Say goodbye to boredom with these fun and festive games children will love!
Silly season is upon us - the decorations are up in the streets and shopping centres, Black Friday sales have screamed at us from shop windows, posters and our email inboxes and carols are fa-la-la-ing in cafes.
Christmas can be a stressful time of year for many, trying to time-manage all of the activities, parties, events. Co-ordinating get-togethers, Christmas parties, present and grocery shopping. Making sure all the kids are in the right place, at the right time, in the right ugly sweater/ crazy Christmas hair/ festive pyjamas. Deciding what to make for Christmas dinner, for the community pot luck, for school holiday snacks.
But it can also be a time of huge joy: listening to the kids singing Christmas songs, watching them practise their dances or lines for the end of year concert. Celebrating another year with work colleagues you like to hang out with, knowing you get to see your interstate relatives again soon, getting (or giving!) a really special gift. The excitement of Santa magic - writing the lists, visiting in the mall, kids being extra good when you remind them about the naughty or nice list! Hanging stockings, twinkling fairy lights and the gradual advent countdown day by day.
So how do you harness all of the best parts of Christmas while minimising the stresses? By focussing on the connection and the joy of this time of year! At your family or community parties, enjoy connecting with each other and creating festive fun with the best Christmas party games listed below!
Classic games with a twist
The best way to engage kids in the festive celebrations is to run games they know and love but with a novel Christmas twist. By using games that are already familiar, you save the time and frustration of trying to teach new rules to an audience that are just keen to plaaaaaaaay! Included for each game is an Entertainer’s Tip - an insider hint gained from years of experience about how to make the game run more smoothly.
Try some of these classic games with a festive twist:
Pin the nose on Rudolph
You can buy a poster of the famous reindeer online that comes with red paper circle noses. Using a piece of Blu Tak or double sided tape, kids are blindfolded one at a time the spun in a circle before they try to stick their nose on the poster. The closest one to where Ruldoph’s famous red nose is meant to be is the winner! To extend the fun of this game, you could even get the kids to draw the poster and decorate their own red noses.
Entertainer’s tip: write each participant’s name on their paper nose so there are no doubts about which nose belongs to whom.
Festive musical statutes
This has a couple of variations, the simplest being classic musical statues but with Christmas music. Participants dance to the music and when it stops everyone has to freeze! For kids who want a bigger challenge, when the music stops they must stand in a Christmas inspired pose and freeze there. This could include hands joined over head like a Christmas tree, on all fours like a reindeer, miming carrying a heavy Santa sack.
Entertainer’s Tip: Traditionally musical statues is an elimination game, but this can be hard for younger children to understand and comply with. Instead of eliminating those who wobble or take the longest to stop moving, the judge can reward the ‘fastest freezer’ or ‘most imaginative pose’ with a small token of winning (I like to use a fun, festive sticker) and everyone stays in for each round.
Santa Says
This is the classic ‘Simon says’ - if “Simon (or in this case, Santa) says to jump on the spot” then the participants have to do so, but if they are told to “jump on the spot”, Santa hasn’t said to do it and it’s a trick. You can use festive actions for this game that are as wide as the imagination! Try challenging the kids to “Santa Says’ these festive actions:
dance like Christmas elves
mime writing your Santa letter
gallop like a reindeer
sing a line from a Christmas carol
say BAH HUMBUG as Scrooge-like as you can
bend into a candy cane shape
Entertainer’s Tip: Keep this one running quickly to try and catch kids out and choose a forfeit for anyone who does the action when Santa doesn’t Say (such as doing 5 star jumps or to spread Christmas cheer by giving high fives or saying something nice to one of the other players).
Pass the present
Pass the parcel, but with one of the best parts of Christmas included: the presents! Wrap a pass the parcel ahead of time with a prize in the middle (I like to include a prize that can be shared by all kids - either a prop for the next game or a craft activity to be set up for everyone to do together after the games). Wrap candies and/or forfeit actions into each layer of the parcel. Kids sit or stand in a circle and as the music plays the parcel gets passed from player to player (hot potato style to avoid lingering!) then when the music stops, the player holding the parcel opens one layer of paper.
Entertainers Tip: There is a trend of allowing every child to win a prize. If this is your choice, make sure there are enough layers with candy for every child. With an unknown RSVP list or lots of children this can be difficult so my preference is to write a forfeit on a piece of paper and put one in each layer of the parcel (and in this version about 5 or 6 layers is sufficient). When the forfeit is unwrapped, ALL players have to do it. These can be physical - run around the room and touch every wall before coming back to the circle, or social - give the person to your left a compliment, or silly - on the count of 3, everyone pull a silly face!
Bonus Tip: Alternate Christmas wrapping paper with newspaper for the layers so only one layer of paper is taken off at a time.
Elf treasure hunt
This one needs a little prep work but it’ll be worth it! Get lots of chocolate gold coins and hide them all over the party venue and tell the children that Santa’s elves saw their names on the nice list and came to visit them early and left the hidden sweets as a reward! You could even get each child to decorate a brown paper bag to have a vessel to collect their treasure!
Entertainer’s Tip: Use a sharpie to write names on the coins so that each child can only collect their own, this stops the older or faster children from getting all the chocolate and leaving the younger and shyer children with none. If there are children too young to read their name, put a coloured dot or sticker on theirs and tell them to look for their colour. You’ll find that when the older kids have found all theirs they will help the younger ones.
Bonus Tip: If you live in a hot climate do this with small candy canes instead of chocolate!
Incorporating prizes and holiday goodies
As mentioned above, it can be better for the kids to compete in these games for the chance of winning a small prize than using elimination. Elimination can be confusing and upsetting for younger children, but it can also make those who are ‘out’ feel bored and wander off, dispersing the group and making it difficult to re-engage them. So rather than the last one standing receiving a bigger prize, use smaller prizes to reward good playing of the game - prizes such as stickers, lollipops, a temporary tattoo etc.
Another way to incorporate prizes and holiday goodies is to use the prizes to link to the next activity. Maybe each child wins a Christmas tree ornament that they can decorate themself and you have a table with pens, glitter, stickers and other craft supplies where they can do that as the next activity and then they can take the ornament home and hang it on their tree.
Creating a ‘Santa letter kit’ of a Christmas pencil and some paper and envelope with a festive border printed on it is another great prize so the children can then either sit and write their letter to Santa with your help or take the cute kit home to do with family.
A prize that will have other parents thanking you at this busy time of year is a Christmas colouring or activity book - something to keep the kids occupied while parents decorate/ wrap gifts/ prepare festive food.
Speaking of festive food, another great way to engage the kids is to award gingerbread biscuits as prizes and have a place set up with icing, sweets and sprinkles so they can decorate and eat their own cookie. Using these craft activities as well as games can help manage the energy of the group and engage the kids who may be more arty than sporty, and as a bonus, they get to take a fun, festive prize home with them!
How entertainers can lead games to keep kids engaged and parents relaxed
If you are thinking this all sounds like a lot of work and you’d rather be putting your feet up at the party, Christmas cocktail in hand, then fear not! There’s a solution to that: a professional entertainer!
By hiring a professional entertainer for your party, you’re bringing in someone who knows how to keep kids engaged and give the games and activities a festive feel. You can even ask them to supervise the craft activities too, giving parents a chance to have a rest amid the festive chaos.
When an entertainer dressed as an elf or a Christmas fairy or another festive character turns up at your party, just watch the little one’s eyes widen with wonder at this magical creature. The novelty of having an entertainer is engaging in itself, but they will also bring a wealth of knowledge and experience of games and activities to spread the joy of Christmas.
Then, after the activities, the kids can have their photos taken with the Christmas character and cherish this special festive memory.
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