I never made punch for a party until I was a mom. I have found that part of being a mom is throwing and attending many children’s birthday parties. I quickly realized that punch is a surefire hit and can be made in a variety of creative ways.
One downside to punch is it is often made with products containing food dyes. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not food dyes are harmful to children, but I have seen children with dye sensitivity come unleashed after exposure to artificial food dyes.
Because punch is such a big hit at parties and because I try to avoid food dyes when practical and possible, I decided to play around with punch recipes and find a formula that my family enjoyed. These ideas are not gourmet or earth-shattering, but they are simple, tasty, and all natural.
I found two ways to get a great and easy punch with all natural ingredients. You may have tried these yourself.
Easy Party Punch Recipes for Kids
Formula One
Mix one 2 liter bottle of 7-Up or other all natural soda with one 64 oz bottle of 100% juice. I made a delicious punch for my son’s dragon-themed party by combining 7-Up with cranberry black cherry juice. Our guests went crazy over this punch.
Formula Two
Mix one 2 liter bottle of 7-Up or other all natural soda with one 12 oz can of frozen 100% juice concentrate and one can of water. This is the formula I used to come up with the punch for my daughters’s princess party (the pink punch above). I mixed 7-Up with 1/2 a can of lemonade concentrate and 1/2 a can of pink lemonade concentrate.
Cooling Your Punch
There are many ways to make punch but I have found these two formulas to be easy and affordable. I also like the added benefit of them being dye free. I make the punch more fun by adding props and calling the punch a name that goes along with the party theme.Always store the punch ingredients in the refrigerator or freezer (for the concentrates). One mistake a lot of people make is putting ice into the punch. This waters down the punch as the ice melts. Instead, make large juice cubes that will add to the flavor of the punch by purchasing extra juice and pouring it into a muffin tin and freezing it. These juice cubes can be seen in the picture of the dragon punch above.
What is your favorite punch flavor? Feel free to leave a comment, Share and let’s talk about it.
About Janice
Great punch ideas. Is the pink lemonade really dye free?!?!?! What brand did you use, I’d love to know.
I think it was Minute Maid which is flavored/colored with grape juice. I am not sure on the brand though. I just remember checking to make sure it only contained natural ingredients.
We’ve always gone with the old standard ginger ale, pineapple juice and sherbet. These sound good 🙂
Hi! New follower from the Mingle Monday hop! I hope you’ll stop by my blog and follow back! Thanks! 🙂 Through the Eyes of a Tiger
I love punch! You can make it for a children’s party or add some “adult flavors” for a girls night in and they will both be big hits!!! Putting bold flavors in a ice-cube form allow for fun and unique punches, like freezing fruit in 100% fruit juice or rum??? They will add spunk to any punch Have fun.
Good information. Lucky me I recently found your
website by accident (stumbleupon). I have saved it for later!
Thank you for adding in the bit about juice cubes instead of ice cubes. I’m planning our first non-family birthday party, and one of our guests has dye and milk allergies. I was simply proud of myself for remembering to be dye and milk free, but by using juice, one family who are arriving late, will be blessed with full flavored punch as well. Thank you much.
You are welcome!
Has anyone here looked at the ingredients on 7up lately? Not good. High fructose corn syrup leads the list.
Last time I looked it did not have HFCS. That is why we buy it over Sprite.
Fellow Arizonan… a little prickly pear syrup (homemade or not!) or juice mixed with Trader Joes lemonade is a lovely and dramatic favorite at our house. Its easy to harvest the Prickly pear juice and freeze cubes this time of year. You could also use TJs margarita mix which is extra-concentrated, thinned with sparkling water to get the bubbly effect