Hosts and hostesses sometimes worry about what food to serve at their child’s party, or wonder if they can handle all the work of a theme party. It’s hard to find food that everyone likes, and making party decorations and favors can be tiring.

Why not make food or crafts the theme in a “make your own” party? Guests can make their own food as part of the party fun, and then everyone can make food according to his or her taste. Guests can make masks, jewelry, or other crafts. There are ideas along this line for almost all ages. Here are some suggestions.

1. Make Your Own Pizza

This one has all kinds of possibilities, from sweet to savory. For individual pizza crusts, you can use pita bread, homemade or store-bought mini pizza dough or crusts, bagels, or English muffins. Some toppings you can put out might include some of the following:

Make Your Own Pizza

* Peanut butter
* Jelly
* Chocolate chips
* Tomato sauce
* Shredded cheese
* Pepperoni
* Olives
* Peppers
* Ham
* Pineapple
* Cream cheese
* Fruit

These pizza ideas can be mixed and matched, some eaten cold and some baked. Just be sure an adult does the baking for a kids’ party!

2. Make Your Own Shish kabob

Make your own

Like pizzas, shish kabobs have all kinds of possibilities. Set out some of the following foods along with skewers. If you like, you can cook meats ahead of time and just heat the kabobs under the broiler or in the microwave.

* Cheese cubes
* Chunks of cooked chicken, beef, and ham
* Bell peppers
* Onions
* Cherry tomatoes
* Chunked fruit such as pineapple, bananas, cherries, melon, apple, kiwi, etc.
* Marshmallows

3. Make Your Own Cupcake or Cookie

Cupcakes and cookies can be decorated or made by the guests. For cupcakes, it might be better for guests to do the decorating. Cookies might be fun if guests cut them out with cookie cutters, bake them, and then decorate them. However you do it, here are some ideas for decorating those cupcakes and cookies.

Make your own cupcake

* Frosting in various colors (Use a separate butter knife for each color, or put the frosting in plastic zip-top bags, snip a tiny bit off of one of the bag’s corners, and squeeze the frosting out the hole)
* Candies and chocolates
* Sprinkles
* Sugar paste (This can be rolled, shaped, and cut into all kinds of decorative shapes, even flowers)

4. Make Your Own Stuffed Animal

There are several ways you can do this kind of “make your own” party. You can:

* Go to a store where guests can choose their own “unstuffed” animal, and then store workers stuff each child’s animal.

* If you’re handy with fabric, you can sew unstuffed animal “skins” ahead of time, leaving a small opening for guests to use polyester or cotton fill to stuff their creations. Then stitch the small opening closed.

* Use white socks, fabric glue, and fabric markers or paint to let kids create their own sock creature. Guests can decorate the socks before stuffing, and the socks can be tied shut once stuffed.

5. Other Ideas

Make your own chocolate

Some other quick ideas which you can use as a springboard include:

a) Make Your Own Candle
b) Make Your Own Chocolate Bar
c) Make Your Own Sundae
d) Make Your Own Mask
e) Make Your Own Jewelry