3rd birthday party game inspiration

[rainbowduplo]

Hosting a party on Sunday for 12 children aged 2-6.

DD (soon to be 3) has asked for games. So far my kids birthdays have consisted of...well...a global pandemic... a rented hall with a bouncy castle, and one woodland scavenger hunt. There have been no organised games. The last time I went to a kids party with games was about 30 years ago.

All my brain is providing me with is university level drinking games, which I'm just not sure is the right vibe 😂 Ring of fire anyone?! Squash pong?

So I'm turning to the hive mind. Have games changed much since the 90's??Other than pass the parcel...whatcha got?

Be gentle with me MN, I'm very tired. I'm sure with more brain capacity I'd be able to think this one up on my own but help would be very appreciated 😴

Corners
Musical statues or bumps
Pass the parcel

Pass the parcel
Musical statues
Musical chairs
Pin the tail/nose on the...
Sand pit and they have to find the "toys" (I'm thinking more on the lines if you have a dinosaur theme for example they would have to find the dinosaurs hidden)
Ring toss
Bean bag throw
Pop the balloons
Duck duck goose

I remember Sleeping Lions being popular with parents when I was a child going to parties! DS often plays What's the Time Mr Wolf at nursery.

Oh at those ages they love the old 90s games and some modern ones added on.

Pin the tail on the donkey (or whatever themed version)
The floor is lava
Musical statues for sure. I wouldn't bother with musical chairs though.
Obstacle course to get through?
Hide and seek/sardines

A lucky dip on the way out

Bear in mind the 2-3 year olds might not understand all the instructions and the 5-6 year olds might get very het up about "fairness" - you might want to strategically split them into two groups for some games if this is a problem.

Ah grand, sounds like keeping it simple and 90's chic is the way forward!

Hadn't ever heard of corners before!

Pass the parcel has been particularly requested, so I reckon that and either corners or musical statues should do the job. I love a bit of pin the tail but with 12 kids that's a lot of waiting.

Might chuck in a floor is lava for good measure, as my two LOVE that game!

Thanks <3

If you have two donkeys and two blindfolds, they only have to wait in a line of 6. Part of the fun of that game is also seeing how hilariously wrong someone gets the tail. It can be extra funny if you do it with something that looks silly if it's in the wrong place, like I've done it in ESL classes with different parts of a face and the face ends up all jumbled up and silly at the end.

fair warning: my sister did party games at her sons 4th party. It was bedlam. Kids were way to young to accept being ‘out’ in games like musical statues. Everyone won a sweetie in pass the parcel but then got upset they didn’t win the main prize. It was hard work 😂🫣 i don’t know how well this will do down. I usually find the less structured run wild type parties the most effective at this age

Warning received!! This is why I haven't done games yet with any of the other birthdays 😂 but I feel like I should as she's especially asked!!

Very happy to attempt one and sack off the other/s if it's not going well.

What is the right age for these game then do we think?! Is there one?

Yeah if she’s asking for it it’s hard not to! Maybe think of how to word it eg instead of being put you become a wobble watcher (bing reference for any fans out there).

my daughter is a really grown up 3 and I recon she would do party games, my son is 6 and is probably only just ready (and only then when he’s in the right mood) so maybe optional games but no pressure if they don’t really fancy it? Great response btw- was worried it would be taken the wrong way!

I live in terror of mnetters taking things the wrong way 😅 I'm a pretty chill person though, and when I ask for advice I like to consider that people are likely to be replying in a way which is intended to be helpful rather than anything else.

Cool, I think I'll get PTP ready as that's one she's mentioned, and then the others are pretty low maintenance. She certainly thinks she's a grown up 3...3 going on 13!!

Really glad I asked the question, I was overthinking it. Though...squash pong could have actually been the next big thing. Though 'Pop pong' maybe has a better ring to it?! Does anyone call it pop anymore? I feel so old 😂

I call it pop but I am a bit old lady ish in my ways!

we did games for Easter with 4 kids (2x3years and 2x5years) and these went down really well:
pinata (took it in turns to hit but all got prize at same time)
pin the tail (on the bunny- all adults joined in and they found it very funny so I don’t think 12 is too many!)
easter egg hunt (treasure hunt)
picture bingo (big surprise was not expecting that to go well. My mum just downloaded / printed it from the internet)

disasters:
egg and spoon /races in general
crafts

hope this helps and daughter has a great birthday!

I wouldn't do "sitting out" as it's just no fun for the kids who are out, or make them sit out for one round only, rather than counting down to one winning child (that will take forever anyway) - also, 2-3 year olds probably won't understand this and will just get up and dance which will annoy the 5-6yos who are very obsessed with fairness. Just do a musical statues or freeze dance game with different dancing themes and you can award prizes for the best pirouette, stompiest elephant, loudest cheer, anything like this. Keep small sweet prizes to hand out liberally and they will forget any battles about unfairness anyway.

At those ages you'll likely have a lot of adults staying. So I think you'll be fine.

Once all the kids are school age and have been at school a while so they are used to receiving instructions from adults, you can do more complicated games. I'd keep to games which are a bit of a free for all chaos anyway.

I think you're right just to have a couple of games and let the rest be unstructured. A piñata is a great idea actually - you can buy these ready made now.

We had a pinata at a 5th birthday on the weekend and it was chaos!!! It was the closest thing to lord of the flies I've personally witnessed. Don't think it's a goer for the threenager but DS5 has it HIGH on his wish list when he turns 6 so that'll be fun😂

Appreciating the heads up about the older kids being very worked up about fairness too. My DS is so chilled, we haven't got to the 'it's not fair' stage yet so I wouldn't have been mentally prepared for that from others. Pro tips.

I love the bingo idea! And rewarding style and enthusiasm for statues rather than counting down to one winner, great suggestion.

You could do a version of 'corners' with a teddy and pants:

So you get one teddy (big enough to wear a pair of pants).

You get 4 different-coloured pants.

You draw the corresponding coloured pants on 4 pieces of paper and stick them up around the room.

Someone goes out of the room with Teddy and the pants.

Everyone starts dancing. Music stops...

Kids choose which pant corner to run to.

Teddy comes in wearing...pink pants? Yay! Everyone in the pink corner gets a sticker. Or a sweet. Or a cheer. Or a clap....

Everyone back in the middle.
Teddy goes out of the room.
Music starts.
Everyone grooves.
Music stops....choose a corner....
Teddy comes back in wearing....blue pants? Yay! Everyone in the blue corner gets a cheer/sticker/sweet....repeat.

For some reason, it's the guessing of the pant colour and the surprise/anticipation of what teddy will be wearing that makes this game a hit.

You could make it competitive (kid with most stickers at end wins a prize) but tbh, it's a thrill for little ones just to have made the right choice.

The game usually ends with everyone wanting a turn to be the teddy pant putter-on-er, so you might find you can take kids out in groups to be the choosers. Makes the game last forever.

You will all be exhausted after this, so you can sing Sleepy Bunnies (quiet sleeping, mad hopping) and then have tea. And gin.

I've seen 2 year olds try to play pass the parcel - it's pretty funny but the littlest ones just try to open it as soon as they get it, so you kind of need their parents hovering to manage expectations!

Another game that might work is Ollie Ollie Octopus as the ones who are caught have something to do (think they become seaweed?).

Hey all, just wanted to say the party was a great success! We stuck with pass the parcel and teddy pants corners, which was hilarious! Also got a kit so everyone could tie dye an item of their choice which was then their 'party bag'.

Learning for next time: when the birthday person really really really wants to play pass the parcel, don't plan to leave it till the last thing before the cake...or, at least tell them that's the plan. DD burst into tears at one point and we realised it was because she was waiting for pass the parcel and the not knowing when it was going to happen, coupled with the anticipation was just all a bit too much. She enjoyed the party much more once we'd actually played it Oops!!

Overall everyone was very complimentary :D Thanks for the help and advice!