Tips for Cooking Up a Kid-friendly Christmas Menu

The Christmas Eve meal (noche buena) is definitely one of the most anticipated meals of the year in any Filipino family. For the adults, the traditional fare is definitely something to look forward to: piping hot tsokolate, flavorful lechon, puto bumbong and bibingka, hamon and queso de bola. While super yummy, the Pinoy Christmas table's choices may not have the kids rushing for a serving (much less seconds!)

Why not try reinventing your Christmas meal with some kid-friendly options? We've got a few menu suggestions and Christmas feast ideas for families with kids. The tips and simple and lots of fun, too!

1. Serve something the kids can make.
Kids love eating stuff that they've made! They'll be more inclined to eat what's on the Christmas dinner table if they had a hand in it. Kids also enjoy eating colorful food Try some of these kid-friendly recipes:
 

Cream cheese Christmas Bagels: Get store-bought bagels and ready-made cream cheese, and let the kids decorate their “wreath” with assorted veggies.

Cheesy Candy Cane Breadsticks: Yummy, savory and chewy, these pretzel-like candy cane shaped breadsticks are fun to make as they are to eat!

Fruit Kebabs in Yogurt Dip: This is a great way to include some healthy yet yummy treats on the Christmas dinner table. Let the kids choose what kind of fruits they want to include on their kebabs; remember to use plastic gloves when handling the fruit!

Christmas Pizza: Kids can make pizzas in the shape of Christmas trees, snowmen, or stars!

2. Serve something familiar.
There's a reason why children love eating the same things over and over again. So if your kids are likely to turn their noses up at the usual noche buena fare of pancit, lechon and adobo, serve up some fun fare that you know they'll gobble up! Some ideas include:

- Mashed potatoes (Place it in a Christmas tree-shaped serving dish and use broccoli florets and carrot coins to decorate it like a tree)
- Chicken lollipops with mayo dip (sprinkle parsley and paprika on top of the dip)
- Pasta (the sure winners are always spaghetti, carbonara, and mac & cheese)
- Crackers and cheese (See the suggestions below in #4 for ideas on how to do this creatively)
- Gelatin (add real fruit bits to it to add a bit of a healthy “oomph”)

3. Serve something sweet.
Christmas is that time of year when we can go all-out with food! Find healthy alternatives that will pique your kids' penchant for sweet stuff. Glazed ham is a yummy Christmas staple, especially when it's glazed with honey and pineapple. Serve some hot chocolate and churros (make them in Christmas-y shapes). If you're making a fun and fruity jello, look for a Christmas tree or star-shaped mold so you can serve it with an added fun touch.

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4. Serve something creative.
Cook up foods that are full of eye-appeal; kids just love that! It's a known fact that kids love colorful foods - a big reason why so many foods targeted at kids are full of artificial coloring (which is bad, bad, bad for your kiddo!). Also, children love novelty foods, so pique their curiosity by making some foods in Christmas-y shapes.

During your Christmas meal, provide kids with choices of brightly-colored fruits and vegetables. You could try making Christmas tree-shaped pizzas (as suggested above), using various ingredients such as spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers and ground beef to “decorate” the tree. Make some fun appetizer and pica-pica foods, such as star-shaped Christmas cookies, or a fun, cream cheese snowman, which can be eaten with whole grain crackers. For dessert, give in to a bit of sugar (it's Christmas, after all!): Make a nice chocolate-peanut butter mix where they can dip bananas, strawberries and apples, and then dip their chocolate-covered fruits into red and green sprinkles.


Here's a kid-friendly sample menu you can try for your Noche Buena:

• Cheese platter of queso de bola, soft cheeses (such as brie, camembert), cheddar and a cream cheese snowman. Serve with crackers.
• Glazed honeyed ham (Try Purefoods' bone-in leg ham)
• Cheesy candy cane breadsticks (or hot, fluffy pandesal!)
• Mashed potatoes (They go great with the roast chicken!)
• Christmas carbonara (Top the carbonara with a colorful sprinkling of red and green bell pepper “confetti” for a festive touch!)
• Baked macaroni with bechamel sauce
• Roast chicken (Just butter up a whole chicken, season with salt and ground pepper, and pop in a preheated turbo oven. Cook for 40 mins and baste every 10 minutes with the chicken juices; the skin will be crispy, like fried chicken!)
• Jeweled fruit jello with custard cream (for the custard cream, follow this recipe < http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/52> for crème Anglais)
• Fruit kebabs with chocolate-peanut butter dip (For the dip: Simply melt a 200-gram Cadbury's milk chocolate bar and 1 cup of creamy peanut butter in a double boiler pan; mix until creamy)

Other touches
Make paper hats in the shape of crowns; wear them during the Christmas meal for a festive air! Also have fun, Christmas-themed paper napkins with a fun print that that kids will enjoy. Finally, present the meal table creatively: Add candles, Christmas ornaments, maybe a miniature Christmas tree with handmade ornaments by the kids. Preparing a Christmas feast for the kids doesn't just begin in the kitchen. Remember: It's the small details—the cooking, the prepping, the decorating—that will make the kids feel like the meal is a special one they helped create. And that surely makes for some happy tummies come Christmas Day!

Photo from flickr creativecommons