3 Fun and Easy Games for a Winter Party

If you’re looking for some easy games for a winter party, today I’ll share the ones that worked for us!

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Before I begin, I’ll give you the story of why I created these winter games…  Recently, the class mom in my son’s class needed volunteers for the class winter party.  She sent an email request out on a Monday for the party that Friday.  Like everyone, I was busy with all my last minute Christmas running around so I finally responded on Wednesday with a quick, “If you need any extra help with the winter party, I’m available on Friday.”

Immediately, I got an email back saying something like, “Great, we have someone doing a craft but you can run the games!”

Yes, run the games.  Apparently, I was the only other person who offered, so here I was scurrying around on Wednesday trying to think of classroom winter party games for Friday morning.  Yes, I still had Christmas gifts to buy and wrap.  Though with middle school rapidly approaching, I realized that this could be the last class party I get to be involved in.

 

3 Fun and Easy Games for a Winter Party:

Although, it can be hard to come up with a good theme for a winter party, (that’s not too Christmas-oriented), a snow man theme is a great place to start.  

After asking my boys for a few suggestions, I also scanned through Pinterest for some kids winter party ideas.

From there, I decided on these 3 easy games that could keep a room-full of 5th graders entertained.  

In fact, these games would be a hit for a school winter party or even a home party!

1.  The Marshmallow-Toothpick Challenge Game:

My seventh grader gave me this great marshmallow party game for kids.  Thankfully, it ended up being a huge hit with the class.

For this winter game, we filled a cup with mini marshmallows and gave each child a stack of toothpicks. 

The object of the game was to build the tallest structure just using marshmallows and toothpicks in a 5 minute time period.

 

Immediately, the kids got to work and were actually very creative with the way they built the marshmallow structures.  The only requirement was that it had to stand alone without support.  Within the 5 minute time frame, I think the winner built a 9 inch tall structure.  Yes, it was so much fun for everyone.  Of course, the kids wanted to eat all the marshmallows at the end but we had to throw them out.  Unfortunately, our school does not allow us to bring in food for school parties…I know, just ridiculous.  Luckily, the kids had fun with it anyway!

2.  The Snowman Building Contest

Do you want to build a snowman?  Well, the kids definitely did and they had a blast!

For this winter party game, I bought some cheap plastic hats for around 49 cents a piece and filled them with snowman-building supplies.  To keep it simple, we cut colored paper into shapes for buttons, eyes and noses.  For the scarf, we provided red streamers and of course, we had plenty of tape and toilet paper.

We broke the kids into groups and gave them 5 minutes to wrap up one of the group members in toilet paper to “build” their snowman .  Instead of choosing a winner, we just had all the snowman or snow-people stand in front of the class for a picture at the end.  They had so much fun throwing the toilet paper around and making a mess in the classroom.  It’s not like they get the chance to do much of that in school!

And speaking of things they are not able to do in school…

3.  The Bottle Flipping Contest

If you don’t have a tween or teen, you might not be aware of the bottle-flipping craze.

Basically, the kids take a water bottle, empty it about halfway or so and then try to flip it so it lands upright.  Yes, that’s it.  For some reason, they are all obsessed with this and want to do it constantly!  It really can be quite annoying to hear that flipping sound over and over!  My plan was to have a contest to see who could get the most successful flips.

Overall, I think we all have a love-hate relationship with bottle flipping.  Actually, most of us parents probably hate it!  I honestly don’t mind it too much.  It may be annoying but it keeps my son away from screens…and I’m all for that!

Since I know teachers find bottle flipping SO annoying, I had asked the class mom to check if we could do it for the party.  She told me she emailed the teacher beforehand and didn’t hear back so she assumed it wasn’t a problem.

Ha – you should have seen the teacher’s face when I announced what the bottles were for!  Apparently, she never saw the email!  But through a forced smile, she said it would be fine to do as our last game.  Seriously, I felt like the “bad kid” but oh well…it’s fun to shake things up sometimes!  Plus, I made cute little “Melted Snowman” labels for the bottles to go with our theme.  I couldn’t let them go to waste!

Unfortunately, the other mom handling the craft (which also happened to have a snow man theme), took longer than expected.  So, we didn’t have as much time as we had hoped to do all the games.  Sadly, the Bottle Flipping Contest never happened!  Yes, I’m sure my son’s teacher was thrilled.  So, I ended up leaving the bottles so each child could take one home.  Oh well, I tried!

Overall, the kids had a fabulous time at their winter party and all the games were a success!

Of course, it would have been even better if they could have flipped those bottles!  Though, I am sure they flipped them when they got home.  A big sorry to all the parents who had to deal with them!

I hope these easy winter game ideas were helpful if you are throwing your own winter-themed party.  

Here are a few more snow related games/craft ideas:

• Decorate a real snowman with this snowman kit!
• Little kids (and big kids) will love an indoor snowball fight with these artificial snowballs!
• Let the family get involved in decorating with these snowflake window clings!
• Keep the kids busy with this thin ice game!

If you are looking for other party ideas for this age group, you might want to also consider A Lego Themed Party!  That theme can be fun at a winter party or any time of the year!

Have you created any easy games for a winter party?

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