carry them now.
• Round Flat Swirls - we opted to order 1 pack of pink and white swirl and another pack of yellow and white swirls (10pcs per pack). Also acts as additional decor in your candy table. You can order one of those 6-incher ones as a decor piece also
• Swirls - these are the kind that are swirled around some sort of straw. Same kind as the round flat swirls, just shaped differently
• Choco-coated Pretzels - we got the pink ones, mainly because they look very nice and goes well with our girly theme. But they're also a nice break from the usual candies children will grab for. I bought a couple of packs in SM Grocery.
• Wafer Sticks - different flavors are now available for this (Choco, Starwberry, Pandan, etc) which can add to the look of your table
• Other sweets - I put all desserts in the same table as the candies to encourage adults to try some candies and kids to try some of the other sweets :)
• Cake Pops (or lolllicakes) - always a winner. We went with red velvet ones with cream cheese filling inside. It was gone before lunch was even over!
• Mallow Pops - marshmallows covered with colored chocolate with sprinkles, etc. 5-8php each, a nice sweets addition. After all, who doesn't like marshmallow?
• Mini cupcakes - cupcakes are good dessert treats. Go for the mini-ones because the normal-sized ones might be too much after your party meal. We went with simple chocolate mini cupcakes with rainbow frosting. We randomly stuck cardboard toppers on just some of them for effect.
• Dessert Cake - go for your favorite cake flavor. You can go for those red ribbon or Goldilocks cakes for this. Or brazo de mercedes, yema cakes, etc. Something you can cut up and people will just get small pieces of. We went with 2 Cloud9 cakes from Claudettes. We brought one out, and had them sliced in small squares. Then brought out the other one when the first one was gone :) Make sure to have a serving utensil for this and a stack of small plates beside the cake.

Containers

Our theme is Candlyland, but a we want to stick to girly colors. With this, I had to scour the internet for nice containers. I had nice white bowls at home that I figured will be my fall-back if I can't find affordable containers online or in the mall.

3 days before the party, I went randomly inside a japan home store in Greenbelt1 and lo and behold, there were about a dozen types of glass jars there in various sizes, with the most expensive being 88 pesos only!

Remember that containers are part of your decor!

Some container tips:

• Unless you're going in the candy-buffet business, stick to affordable containers. Nothing too fancy and if needed, you can actually use around the house. I know it's hard to resist buying those nice apothecary jars and they're worth it if you can afford them. But if you have a tight budget, spend more on the candies than the containers.
• Check the lid. Some metal lids are cheap and may rust, rendering your jars unusable. They may look nice at the start though. I chose those with plastic lids that close completely and securely so that I can justify my purchase that we can possibly use them someday ;)
• Consider the container opening. Don't buy jars wherein you can't reach inside with a tong. You don't want the kids grabbing the jar and turning it over just to get to the candy inside once the candy jar is less than half full, they might drop it and break it.
• Stick to simple containers. Aesthetically, those with no print designs along the body will allow the colors of your sweets to stand out beautifully. Take advantage of these. They are also usually cheaper.
• Do not restrict yourself too much. You don't even have to stick to jars, actually. I bought a box of 3 halo-halo glasses for 88 pesos in the same store. I put in it the pink pretzels and stood them side-by-side with a small plastic tong hanging on the side of the glass. They looked great :)  You can also go with bowls.
• Going for height is good, if you can find bowl/jar with "foot", those will look elegant and easy to access than jars. But some sweets can be served in plates and small bowls also, put them in front of the jars to give your table depth.
• Grouping - If you don't have a lot of big containers, go for small ones and clump them together. No big jar? Get 3 small ones and put the same sweets in them and position them together.
• For lollipops or sweets with sticks, you can do it various ways:
• Stick 'em - we bought 2 round styrofoams and stuck them together. I cut up 2 strips of wrapping paper and used doublt-sided table to cover the sides. I used double-sided tape to put the smaller one on top of the bigger one and voila! On the day itself, we stuck lollipops on the bottom layer and mallow pops on the top layer.
• You can also buy a small box or container, put styro inside and stick the sweets in the styro. I saw wooden boxes that looked like white picket fences in Landmark and was planning to use them initially.
• Stand 'em - I had 2 small tin pails from Divisoria and seriously considered using them to display the lollipops. You can just put them in there so people can just grab one if they want. You can also use drinking glasses.

Other necessities

• Candy Scoop - I bought ours in Glorietta 4. I bought it for around 100+php for 4 white scoops of different sizes. Various online vendors sell these also. You can also use measuring spoons: wrap ribbons around the handle to make them look nicer. Bigger candies need bigger scoops.
• Tongs - I bought simple plastic transparent tongs in the same store as the scoops for about 60 pesos each. Use tongs for candies that are not "smooth" or are sticky (like gummy candies, pretzels, etc)
• Candy holder - these can be small paper bags, paper cups, paper bowls, muffin cups or even those chinese take-out boxes. These are just where the kids will put the candies they like. We opted for pink 3oz muffin cups and some 6oz paper cups. We had several stacks around the table so that anyone can access them.
• Labels - you can just print these out and stick/tie them around the containers. I bought some "stands" in landmark. They were these very small plastic stands that you can put photos on. They were about 14php each. Don't make them too big (like I did, sigh!) and position them on the side of the sweets, not in front.

Setting up

Being the "newbie" at DIY parties, I had no idea what to expect on the day itself. I asked my sister and her boyfriend, Vinci, to come an hour early to help me setup.

Some thoughts:

• Putting the candies in the containers with lid - I should have done this the night before. I ended up doing this on the day itself which took more time that I thought. 
• Separating the prize/give-away candies from the dessert candies - I should have put them in separate boxes. I threw them all in one box and ended up sorting them out right there in the venue.
• Other decor (doilies, buntings, poster/sign, frames with photos etc) - plan these in advance. Have a clear idea of what you want your table to look like. Imagine kids reaching for the candies so don't put them too far out of reach :)

Other stuff

• Assign a candy helper - make sure you have someone help the kids with the candies. They don't have to stand by the table at all times, but make sure they're seated very near the table. We assigned my in-law's house helper to do this :)
• Positioning - We want to encourage people to try all the treats and stuff we hired for them. So, what we did is we put the photo booth beside the candy/dessert buffet to give it "maximum exposure". Everyone who went to the photobooth passed by the candy table. The sorbetes cart, we placed near the buffet table so no one will miss it :) This way, people will be milling around and will also get to interact with each other :)
• Getting it started - a fully set-up candy/dessert buffet can be a little intimidating to kids. They're not sure if it's OK to get candies, etc. So, what I did was I grabbed some kids and towed them to the table, I gave them each a muffin cup and asked the to line up and them asked them to point to which candies they wanted. I served them candies myself and told them they can have anything from the table and come back for more. Once the other kids and adults saw them, they started reaching for the sweets as well :)

After the party, there were still some candies left, so we asked the kids to take them home in cups :)

Remember: the candy buffet is just one aspect of the party. Do not stress about it too much. Try to complete as much as you can before the day itself so that come party-day, you can focus on other things and watch people enjoy your work :)

Check out my supplier reviews here. :)



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