a childrens Christmas party

[JeanetteDanielsBenziger]

I'd like to throw a Christmas party for DD's class (primary 1) the day school finishes for the Christmas holidays.
I need ideas to make it fantastic. :-)

Weather permitting, I'd like to have it mainly in the back garden with lots of fairy lights and great decorations.
I'd have the outside fire going (closely supervised by DH) so they could toast marshmallows, I'll make hot chocolate.

What ideas have you for decorations, christmassy games and food?

oooh that sounds lovely!! am sure the parents would enjoy it too.

Could you get some fake snow? twinkly lights in the trees, carols playing on a cd.

Games - maybe some tried and tested games rebranded for the theme so Corners (North Pole, Toy Workshop,The Sleigh, Santas Kitchen eg).

Thank you, planning on catering for the parents with a slow cooker full of mulled wine :-)

You'll probably need to plan for indoors and out...
Unless they do a 1/2 day, it's going to be dark, so lighting is key.
If there's a fire, I'd have a set itinerary so there's no temptation for running around games.

Pin the nose on Rudolf?
The kids might have learnt a Xmas song or hymn or two - you could get them to do a performance?

What Xmas food is good for kids parties apart from all the sweet things... (candy canes for the hot chocolate? ) erm, hot dogs? Sandwiches cut into Xmas shapes?

Whatever you do, do not make a cake with kaleidoscope fondant, and a number through it!

Mwhahaha nerf...well done :-)

They do a half day, so should be okay for light.
Will get them into the living room for the last half hour to warm up and maybe sing some carols.

Pin the tail on the Rudolph is a great idea, thank you.

That's sounds amazing, I wish my dc went to school with your dd.

Thank you SoonToBeSix :-)

What a lovely, lovely idea. I'd love it if dd was asked to something like this!
Savoury food wise, mini sausages, or sausage rolls? You also get vegetarian versions of sausage rolls with cheese in them. Lots of food like this in the shops around Christmas (unless you want to make your own, obviously), so perfect timing. Also Turkey and cranberry sandwiches - I think most children would eat those? And a surprising number of children of my acquaintance like smoked salmon - and I always notice how many great offers there are on massive packs of smoked salmon at Christmas.
Hope it goes well!

Have a station to decorate their own Christmas cookie? I've done that with my DC and their cousins. Christmas shaped sugar cookie, frosting and sprinkles set out.

This sounds lovely! Strings of popcorn? They are rather therapeutic to make and look quite nice in a natural sort of way - easy to pull off their strings and eat at the party. Could they make christingles or pomanders to take home? Bag of oranges and cloves and some candles? Or jelly sweets on cocktail sticks. Hope it goes well.

What a brilliant idea! You could do a chistingle making station besides your cookie decorating? We used to make them at our toddler group and used birthday candles
jimmielanley.hubpages.com/hub/how-to-make-a-christingle
Sorry, don't know how to convert the link on my phone!

ooh it converted it for me!

You NEED to make these edible Santas and Snowmen!

We did this last year with 60 children and we asked every child to bring a new unwrapped toy (as you would for a birthday party) and then donated them to a local charity toy appeal and to a homeless shelter. We played
Pin the nose on Rudolph
Musical snowmen (statues)
Pass the christmas present

We also had a craft table decorating felt stockings, cutting out snowflakes and making angels (yoghurt pot and ping pong ball)

Father Christmas came at the end and gave each child a chocolate lollipop (10 for £1 at lidl)

The kids loved it

Fab idea :) Though for ease I'd choose a couple of hot dishes (jacket spuds, sausages etc) and go with that as itll be cold and few kids eat your typical party food anyway. Asda do Xmas shaped pizzas, Xmas pasta shapes etc which should go down well. There tons of food ideas on Pinterest like marshmallow Santas.

For decorations have a look on amazon, I've been looking for snowflake style stuff for a frozen party and there are lovely ideas. Ask just been the range store and they have all their Xmas stuff out and it's all gorgeous!

Lots of white and red to go with the greenery in the garden. I'd get battery fairly lights etc.

Wow, thank you everyone.
That all sounds amazing, going to check out the links now.

Some great ideas here! I'm planning a Frozen themed Christmas party for my friends and their kids in December, so will be pinching a few of these ideas!

P1 age would also love reindeer poop to eat (chocolate covered raisins).

Maybe have some colouring pages with suitably festive pictures in case you need to move indoors or keep calmer. They could also make reindeer food (porridge oats and glitter) to put into a paper bag to bring home, reasonably non-messy (just Hoover after, nothing wet and sticky!).

Use a Christmas shaped cookie cutter to cut your sambos, or bread to put smoked salmon on top.

M&S usually have Christmas rtee shaped chicken goujons (chicken teddies the rest of the year).

Put a bowl of fresh fruit, and another of carrot and pepper sticks, cherry tomatoes etc out too, surprising how many small kids eat these at parties around our way once they're on the table. (Not thaaaat posh).

A big box of strips of paper and rolls of tape to make paper chains to put in their bedrooms at home. Or glue dots. Or pritt stick if you don't mind some mess

Set up the toys having an indoor snowball fight, using cotton balls, as part of your decor.

Sorry, bored on the bus so keep thinking of silly things.

The range do bags of large polystyrene balls (Pack of six about £1)

the north pole party on kelle hamptons blog is pretty cool.
I have a party every year (dds birthday over christmas)Last year I bought a pack of red party boxes (like Happy meal type shape) and tied a candy cane to each handle. It was only a few pounds for the boxes