Christmas Party Ideas??

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

My DD's birthday is mid November, and just for the excuse to put the decorations up, and because she adores Santa, we are going for a Christmas theme :)

I need ideas to keep a handful of little ones and a room full of adults entertained for a few hours.

ANY ideas on ANYTHING will be much appreciated. :)

How old will she be?

For your sanity, keep the party to a couple of hours long, including eating. Try to aim eating for a meal time, and towards the end of the party (over-excited kids leaping around just after eating is not good) If you start the party at 3.30pm, aim to start eating at 5pm for example. It pays to have a definite finish, as ime, bored DC get up to mischief!

Depends on the age of the children what games you can play, younger than 3 they don't really 'get' games like pass the parcel and so on, jumping about to music and chasing balloons is popular, or just playing with some toys. You could have a calming down time before eating with singing or listening to a Christmas story, where some of the adults could participate while you organise the food.

Older children may enjoy more organised games, and you could do things like making Christmas party hats to wear, or another simple craft activity, again adults can help and supervise. Christmassify old favourite games e.g. pass the christmas parcel, stick the nose on Rudolf, Christmas musical statues and so on.

Sorry, I forgot to put the age, She will wb three, DC will be from 1-6/7 i think.

I have just found a site for reasonably priced fake snow! Thinking of emptying out half the conservatory and filling that end with it! Also about to collar my neighbour into doing a guest appearance as Santa to give out a gift to each of the DC, would that be okay instead of a party bag do you think?

I like the idea of making something with them for them to wear, Hats would be great. The younger ones would just have to have parental imput I spose, we are all family/close friends so I can ask them if they'd be up for it first.

Thanks, any more ideas welcome :)

Not wishing to spoil your fun, but depending on the type of fake snow, will it pose a choking risk to some of the younger party goers, or get eaten or even inhaled? Plus it will stick to their clothes and get everywhere in your house.

I like the Santa idea instead of party bags, but you might get a few DC who scream!

I think christmasifying old favourite games would be a good idea, nice and simple and the older ones will know what they're doing.

If you wanted some quiet time you could always do some Christmas colouring (I'm sure there's loads of free printable Christmas pictures on t'internet) or you could make something like this:

familyfun.go.com/crafts/christmas-choir-661390/

At my dc parties we usually have a few stations with different activites and then altogether games time before food. 1.5 hours is plenty then you can have close friends stay on. If you wanted it to be longer you could have a short christmas dvd as the last 20 mins...like the snowman or the short madagascar christmas one...

You could decorate christmas shaped biscuits with sprinkle and things. Last year morrisons sold a lovely kit in their bakery department which was gingerbread tree baubles...complete with sprinkles, gel icing and ribbon to hang them with.

Lots of simple craft activities... Decorate a paper tree shape with sequins etc or make a handprint rudolph etc. HEAPS of great craft ideas if you google.

Musical elimination game.... When music stops make the shape of a christmas star, snowball or angel. one group is out each time.

I LOVE planning parties! Enjoy!