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Holiday Indoor Games

Holiday Indoor Games

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Indoor Snowball Fight: There's no mess with our version of a snowball fight! You may divide the children into teams, but it is not necessary. Before the party, fill lots and lots of small balloons with air (not helium) and let the children throw them at each other. Instead of balloons, you can also play this game using cotton balls.

Scavenger Hunt through Holiday Magazines: Divide children into teams and hand each team a stack of holiday magazines, safety scissors, and a list of items to find. Items to search for could include pictures of snow, ice skating, holly, Santa, ornaments, candles, trees, cookies, children playing, people singing, gifts, stockings, etc. Set a timer and let them cut out as many items on the list as possible in the allotted time.

Musical Chairs: This game can be played using the standard rules and holiday music, but a fun change would be to let the children crawl through a large box that you labeled "The North Pole" instead of marching around chairs. When the music stops, the child who is inside the box is out. For younger children, you can give the child who is caught in the box a sticker or other small prize.

Holiday Charades: Write a number of holiday songs or items on slips of paper. Pick one child to start the game and have the child choose a slip of paper and act out the item for the other children. The first one to guess correctly gets to act out the next item. You may also play this by humming a holiday song instead of acting it out and have the children try to guess the song.

Holiday Concentration: Before the party, cut rectangular 'cards" out of red construction paper, then cut slightly smaller rectangles from decorative wrapping paper (two from each pattern of paper) and glue to construction paper. To play the game, mix up the cards and lay them wrapping-paper side down, approximately five to a row. For large parties you may need two or three games going at once. Let the first player turn two cards over, and if the patterns match they keep the cards and go again. If the patterns do not match, the player should turn them back over in the same spot they were and play moves to the next child. Continue playing until all the cards have been matched, and the player with the most matched pairs wins.

Candy Relay: Divide the guests into two teams and have them form two lines. Give every player a piece of wrapped candy, and hand the first player on each team a pair of mittens. When you say, 'Go," the first player on each team puts on the mittens, unwraps the candy, pops it into his/her mouth, takes the mittens off, and passes them to the second player. Keep passing the mittens and unwrapping candy, and the team that finishes first wins.

Snowball Toss: Before the party, cover the bottom and sides of a rectangular cardboard box, such as a shoe box, with construction paper. On a piece of paper, draw a snowman face with a large, open mouth. Glue it to the box and cut out the large mouth. Cover three large marshmallows separately with plastic wrap and call them the 'snowballs".

To play, line up the guests in front of the snowman box. Depending on their ages, place them from one foot to five feet away from the box. Give each player three tries to throw a marshmallow snowball into the snowman's mouth. Award a small piece of candy or a sticker for each successful toss. This game can be played until each player has had a turn or can go on for a number of rounds if the children wish to continue.