When planning Christmas games for young
children, the options are endless. Make sure you provide room to
run, do a little planning and the kids are sure to have a good
time.
Let's start with a few relay race ideas. Begin with a candy cane
relay. Give each team 4 candy canes (and be sure to have a few
more in case some break) and have the child who's running hold
the candy canes between their fingers, with the crooked part of
the cane hanging over their fingers. But tell them not to use
their thumbs. The canes should be just carefully perched between
their fingers.
The children run to their teammate, exchange the candy canes
(again, only using fingers), and that teammate runs to the other
end and does the same. The game is over when only one team still
has candy canes that haven't dropped on the floor.
Another fun relay that kids love is pass the ornament. In this
game, each team gets one ornament (a lightweight, basic thin
glass one is fine) and a straw. They must blow through the straw
to get the ornament down the line, then the next child blows on
their straw to get the ornament back down the line. Make sure
each child has a fresh straw, as you don't want everyone to get
sick.
This next simple relay game can be played with just about
anything that signifies Christmas. You could have the children
pass a Santa hat (perhaps requiring them to wear the hat as they
run down the line) or have them wear Christmas socks that they
then have to take off and get to the next child during the
relay.
"Santa Says" is a fun game that all children will know how to
play because it's just like "Simon Says". Before playing it,
confirm that each child is familiar with "Simon Says" and then
create a series of orders from "Santa", like "Santa says, touch
your toes", "Santa says bend your knees" and so on. But
sometimes leave the "Santa says" part off and trick the
children. Always a popular game!
Young children love the "freeze dance" which is often played in
preschool and kindergarten. Only in this game, you create a
Christmas freeze dance: here you play some Christmas music, let
the children do a little dance, then turn the music off and the
children must "freeze". If there will be several sit-down games
played at the party, this is a great way to let the children use
some energy before they have to sit down and focus on the other
games.
Young children can play the "clue" game as long as the questions
are kept to their knowledge of various things surrounding
Christmas. The game is played like this: the teacher gives a
series of clues about something Christmas related and keeps
giving clues until someone shouts out the answer. It might go
something like this:
Answer: Santa's sleigh
Clue: I'm thinking of something big
Clue: It helps Santa on Christmas Eve
Clue: It holds a lot of presents
Clue: It's very fast
You keep giving clues until he children figure out the answer.
Since these are young children, don't give clues that are too
difficult or beyond their knowledge.
Kids love toss games, so why not create a snowball toss game at
Frosty's belly? Get or make a large cardboard cutout of Frosty
the Snowman and cut a hole in his stomach. You can create
snowballs out of several things. Take plastic bags and put mini
marshmallows inside, or use Styrofoam balls. If you use the
latter, don't make the children throw the "snowballs" very far
since the Styrofoam won't go that far. Have the children stand a
distance back from Frosty (you can determine this depending on
the age of the children and space you have available) and have
them toss the snowballs into Frosty's tummy. First one to get
all 3 snowballs in the tummy wins a prize!