Lunch Box Theme Ideas

Building your child's lunch box lunch around a theme provides for fun, variety and a change from the everyday sandwich and apple. Although it requires some planning, a themed lunch will encourage your child to eat the lunch you have packed, as well as make a boxed lunch more fun.

Colors. Using a color as a theme is very easy. Fruits and vegetables come in every color of the rainbow. Pick out a couple of a certain couple and include them in your child's lunch box. If you want to go all out you can use a colored tortilla, or a certain color of jam for your child's sandwich and include a drink of the color. Here are some ideas for color lunch box themes.

Red. Put some cherry tomatoes or strawberries in your child's lunch box to snack on. Strawberry jam on a sandwich, or wrapping a sandwich in a red tortilla also add some red color. Cranberry juice and a piece of fruit leather complete the meal. You could also put in some chips and salsa, if your child likes salsa.

Yellow and Orange. There are many fruits and vegetables available in shades of orange or yellow. Cut up some cantaloupe or mango for your child's lunch, or put in carrot sticks and some cheese cubes. Lemonade or orange juice to drink, a lemon bar for dessert, and a cheese sandwich make a good, orange-themed lunch box.

Blue, Purple and Black. Applesauce comes in all colors these days. Buy a pack of blueberry applesauce for this color themed day. Grape juice, a peanut butter sandwich with berry jam, some black olives and blueberries to munch and a few Oreos for dessert make this a dark, but yummy lunch box meal.

Green. Wrap a green tortilla around sandwich fixings as the centerpiece to this green-themed lunch box meal. Add some green grapes and strips of green bell pepper, and put in a miniature container of pistachio pudding to top it off.

Shapes. Similar to the color theme idea is using shapes as a lunch box theme. Food can be cut into different shapes, or use food that already comes in a certain shape. For example crackers come in round, square or triangle shapes. Cut meat (or use pepperoni for round) and cheese to fit the crackers. You can cut a sandwich into a circle, or diagonally to make triangles. Tortilla chips, grapes, small tomatoes all have shapes that can be used around this theme, and you can bake a cookie in any shape you like.

Holidays. Another idea for lunch box themes is to use holidays or seasons. For example, around Valentine's Day you can do a heart theme. Use a cookie cutter to cut your child's sandwich into a heart shape. If you have tiny cookies cutters you can make heart shaped cheese and veggie slices as well. Fill the lunch box with red treats such as cranberry juice and strawberries and put in a little Valentine as well. For a summer theme you could put a little drink umbrella in, or use flower cookie cutters in the spring. Just follow the theme or colors of a holiday to make your child's lunch box themed.

Cuisine. Finally, you can use a certain type of cuisine as a theme. Put some leftover stir-fry with chopsticks for an oriental theme. Chips and salsa with a bean and burrito work for a Mexican theme. Pizza is a great lunch box theme idea as well. You can bake miniature crusts out of pizza dough using a biscuit cutter, make pizzas on an English muffin, bagel or crackers, or wrap up pizza ingredients in a tortilla. You can even make a miniature dessert pizza using a cookie, frosting and sprinkles.

For more fun lunch box ideas, see my article titled, "Ideas for Fun and Creative Lunch Box Lunches."