Hit me with your best 'low stress' party games for age 6/7 please!

[mummabubs]

As per title....

DS goes to a village school, only 20 of them in the class. Normally his friends have parties at soft plays/ trampoline parks and invite everyone, but round here that's £250-300 before you've even started on party bags. He turns 7 in October and wanted to invite everyone in his class so we decided to do a 2 hour party at home with a magician booked for 40 minutes. I figure food and cake is 20 minutes, so we have an hour to 'fill'.

Typically only 8-10 kids go to the parties we've been to, but perhaps we underestimated how attractive this party would be because none of the others have been in the village and the magician thing is novel, but with not all replies in we've already got 16 kids currently down to attend. 😂 As no one in his class has done an at home party before we don't have any other experiences to go on!

Our house isn't huge, we have a living room and a play room (but on different floors), small kitchen and dining room. I'm really happy that DS will have so many of his friends to celebrate with... And equally we're also slightly terrified of how to fit everyone here and also entertain them all to stop them running wild.

I think games/ structure is the way forward. The only game I'm not as keen on is pass the parcel, purely due to the stress of trying to make sure everyone gets a turn 😂 Any ideas for indoor (or outdoor) ideas welcome.

Magic tips on how to survive are a bonus- I've already told DH his backup plan to drink isn't feasible and we will move our very small number of valuables upstairs and then block off with a stairgate. I'm currently feeling torn between loving that we've taken parties back to being more simple and at home to utter fear of what have we signed up for!? 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

Dancing while keeping lots of balloons up in the air - so basically they all jump up and down to punch the balloons, good for wearing them out, so maybe before the magician.

Other games not mentioned already that we had were Simon Says and What Time is it Mr Woolf - fun indoors and out!

Re food, for DDs first couple of parties I had fruit, cucumber and carrot batons as well as sandwiches, cocktail sausages, cakes etc - I simplified to pizza, birthday cake and a choice of water or juice cartons as the years went on.

The ultimate treat was delivery pizza where they picked the toppings - they spent ages deciding what to get but were so excited to choose, and it wasn't that expensive to get a couple of extra large with a voucher.

I nearly always had home based parties for DD, they are a bit knackering for me, but so much fun for the kids, and if we were lucky there was left over pizza for tea.

We played this when I was a child in the 60s, played it at our DCs' parties in the 90s too, it's so much fun and it's the game I was going to suggest.

Get some (c10) v cheap or old socks and put things in them. Tie the end. Give everyone a blank list and they have to guess what the thing is.

If you do have OK weather, get a ball of brightly coloured wool cut into lots and lots of c 3 inch lengths. Hide them in the garden.. when I say hide, some just easily visible, draped over bushes, on a path, some trickier. Send them out and whoever find the correct number wins a prize. Of course no-one knows ther is no correct number...so everyone wins something.

Applebobbing?

Chuck a pound coin in the front room and play "find the pound"

Just to note, having done a traditional party with mine, you need to have something for the children who are "out" to do.
Whereas when we were little, we were used to getting out then sitting on the side and watching, children aren't used to that, so they look at you all bewildered and ask what they can do. We just had (hastily printed) colouring sheets, but that kept them happy.

We also had a few extra games like pin the tail on the donkey, that they could do while they were out.

My tip for sleeping lions, use it as one to calm them down before the food, and don't tell them they're out until you're ready for them to go through. Then announced they've all been brilliant, X is the winner, but everyone else has done so well they get a prize too and give them a sticker as they go through to eat. It worked brilliantly, as they all went through feeling positive that they'd won!

With things like musical bumps or musical statues, to save the whole being "out" issue, give them a sticker rather than make them sit out. So those who are out still join in but they're not eligible to win. Once you're down to a couple of kids without a sticker, get them right in front of you so that they can't hide behind one of the DC who is already out

Squeak Piggy Squeak, or we did "guess who is speaking in a funny voice". There can be a prize for thinking of something funny to say such as "look at the snow!", as well as saying it in a silly voice.

Another good one for calm and quiet before the end of the party is Keeper of the Keys: the keeper sits with some treasure beside them, and everyone else sits in a circle around them. Point to one child, who creeps up and tries to grab the treasure. The keeper (who is blindfolded) points in the direction of any sound they hear; if they point at the thief, the thief's turn ends. (For brevity, and to make sure each child had a turn at both roles, the keeper changed with each thief; lots of books say the keeper only changes if the thief succeeds.)

If children are nervous about being blindfolded, offer them a turn later in the game, after they have seen others play; and if they still don't like it, let them close their eyes.

With 20 kids I’d do a bunch of games where you divide them into 2 teams and they race against each other - like egg and spoon races (can use something other than eggs if you’re inside and don’t want a mess) the thing with a balloon getting passed over the head if one person and then between the legs of the next person. You can also do things like pictionary or charades in teams. As a whole group you could try things like Wink murderer or buy a copy of ´the Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow’.

Buy one of these (there are other types as well, like a house, rocket ship etc) and let the kids loose on it.

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/colour-in-cardboard-pirate-ship/6618321000.html