Dec 14 2008
Christmas Party Games
Christmas Party Games: For the Kids
By Sirena Van Schaik
This year, as December quickly approached, I decided that it would be great to have a Christmas party. I’m not sure what the reason was behind this since I tend to avoid throwing Christmas parties. Oh sure, I will throw a Christmas get together but that usually involves a turkey and a bunch of gifts, but not this time.
This time I have decided that my kids were old enough to have friends over for a kid geared Christmas party and in a few short weeks, I will have ten to twenty children running through my house, all hyper about Christmas, which will only be a few days away.
A part of me is wondering, what have I done but the other part of me is thinking, this should be fun and I remember what it was like to be a kid and have people over for parties. It was a lot of fun and by the time everyone left, I was usually on cloud 9, or maybe it was cloud 17.
This year, I have everything planned from making personal pizzas to skating in the backyard ice rink (yes, I live in the great white north called Canada). I also have some great ideas for games and I’m sure that the children will love them.
If you are looking for a few games to play over Christmas, either at a party or with your own kids, I have outlined a few ideas. What is great about these games is that they can be enjoyed by children of all ages, whether they are 5 or 50.
Let’s get the party stomping with this great game that will take a lot of energy out of the guests, of course, they might get so excited that they build even more energy but let’s not worry about that.
This is a pretty easy game where you tie one red balloon and one green balloon to each ankle (one balloon per ankle) of every party guest. To encourage team work, make sure you split everyone up into groups. The next step is to clear room for this. You can do it outside to make sure no one is injured or you can let them have free reign in one room of the house.
Once you have the space, your guests can start playing the game. The objective is to pop all the balloons on the opposing team’s ankles. The team with the most balloons by the end of the game wins.
Race to Get Dressed:
This is a classic game and I remember playing it at school when I was a kid and again when I was teaching. Usually everyone is laughing by the end of the game that very few people get dressed in time.
Obviously, the object of this game is to race to see who can get dressed the fastest. You work in a team and it is done in a relay style where one team member races up to the box that you have supplied. In the box is an assortment of clothes, usually winter clothes that the person has to dress in. Once the person has put all the clothes on, he needs to run back to his team and undress. The next person puts on the clothes, runs back to the box, undresses and runs back to his teammate to tag him. The next person does the same thing until everyone else in the team has gone.
The team that finishes first wins.
Christmas Card Toss:
The last game that I am going to suggest is a very easy one to organize and you don’t really need a lot of supplies. Basically, all you need is a laundry basic and several Christmas cards. I am sure that you have the former and more than certain that you have tons of Christmas cards lying around throughout the holiday.
With this game, you will want to set up a laundry basket about 5 or 6 feet away from the players. Each player will take a turn throwing cards into the laundry basket. They can’t move forward to do this but must stay at the marked line, much like darts. The person who gets the most cards into the basket wins.
One thing I should mention about this game is to use the number of cards that reflect the number of players. If you have two or three people playing, it is perfectly fine to use 10 cards but if you have ten or more people playing, I would limit the number of cards to 3 or 5 for each player.
And there are a few games to get your holiday parties started.