Under the Sea Party Food Ideas for Kids

Dive into dinner with these under the sea party food ideas for kids. Create edible aquariums, fish snacks, fish-shaped pizza, shrimp skewers, oyster cookies and other ocean-inspired foods for a fun family theme dinner.

Use these ideas for a family theme dinner, ocean unit study, summer party or birthday celebration. Kids can help build edible ocean scenes, decorate fish-shaped foods and create a colorful underwater table.

Easy Under the Sea Dinner Formula

Choose one edible ocean snack + one fish or seafood main dish + fruit or vegetables + one ocean dessert. Add blue table decorations, seashells or toy sea creatures to complete the underwater scene.

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On This Page:

Build an Under the Sea Dinner
Under the Sea Centerpiece
Edible Ocean Scenes
Fishes in the Ocean
Let's Go Fishing Snack
River of Fish
Fish-Shaped Pizza
Breaded Shrimp Skewers
Oyster Cookies
Crab Cake
Mermaid Tail Cupcakes
Under the Sea Questions

Build an Under the Sea Dinner

You don't need to make every ocean-themed food on the page. Pick a few ideas that work together and let kids help create one special edible sea scene.

Easy Under the Sea Menu:

Snack: Fishes in the Ocean or River of Fish
Main dish: Fish-Shaped Pizza or Breaded Shrimp Skewers
Food-art activity: Create an Edible Ocean Scene
Dessert: Oyster Cookies
Special occasion dessert: Crab Cake or Mermaid Tail Cupcakes

Kids Can Help: Let kids spread blue frosting or cream cheese, arrange fish crackers, add pizza toppings, coat shrimp and assemble oyster cookies. Adults can handle knives, raw seafood, hot ovens and grills.

Under the Sea Centerpiece Ideas

Use an aquarium-inspired centerpiece to make the whole table feel like an underwater scene.

Edible fish aquarium centerpiece with blue gelatin and candy fish

Edible Fish Bowl: Prepare blue gelatin in a clear bowl and add candy fish or sharks to create an edible aquarium. Keep the bowl chilled until serving.

Non-Food Centerpiece: Fill a clean fish bowl or clear container with seashells, colorful stones and plastic sea creatures. Blue fabric or paper underneath can look like ocean water.

Table Idea: Add blue napkins, paper fish, shells or ocean-colored dishes around the centerpiece to carry the theme across the table.

Create Edible Ocean Scenes

Turn snack time or dinner into an underwater world with simple foods kids can arrange and decorate. Try one of these easy ideas, then use the same concept to invent your own ocean scene.

Under the Sea Rice Cakes or Bagels

Rice cake decorated with blue topping and fish for an under the sea snack

Start with a rice cake or mini bagel and spread it with a blue topping to create the ocean. Use blue-tinted whipped topping on rice cakes or blue-tinted cream cheese on bagels. Add fish crackers or fish-shaped candies, then decorate with other small toppings for bubbles, rocks or sea plants.

Edible Sea Dinner

Edible under the sea dinner scene made with rice, meatballs and vegetables

Make the ocean theme part of the main meal. Use cooked rice, meatballs and cut vegetables to create fish, sea plants, rocks and other underwater shapes right on the dinner plate.

Vegetable Coral Reef

Turn colorful vegetables into an edible coral reef. Stand broccoli or cauliflower florets upright for coral, add cucumber slices and carrot strips for sea plants, and use bell pepper pieces or other vegetables to create little fish swimming through the scene.

Fruit Ocean Scene

Use blueberries or grapes for water, sliced fruit for fish and kiwi, melon or other colorful fruit for sea plants and rocks. Let kids arrange everything into their own edible underwater picture.

Keep It Creative: These ideas are starting points rather than designs kids have to copy. Let them choose their own foods, colors and sea creatures to make each edible ocean different.

Fishes in the Ocean Graham Crackers

Turn graham crackers into tiny edible aquariums with blue frosting and fish-shaped snacks.

Graham cracker edible aquarium with blue frosting and fish

You Will Need:

Graham cracker squares
Blue frosting
Gummy fish or fish crackers

How to Make It: Spread blue frosting over about one-half to three-quarters of each graham cracker. Add fish crackers or gummy fish to the blue "water."

Learning Connection: While kids decorate, talk about different sea creatures, count the fish or sort them by color and size.

Let's Go Fishing Snack

Turn snack time into a pretend fishing trip with a simple edible fishing pole and a bowl of fish crackers for the pond.

Pretzel and breadstick fishing snack with fish crackers

Make an Edible Fishing Pole:

Use a long pretzel rod or breadstick as the fishing pole. Add a small amount of peanut butter, cream cheese or another thick spread to the end as "bait," then let kids try picking up fish crackers from a bowl.

For another version, pair a breadstick with small pieces of cheese and fish crackers to create an easy savory fishing snack.

Nut-Free Option: Use cream cheese or another nut-free spread instead of peanut butter when needed.

River of Fish Celery Snacks

Blue cream cheese turns celery sticks into little rivers filled with swimming fish crackers.

Celery filled with blue cream cheese and fish crackers

You Will Need:

Celery stalks, cut into shorter pieces
Cream cheese
Blue food coloring
Fish crackers

Directions: Stir one or two drops of blue food coloring into the cream cheese. Spread it inside the celery pieces, then place fish crackers along the top so they look like fish swimming in a river.

Color Tip: You only need a small amount of food coloring to turn the cream cheese blue. Add one drop at a time.

Fish-Shaped Pizza

Turn pizza night into an ocean dinner by shaping pizza dough into fish. Kids can decorate their own fish with sauce, cheese and toppings.

Pepperoni Fish Pizza

Shape pizza dough into a fish, then use overlapping pepperoni slices to resemble scales. Add an olive or vegetable piece for the eye.

Make Your Own Fish

Give each child a small piece of dough to shape into a fish and let them choose toppings for the scales, fins and face.

Homemade Pizza Dough & Pizza Ideas

Shape Tip: Keep the fish shapes fairly simple and similar in thickness so the pizzas bake evenly.

Breaded Shrimp Skewers

Shrimp makes an easy ocean-inspired main dish for an under the sea dinner. These shrimp skewers are coated with olive oil, seasoned bread crumbs and Italian seasoning, then grilled or baked until cooked through.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6–10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Breaded shrimp skewers for an under the sea dinner

Ingredients

1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Black pepper, to taste

Directions

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels.
Place the olive oil in a shallow bowl and lightly coat the shrimp with the oil.
In a separate shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning and a dash of black pepper.
Coat both sides of each shrimp with the bread crumb mixture.
Thread the shrimp onto skewers, leaving a little space between each piece.
To grill: Place the skewers on a preheated grill over medium heat. Cook for about 2–3 minutes per side, or until the shrimp are opaque and cooked through.
To bake: Arrange the skewers on a baking sheet and bake at 425°F for about 8–10 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque and cooked through.
Serve warm with lemon wedges or a favorite dipping sauce, if desired.

Kid Cooking Tip: Kids can measure and mix the bread crumb coating and help coat the shrimp. An adult should supervise handling raw shrimp, threading sharp skewers and using the oven or grill.

Skewer Tip: If using wooden skewers on the grill, soak them in water for about 30 minutes before assembling. For younger cooks, an adult can thread the shrimp or use blunt-ended reusable skewers.

Try Cajun Catfish More Fish & Seafood Recipes

Oyster Cookies

Turn two cookies, frosting and a mini marshmallow into a simple edible oyster with a little pearl inside.

You Will Need:

Vanilla wafers or shell-shaped cookies
Frosting tinted blue or another ocean color
Mini marshmallows

Directions: Spread frosting on the flat side of one cookie. Place a mini marshmallow near the front for the pearl, then rest a second cookie on top at an angle so the oyster stays slightly open.

Variation: A small round white candy can also become the pearl.

Crab-Shaped Cake

Idea by Tabatha Persons, Boonville, New York

Turn round cakes into a large crab for a special under the sea birthday cake or party centerpiece.

Crab-shaped cake decorated for an under the sea party

How It Was Made:

Bake three cakes in round pie pans.
Use two cakes to create and shape the crab's body.
Cut the third cake into pieces for the claws and other details.
Cover the cake with homemade buttercream frosting.
Create edible "sand" around the crab with peanut butter frosting or crushed cookies.
Use blue and white buttercream for the surrounding water.
Add molded decorations for the eyes and front claws.

Simpler Version: Kids don't have to recreate every detail. A round frosted cake with candy eyes and simple frosting claws can still make an easy crab cake.

Mermaid Tail Piñata Cupcakes

Add a mermaid-inspired dessert to the table with these colorful surprise-filled cupcakes.

Party Idea: Pair mermaid cupcakes with fish, shells and other sea-life foods for a mixed under-the-sea theme rather than limiting the dinner to one ocean animal.

Under the Sea Party Questions

What foods work for an under the sea party?

Fish-shaped pizza, shrimp skewers, edible aquariums, fish crackers, ocean-themed celery snacks, oyster cookies and crab or mermaid desserts all work well for an under the sea theme.

What is an easy under the sea snack for kids?

Fishes in the Ocean graham crackers are one of the easiest choices. Kids can spread blue frosting over graham crackers and add fish crackers or gummy fish to create an edible aquarium.

How can kids help make an under the sea dinner?

Kids can decorate edible ocean scenes, spread frosting and cream cheese, arrange fish crackers, shape pizza dough, add pizza toppings, coat shrimp and assemble oyster cookies. Adults can handle knives, raw seafood and hot cooking equipment.

How can I decorate for an under the sea dinner?

Use blue table decorations, seashells, toy sea creatures, paper fish or an aquarium-inspired centerpiece. Edible ocean scenes can also double as table decorations before they are eaten.

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