Plaid Paper Food Trays • Crafting my Home

Your holiday party will be extra festive with these quick and easy to make plaid paper food trays.

Whether you are giving homemade treats as gifts or having a holiday party, there is no need for your food trays to be boring!

Yeah, you can buy stacks of plain old disposable food trays. But with just a few minutes of time you can also make your own. And these paper food trays have a festive plaid design to match your decor.

But even with the red and green plaid and buffalo check designs, you don’t need to wait till Christmas to use these paper food boats. You can use them anytime of the year!

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Two different sizes of plaid food trays with red and green prints on them filled with popcorn.

Ways to Use Paper Food Boats

Paper food boats are way more useful than I realized. My father-in-law keeps them on hand as much as paper plates.

Here are 10 ways you can use these disposable food trays for the holidays or any time of year:

Fill with goodies to use as neighbor or coworker gifts
Load them up with s’mores fixings for everyone to hold at the fire pit
Use as hot dog trays for a casual get together
Place a stack on your party table next to the chips and dip for people to fill
Use as trays for a street taco bar at a party
Fill with popcorn for a holiday movie night
Use them at your cookie swap for everyone to take their cookies home in
Fill them with the candies for decorating gingerbread houses
Place a stack on your desert table for guests to use
Fill them with fun toppings for a hot chocolate bar

Two big rectangle paper food boats with popcorn in them.

So many possibilities to use these simple trays. But no need to use plain boring trays, it is quick and easy to make up your own paper party trays.

Just a little cutting and some hot glue and you will have loads of paper food trays that can stack up, all with fun red and green plaids.

Perfect for a cozy holiday party!

Two disposable food trays with plaid prints on the outside stacked together with popcorn in the top one.

7 Days of Paper Christmas Decor

These paper party trays are part of the 7 Days of Paper decor series. Every day for the week leading up to Thanksgiving I share a new paper craft to decorate or entertain for the holidays.

And this year the theme is snowy ski lodge. Don’t these plaid paper food trays feel like the perfect entertaining dish for a casual mountain Christmas?

And to get your home decorated, make sure to check out the rest of the paper Christmas crafts below. I will update the list as they are released.

Day 1: Easy Paper Snowflake Ornaments
Day 2: Rustic Paper Christmas Tree Craft
Day 3: Anatomy of a Snowflake Printable Art
Day 4: Plaid Paper Food Trays
Day 5: Easy Wooden Ski Christmas Ornaments
Day 6: Beautiful Paper Christmas Village DIY
Day 7: Decorative Wooden Sled Paper Craft

Tall square paper party trays with Christmas plaid prints on the outside and popcorn inside.

How to make Disposable Food Trays

Supplies:

Paper trays template
- I am sharing the cut files & PDF for these paper food trays in my subscriber library until 11/25/2021, then they will move to the shop. Click here to subscribe to my newsletter and gain access to all the freebies. If you already have your password, click here to go to the library download them.
Cardstock
Printer
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Optional: Electronic cutting machine like a Silhouette Cameo or Cricut Maker

Paper Food Boat Sizes

There are two sizes of food trays: shallow rectangle or tall square. Here are the dimensions for each:

Shallow rectangle- 3 1/2″ x 6 1/4″ at bottom, 5 1/4″ x 8″ at top, 2 3/4″ tall sides
Tall square- 3″ x 3″ at bottom, 4″ x 4″ at top, 4″ tall sides

The paper boats are bigger than they look. The large shallow one holds 4 1/2-5 cups and the tall one holds 2 1/2-3 cups.

You can size either design smaller as needed, just make sure to lock the aspect ratio so both sides are reduced evenly.

Two tall square paper food trays stacked together and two shallow rectangle food trays not stacked on a table.

Cut out the pieces

Each paper food boat uses 2 pieces of cardstock. The bottoms overlay to add extra support.

If using an electronic cutting machine, use the print & cut feature.

Print and cut out 2 of the same piece per boat.

Cutting out the paper food trays on a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine.

Before assembly, fold along all the dotted lines.

The bottom of the two pieces for the food tray with the fold lines creased.

Assemble the food trays

Start by stacking the two trays on top of each other so the sides are not stacked but the bottom is.

Add glue to the inside corner of the bottom and press to secure.

Lining up the two pieces of the food boat and glueing the bottom with hot glue.

Then flip the paper tray over and and glue together the opposite corner from the outside.

Glueing the bottom pieces on the outside of the food tray too.

Add glue to the corner flaps and press to secure.

Glueing the side tabs on the paid paper food trays closed.

Repeat for all 4 corners.

The inside of your food tray will be plain so no worry about getting ink on your food.

Looking at the inside of the DIY disposable food tray.

But the outside is full of cozy plaid style! Perfect for a holiday party.

And these paper food trays stack, so you can make them all up and stack them on your food table.

Two plaid paper food trays stacked inside each other.

I just love all the fun plaid designs for Christmas. And I cannot wait to use them by our fire pit for our new Christmas Eve tradition.

I am sure I will find even more ways to use these handy containers this season. So glad they are fast and easy to make!

Disposable paper food trays with cozy plaids and buffalo check patterns on them and popcorn inside them.

Happy entertaining!