One of the hurdles many parents face at Christmastime is getting their kids to eat. Yes, the traditional cranberry sauce and stuffing may be great for adults, but most kids are simply not impressed. While eating at home is much easier because you know what your child will and will not eat, things get a little trickier when you are visiting loved ones for the holidays. To make matters worse, most families open Christmas presents after dinner, which is very hard for most children to handle. This leaves mom and dad trying to keep their children occupied at the dinner table while trying to enjoy their Christmas dinner.
An easy way to avoid this frustration is to add simple child-friendly foods to your holiday table. To make it exciting for your little ones, these foods can take on various Christmas themes. Not only will this help your children feel the excitement of Christmas, but it will also be a surprise that will keep them occupied at the dinner table.
For instance, fresh fruit is not a traditional staple at the holiday table, but it is important for kids to have. Instead of serving up the usual fruit cup, turn it into something exciting and eye-catching. For example, you can alternate sliced bananas and strawberries in the shape of a candy cane or use bananas, blueberries, and strawberries to turn a traditional fruit salad into a Santa face. Another fun way to handle fruit is to cut some green grapes in half and use grapes, bananas, and strawberries to make a grinch themed fruit salad. Whether you are looking to create fruit candy canes, fruit Christmas stars, or even a fruit Christmas tree, you can do it all with a bit of out-of-the-box creativity.
For a healthy paleo main course, try serving your little one reindeer potato cakes. You can use bacon as the antlers and use some paleo ketchup to make a scarf. Even though potatoes are a paleo grey area, they make an easy Christmas treat. Your kids will be excited and amazed to see their Christmas plates and they may even ask for seconds!
If you have a lot of particularly picky eaters on your hands, they might be unhappy with anything that you have for them. One option to keep a group of kids happy is to serve them paleo pizza in the shape of a Christmas tree. Not only do most kids love pizza, but you won’t have to worry about spending extra time in the kitchen catering to the little ones. After all, Christmas doesn’t mean the same to kids as it does to adults. While we might wait all year to have certain foods, Christmas dinner is usually just another dinner for a child. Save the heavy meal planning for the adults and give the kids a couple of easy Christmas-themed pizzas. If you are looking to give the kids something fun to do, let them help you bake the pizzas.
The beauty of each of these ideas is that they travel well. This is especially helpful if you are spending the holidays with loved ones and want to spare yourself the unpleasantness that may follow after asking your children to eat a traditional holiday dinner. Each of these ideas can easily be prepared beforehand and put together once you arrive at your holiday destination.
