Christmas Party Activities for Kindergarten

Well I just had a birthday party for my daughter and there were a couple of games that went very well with the kids.
One of them was a bean bag toss game. I had all the kids line up (theres 6 bean bags) and they each got to toss 6 bags to try and make it in the holes. We had 2 rounds and added up the points and found first and second winner and gave a prize.
Then I had a balloon pop game which the kids all loved.
I filled the ballons all with confetti and blew them up.
Inside one of the balloons I put a little paper that says WINNER! One by one each kid would get to pick the balloon they wanted to pop, we would help them (we had them hung from the ceiling.) and the when they popped the balloon it was fun cause all the confetti/candy would come out and the kids were crazy about it. It was definitely there favorite game.
Have fun!
K.

I didn't read all of the reponses - maybe someone already suggested this...read the story of the Gingerbread man and decorate gingerbread cookies. You could make real cookies and decorate with frosting and candy, or just get a large cutout of a gingerbread man, run it off on brown cardstock, and decorate it with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, sequins, etc. You could also have each child bring a $1 gift and have a gift exchange. Hope this helps.
K.

Last year I helped with the kindergarten party. The biggest hit was the pinata. One of the Moms made it with just a balloon and paper mache'. The kids just loved it!

What a fun age. I am a grandma now so I guess you could say been there done that, and I do believe that I have a t-shirt fo it too.
There are lots of fun things to do with the kids. Let them decorate their own cookies or cupcakes. Make ornaments out of canning jar lids, count down chain for how many days till christmas, Reindeer candy canes are fun to make also. Make a christmas stocking out of red and green felt or construction paper (lacing them is good eye hand coordnation). And as a gift to their parents do silhouttes. Need any more ideas just let me know. T., Salmon Id

We've done sugar cookie or cupcake decorating a few times and that's always a big hit with the kids. We try to break the kids up into smaller groups and have them rotate through stations. One station listened to a story, one did the food decorating, one did a game, and one did a craft or coloring pages. Then we did snack as a group at the end. You do need more parents willing to participate this way, but it helps with the chaos and the kids liked it. We find a lot of fun ideas for crafts and games at familyfun.com or just search "kids Christmas party games" and you should get lots of good ideas. Good luck!

Last year at my family party we had a cute craft for the kids. We had soft foam door-hanger cutouts with foam stickers (snowflakes and letters and stuff) and markers (maybe paints?). The kids all made winter door hangers for their bedrooms with their names and such. I think my cousin got all the materials at a dollar store. I would open your mind and think of something like that.

You could always cut the door hangers out of cardstock and then 1 station where they make a snowflake, then move over and have glitter, glue, markers and stuff for them to attach the snowflake to the door hanger with glitter and thier name.

The cute theme could be "you are each one of a kind" combining the snowflakes and their names.

How about gingerbread houses out of school milk cotainers and graham crackers. I would have the kids make christmas cards using my stamp sets. They always like to stamp. I would cut the paper ahead of time. THey had to glue and stamp. Maybe some good christmas stories or music for the kids to dance.

I'd love some ideas too! I'm in charge of my daughter's party and it is coming right up. I need to get busy on it. I thought it would be fun to tell the Polar Express with felt that I have and maybe do 'Twas the Night Before Christmas too with felt. I have pretty good helpers that usually plan their own activity so I just really have to do mine. The puppet show I did for Halloween was a HUGE success (with felt again :) but it could be the same with any puppets. A Christmas puppet show might be fun too. I'd love to hear what you decide!
D. E
Story Time Felts
www.funfelt.com/D..html
Let your influence be FELT!

My first advice would be to hire a clown, since I am one. A clown could face paint, twist balloons, put on a magic show and do other fun things. I don't know where you live, but if you happen to be in central Iowa, check for "Clowning Around" in the phone book and on-line. But aside from that, here are a few things I would suggest. (I also taught arts & crafts after school for 12 years.)

1. Activity Time: If you have any kind of rhythm instruments or could make some fun ones using your imagination, that age loves to have a parade. You could sing Frosty the Snowman or whatever, or play something from a CD as you march around.

2. Craft Time: There are lots of fun ways to make a snowman out of paper. One way would be to make separate parts of the snowman for them to cut out. Have them cut out two pattern pieces for each body part, but in two colors. (Or you could pre-cut them.) Lie one color down with a little space between each part, but aligned as a snowman. Place a piece of string vertically, taping it to the three circle pieces and hat (leaving about a half inch between each of the circles for the string to be visible, and with the hat piece overlapping the head circle). Now paste or glue the other colored pieces on top of the first pieces. Add buttons (3 small for middle torso and 2 on bottom circle) Have the kids draw on his face with crayons or whatever, add a ribboned bow tie around the string between the head and torso, and the string length extended beyond the hat should be long enough to tie a nice sized loop to hang from the tree or the wall. Make one yourself ahead of time, so the children can see it, as they put their own together, and also so you can more easily explain how to do it.

3. Game Time: Play fruit basket upset, but instead of one person being eliminated from the game each time, have the one who doesn't get a chair in the circle (with everyone facing in) stand in the middle of the circle ready to find a seat the next time the music is played and then stopped. So there's always someone in the middle of a circle of chairs filled with other children. It just keeps going until you want the game to stop. Children love this and there are no hurt feelings. Frosty the Snowman could be played with you or another adult doing the starting and stopping.
4. Refreshments Time: You could continue the theme of the snowman by making a snowman cake, or cupcakes for them to decorate themselves. Miniature muffin pans could be used giving three to each child for them to make a three tiered snowman on their plate (with the bottom of each cupcake placed on the plate, so you are looking down at the finished snowman) with a half a round cookie for the hat and a marshmellow for the top of the hat. For less mess, you could put white frosting on all the miniature cupcakes and then have them finish the decorating with red hots for the eyes and mouth; a piece of orange colored coconut for the nose, (using a toothpick to apply it) and miniature M&Ms for the buttons. Take a picture of each child with their snowman on the plate and then it's time to eat them with whatever else you want to add.

V. Garrett (or Trixy the Clown)

This is fun and easy to do for little ones! Sometimes crafts we think are easy, becomes more time consuming than we anticipate. This project is REAL simple, but fun! They can be very creative with decorating too. Hope you like it.

Merry Christmas!
Shelly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsIHNHc1Dbk

A., One activity my 3 year old son made at a Christmas Market from our church was a gumdrop snowball. So, simple, and NO GLUE!
Materials: Lots of gumdrops, a 2 inch or so styrofoam ball, a length of ribbon to turn into a loop, and a straigt pin.
Instructions: Cut gumdrops in half. Stick them on the styrofoam ball sticky side on, closely together. Take the ribbon and form a loop with it. Straight pin it to the ball.
WAHLAH....a Gumdrop Snowball. :)
J.

A.,
I am doing candy canes with beads that you string on pipe cleaners!
Also the teacher is printing out pictures of all the kids and each one is framing their picture with popsicle sticks.
Decorating with stickers.
I hope this helps!
S. Renner
Cheyenne,WY

Have them decorate cookies. Or make candy cane reindeer. There are great books in the library for easy crafts. I don't know any games for that age. Good luck and Happy Holidays.

Super easy little project!!! Make Reindeer Chow!! Have them mix oatmeal and glitter and put it in snack size ziplocs. Then they take it home and sprinkle it on the lawn to help the reindeer know where to go! Really fast to do and the kids love it!!

I'm doing a Christmas party at home for children ages 3-5 and this is what we are doing:
1. Pin the nose on the snowman. I drew a 3ft tall snowman on a big piece of paper, cut out a "carrot nose" out of orange construction paper and glued it to a piece of cardboard to make it alittle stronger. I will use masking tape to make it stick when the kids pin him.
2. We are cutting out Christmas tree shapes out of green paper and then cutting out ornaments and garland out of different colors of paper and glueing them on. YOu could even cut out little present shapes to put under the tree.
3. We are going to watch a Christmas movie!
Hope this helps!!!!!

Check out the Family Fun website: www.familyfun.com, lots of great ideas for games and craft as well as snacks. Have a great time!!!

Have the kids make ginger bread houses or you can get kits at Wal-mart, or have each parent donate, example, a few boxes of graham crackers, vanilla icing, chocolate chips, decorations to make the houses. You can find all different ideas on-line from making home-made ornaments to making place mats-donations from parents really do help

Pin the nose on Rudolph, Musical chairs to The chipmunks christmas music. Maybe do a craft if you have time like take pre cut out trees from Felt and some stars and ornaments also cut from felt and let them glue them together. Kids are never disappointed when there's a party involved. I know- I did my first class party this year at Halloween for my son's first grade class- I was horrified that it wouldn't be fun- but they had a great time!
Good luck and have fun!

I am in charge of my daughters party as well and we are going to frost giant sugar cookies. I'm making enough so that each child gets two. One to eat that day at snack time and one to take home.
I am having the other Mom's bring frosting and sprinkles. I think it will be a lot of fun.
I will be interested in hearing what other ideas you get b/c I need to do one more activity with them in addition to the sugar cookie decorating.

I'm helping with my son's first grade class and we're doing a Polar express party. We're having the kids wear their pjs, reading the book, and serving hot chocolate and donuts. We wanted to keep it fairly simple since there is so much other "stuff" to do around this time of the year. I have a 6th grader and 4th grader also and I hate to break it to you, but they're not going to remember this party in a few years, so don't stress about it too much! The kids are just happy to be doing something besides school work.

Last year my son's K teacher split the kids into groups of 5 or 6 and had them rotate to each activity. Those activities included a Christmas cookie decorating table, pin the nose on the snowman, bean bag toss game, and Christmas word-find table. There were other parents at each activity to help out. Everyone seemed to have a good time =) Good luck!

Hello, I too, have a kindergartener and am involved in planning their Christmas party. I went to familyfun.com and looked on there and got some really great ideas. You just need to make sure to remember to keep the project fairly simple. Good Luck!!