christmas party ideas?

[misdee]

the kids are adament we are having an xmas party, what with cmas day being mainly spent at harefield i think i should do one. what sort of games etc do you do at a kids xmas party? and what is the right time to do it? I am still fairly new to xmas etc as was raised as a jehovahs witness.

Um... much the same as at other kid's parties but with a Christmas twist? Crackers, reindeer, snowmen... father christmas? At our toddler group party we used to put some presents outside the door, entertain the children and then ring sleighbells, say "oooh! Who could that be?!" open the door et voila! presents. Cheap presents from Poundland etc I hasten to add.

I always have one with about 8 kids from DD's school. I sit them round the table and break out the arts and crafts. Funky foam shapes, glue, card and they make christmas cards and decorations. Then a buffet tea then a bit of dancing to the Ketchup Song and few Christmas favourites and that's it.

I buy each of them a small pressie each for the way home - usually a notebook and Christmas pen or similar, only spend a couple of quid each.

Instead of doing pass the parcel you could do pass santas hat, whoever the hat is on when the music stops is out.

Hunt the christmas presents. Draw simple pictures of christmas presents on the back of a small say 4 inch x 4 inch piece of card (the inside of a cut up cornflakes box is ideal) and hide them around the room,house, garden etc and whoever finds them (hopefully do enough for one each!) gets a small choccy bar.

Pin the tail on rudolph