Your Kid’s Next Birthday Party Should Be a Chips and Dip Party
When my youngest was about to turn 2, I was struggling to think of a theme for her birthday party. She was a typical almost two year old, but nothing stood out to me in thinking of a party theme the way her older sister’s obsession with Sesame Street at that same age did. There were 5 things I could definitively say she loved: Her sister, Bluey, Mom and Dad, her binky, and dip. Since we had just done a Bluey themed party for big sister, I realized the only logical thing to do was to give her 2nd birthday party a chips and dip theme (“Dip, Dip, Hooray! It’s Vivienne’s 2nd birthday!”). I realized two things with this: party themes don’t have to be outrageous or intricate and this was the easiest, most party-friendly idea I could ever execute.
There’s something for everyone. We choose 5 different dips that were easy to make and required few ingredients but were filling. Two of those dips, the buffalo chicken dip and the black bean and corn salsa, are party staples for us anyway, so we really just added a few new things with a homemade queso, a warm pepperoni pizza dip, and a spicy shrimp dip. Added to this, we had dino nuggets (“chicken chips”). Everyone had something to choose from without me having to make an extensive variety of foods to accommodate our different guests (mainly family).
Set up was so easy. Most of the dips could be made a day or two before, and the only thing I really had to do before the party was pair each dip with its accompanying chip. The warm dips could be popped in a small crockpot and forgotten until party time. Nothing took up too much room in the refrigerator since we didn’t have to make large quantities of anything. For most of the dips, we did a single serving or even a half serving since we knew we were doing several different ones. Any dip that wasn’t in a crockpot was served in a clear plastic bowl. Each dip was placed on a tray with its accompanying chips. When the party was over, clean up was so easy. We simply threw away the plastic bowls and did a quick wash of the trays. The whole clean up took maybe 15 minutes from start to finish.
This style party is the way to go for a mid-afternoon event, but the dips were filling enough that even with this 11am party time, no one left hungry. We had so much fun coming up with different dip ideas – I think we had more fun matching dips with a kind of “chip” than anything else. Guests really liked the easy finger food while chasing little kids around. Kids were happy because they got to eat chips for lunch, and the adults were excited because who doesn’t love chips and dip!
Next time you’re planning a birthday event for your kids (or even a pot luck event for work or a party for yourself), consider a chips and dip party. It really is the best way to go.
