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Home » Parties & Entertaining

Back To School Dinner

Modified: May 21, 2025 · Published: Sep 7, 2016 by Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist · This post may contain affiliate links · 2 Comments

Back to School Dinner Ideas: a special Back to School dinner to celebrate the first day of school and hear all about it.

Back to school family dinner ideas.
Jump to:
  • The Back To School Table
  • More Back To School Decorations
  • Book Page Tassels
  • Food Ideas
  • More Back To School Ideas

Yesterday was the first day of school, and share all our fun Back To School dinner ideas with you.

You can find last years Back to School dinner here, and the year before that here, for more inspiration.

how to throw a back to school dinner

The Back To School Table

This year, I went with a bit of a book page theme.  The table runner was made from some old books.  I ripped out some pages, and sewed them together on the sewing machine.  The book pages set the tone for a mainly black and white colour scheme.

Back to School Dinner ideas

The placards were some sweet library card inspired tags.

first day of school dinner

For the bottles of water, I used some cute numbered gift tags I picked up at Ikea.

back to school party

And on the straws, some cute “school days” flags I made.

Back to School party ideas

The table was really very simple.  I always think of apples when I think of back to school, so the simple centrepiece was just a line of fresh apples.  They smell so good!

school themed party ideas

More Back To School Decorations

In the background, I decorated the buffet with a back to school theme too.

back to school dinner ideas

Book Page Tassels

In keeping with the book page theme, I made some pretty book page tassels.

Back to School decorations

The book page tassels were simple to make from some old books, and with some black and white washi tape.  To make them just tear some pages out of an old book, and cut them in strips with about an inch of the top of the page, so that they're all still connected.  Then roll up several of the cut pages together and secure with a bit of hot glue and some washi tape.

book page tassels

It was fun to use my vintage globes and few other school supplies to set the tone.

Back to School dinner party

Food Ideas

We had pasta for dinner -a real favourite around here.  And for dessert, a few school inspired treats.

Back to School party

You can see how I made the Book Page Sugar Cookies and Marshmallow Pencil Treats here.

Back to School themed snacks and desserts

We traditionally have an apple dessert for this special dinner, and I had great plans for one this year.  But I used all the apples on the table and ran out of time, so I picked up some apple fritter donuts and decorated them with some book page pom pom picks.  I haven’t had an apple fritter in ages -boy were they yummy and so easy. 😉

Back to School Dinner ideas

We had a great time hearing all about the first day, from choosing a class pet (hermit crabs and fish are in the running) to not being able to find the washroom, to who they sat with on the bus.  It was a great family time, and one of our favourite traditions.

how to have a Back to School Dinner

With a this many Back to School dinner ideas, life really is a party!

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    Smart Cookie Party

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. dnr says

    September 10, 2016 at 10:03 pm

    Thanks so much Sue.

  2. Sue Sparks says

    September 10, 2016 at 9:47 pm

    Just the right amount of decorating! Love your style!

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