Are you planning to attend a street party with your toddler to mark VE Day in May or a similar celebration? If so, you may be on the lookout for some toddler-friendly ideas of what to bring. Here are our top picks of decorations you and your toddler can help make beforehand, as well as some simple toddler-friendly baking ideas which will keep you both entertained in the days leading up to the street party!
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1. Bright Bunting
Everyone loves a bit of bunting at a street party. You can easily make your own with your toddler by cutting out some large triangles from paper or thin card. Decorate your bunting before punching holes at the top of each triangle and threading it on to a long piece of string or ribbon, all ready to hang up at your street party. You can go full-on patriotic with red, white and blue (use coloured paper if you don’t want to draw flags) or just go as colourful/unique as you and your toddler prefer! It’s your street party after all, so there are no rules about what your bunting has to look like. Or you can go really shiny with metallic triangles of foil that will catch the sun and flap in the breeze. For some extra pizzazz, trim the ends and make them into tassels!
2. Fabulous Flapjack – Toddler Street Party Ideas
Flapjack is fun, fast and easy to make with a toddler! Definitely go nut-free for a street party treat and use maple or golden syrup instead of honey in case any babies under one year are present and munching the treats too.
For toddler-friendly, healthier flapjack, melt one cup of butter (or dairy-free spread) in a saucepan on a low heat with a spoonful of maple or golden syrup. Then, in a separate bowl, mix together all your dry ingredients of oats (two cups), raisins (1 ½ cups) and sunflower or pumpkin seeds (½ cup). Add one grated apple, orange juice (½ orange) and orange zest (from one orange) into the bowl too. Your toddler can help with the mixing of this too.
Add the bowlful of dry ingredients and apple/orange into the pan with the melted butter and syrup, mixing together well with a rubber spatula. Your toddler can help spoon the mixture into a lined and greased square or rectangular cake tin. Preheat your oven to 180⁰ (fan) and bake for 20 minutes before cooling and cutting into slices.
Thank you to Healthy Veg for inspiring this recipe.
3. Playful Party Hats
Make cone party hats for your street party in the same way as you would make a witch or wizard’s hat for Halloween. Firstly, make a cone shape by rolling up a piece of rectangular card. Add glue to hold it together, then punch two holes so you can thread elastic or string through. This will hold the hat in place under the chin.
These cone party hats are so simple to make that you could make a whole set for all the toddlers/children attending the street party. Either personalise beforehand or you could take along pens and stickers for a little craft activity to do during the party.
If you’re short on time, you can make even quicker hats by rolling a strip of paper or card and fastening at the back. Again, these can be decorated beforehand or during the street party with your toddler.
4. Retro Rice Crispy Cakes – Toddler Street Party Ideas
Rice crispy cakes are oh so simple to make with your toddler so ideal for a quick and easy bake for a street party. You can also add chocolate to make them extra yummy.
First, melt one cup of butter (or a dairy-free alternative) together with 4 tablespoons of golden syrup in a pan over a low heat. If you’re going for chocolatey rice crispy cakes, you can also melt in ½ cup of chocolate at this point. Remove your butter-syrup-chocolate mixture from the heat and stir in 1 cup of rice crispies (or cornflakes). Make sure the rice crispies are thoroughly coated in the mixture – your toddler can help with this bit too. Take some fairy cake cases and spoon the mixture into these. Help your toddler press the cakes down slightly so they stick together better.
Your toddler and you can decorate the cakes while they are still warm with whatever toppings you like. Easy toppings include cacao nibs, chocolate drops, sprinkles and Smarties.
5. Super Streamers – Toddler Street Party Ideas
Making home-made paper-chains or streamers can feel very therapeutic (for parents too as well as toddlers!). You just need some strips of coloured paper about 15-20cm long by 3-4cm wide. Glue the ends of the first strip of paper together to form a loop. Then thread the next strip through the loop, and glue that strip together too. Continue adding loops until you have a long streamer! If you have a young toddler, you can make the strips of paper longer in the first place so they’re easier for little hands to manage.
The beauty of streamers is that you can make them out of any paper you like. Go full-on eco by reusing old leaflets, fliers or scraps of craft paper. Using newspapers will give your streamers a topical feel and they’ll look on-trend too as you hang them from lamppost to lampost or tree to tree on street party day!
6. Cool Cupcakes – Toddler Street Party Ideas
You can decorate the classic cupcake in any way you like to reflect the theme of your street party.
You can make traditional fairy cakes with your toddler but keep them extra low sugar by following this recipe. Blend together 1 cup of unsalted butter with ⅔ cup of sugar in a bowl using a spoon or a spatula. Then beat in four large eggs, one at a time, 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract (to taste) and a cupful of milk (or milk alternative). Finally, fold in (using a spoon) 2 ½ cups of self-raising flour and 2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cakes and bake for 20-22 minutes at 170⁰ fan. Take out and cool before decorating with your toddler.
Thank you to yummy Toddler food for inspiring us with this low-sugar recipe.
What Makes A Street Party Fun For Kids?
In our experience, the following elements can help make a street party lots of fun for toddlers and children:
- food (lots of it)
- free play (just take a ball and the experience of playing out in the road is very novel for most children)
- a craft activity or two
- music (a local band or a few people casually playing instruments)
- other children to play with
- camp chairs or benches to sit on
Hope you have lots of fun with your toddler at your street party!
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