The holiday season is a truly magical time for children. But while Santa’s visit is eagerly anticipated, it’s not all about the presents. In fact, much of the fun and excitement happens in the run up to Christmas; festively decorated classrooms, seasonal craft activities, a visit to the pantomime, or a Christmas baking session all contribute to creating happy memories. So, what better way to celebrate than by throwing a fabulous kids’ Christmas party that includes most of these elements?
>> Hire a Christmas Entertainer
From decorations and entertainment to food and games, each element plays a crucial role in creating an unforgettable experience for kids.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry! Our helpful blog post will guide you through the steps to planning a fun-filled festive frolic that kids will remember for years to come.
A Festive Date and Venue
The first step towards organising a Kids Christmas Party is choosing a suitable date and venue. Ideally, select a weekend during December as weekdays could clash with school activities or family commitments.
Hosting the party in your own home is a great option as you’ll already have a Christmas tree, and other decorations, set up. However, there are a couple of things you’ll want to consider: Have you got sufficient room for the activities you plan to do? How fussy are you about mess? Do you have pets, and is there room for them elsewhere in the house? Kids and animals don’t always mix – kids may have pet phobias or allergies to pets, while pets may be kid-phobic or allergic to children!
Limited on space? Hiring a community centre or similar building is a better option. Most have ample space and facilities for a large number of guests (or a smaller number of very excited children!). Speaking from experience, I can confirm that the latter take up at least twice as much space as their bored adult counterparts!
Kids’ Christmas Party Invitations
Physical invitations or digital? Both can be easily designed in Canva, or you could let your kids loose with glitter glue and felt pens. However, as parents tend to be super-busy at this time of year, a physical invitation is, perhaps, less likely to be forgotten, plus your kids will enjoy making them.Tip: Request the RSVP by a set date!
Christmas Party Decorations
If you’re hosting at home you’re probably already sorted. If, however, you’ve hired a community centre or similar, you may need to take decorations with you. In this instance, balloons or paper streamers are a good option; don’t forget to take Blu-tac, string, pins, or sticky tape.
Kids’ Christmas Party Games
Stick the nose on Rudolph – requires a large, printed reindeer face, red paper noses (print red circles with child’s name and add double-sided tape) plus a blindfold. The child who sticks their reindeer nose closest to the right position wins.
Snowball toss – requires large white pom poms, scrunched up paper, or something similar, and festively decorated container/s. Kids can be split into teams or play individually to see who gets the most ‘snowballs’ in the bucket.
Loo Roll Snowmen – requires white toilet rolls, hats and scarves, paper carrot noses and black paper buttons, plus double-sided tape. Each team selects one person to be the snowman, a timer is set, and the selected child is wrapped in toilet roll before accessories are added. The team with the best snowman, who must be wearing all the accessories, wins.
Pass the Advent parcel – requires a pocket advent calendar plus a multi-layered parcel with a small gift in the final layer. Play in the usual way but add numbers on slips of paper between the layers rather than sweets. Children keep their number and collect sweets or a small gift from the matching advent calendar pocket at the end of the game.
Christmas Craft Activities
Gingerbread decorating contest – requires pre-baked gingerbread men or houses (age dependent), sweets, icing, sprinkles etc. for decoration. Decide how much time you’ll allocate for decorating. Towards the end, announce, Bake-off style, that there are only x minutes left. When time is up, display and judge the children’s creations.
Alternative idea
Decorate Christmas-themed plywood or MDF shapes – requires suitable shapes, felt pens, paint, glue, glitter, mini pom poms etc.
Tip
Ask parents to supply an apron for their child
or
Give each child an apron as a party gift – buy plain aprons and personalise with fabric pens or iron on vinyl names from eBay/Etsy – ditch the party bags if going down this route!
Snow globes – requires empty craft snow globes, oven drying clay, glitter, small rolling pins / clay tools and instructions for parents (snow globes will need to be assembled at home). Get children to create snowmen, Christmas trees, or other clay creations for their snow globe. Send each child home with their clay creation, glitter, snow globe (or a small screw lidded jar) and instructions for parents – see below.
Instructions
- Bake clay figures for ———- (reference packet instructions)
- Glue clay ornament to snow globe base.
- Fill top of globe with water, glitter and a few drops of washing-up liquid (this prevents the glitter from clumping).
- Connect top to base, tighten securely and shake!
Tips
- Laminate sheets of thin card for rolling clay on – colours can bleed.
- Provide small boxes for children to transport their clay creations home safely.
Hire a Professional Christmas Entertainer
A little professional help can take your party to the next level. Hiring a professional entertainer will not only provide a memorable experience for the children, it could save your sanity too! So, why not relax and take a break while someone else entertains your small guests?
It’s easy to book a professional entertainer right here on our website!
We suggest:
- Magician – captivate the kids with festive tricks and illusions
- Balloon artist – kids will love taking a balloon model home
- Puppet artist – Christmas themed puppet shows are entertaining and engaging.
(Or if you’re looking to hire the big man himself, you can hire Santa here 😉)
Festive Music
Music is an essential component of any party, and creating a fun atmosphere for a children’s Christmas party is easy. Little ones will enjoy fun songs while older children may prefer classic Christmas hits.
Play list suggestions
- Jingle Bells
- Frosty the Snowman
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
- Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
- Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree
- Fairytale of New York
- Last Christmas
- Driving Home for Christmas
- It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
- I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day
Festive Party Food
Where kids’ Christmas party food is concerned, it’s not about having fancy food so much as making plain food look fancy. It’s likely there will be at least one or two fussy eaters at your party, and some kids will simply refuse to try unfamiliar foods. Fortunately, we’ve got some simple suggestions that are sure to go down well:
- Sausage/vegan rolls
- Plain salted crisps
- Cheese straw wreaths – make cheesy pastry, twist two strands together and join ends to create a wreath shape.
- Sandwiches cut with Christmas cookie cutters
- Mini pizzas – use ready-to-roll pizza dough, cut with cookie cutters and add toppings as usual. Sliced cherry tomatoes are very festive looking!
- Grinches – stack fruit as follows on half a wooden skewer – 1 green grape (head), I banana slice (hat fur), 1 strawberry (hat) and top with a white mini marshmallow (pom-pom) – leave the grape out to make Santa hats!
- Easy cheesy Christmas treesy! – Cut hard cheese of choice into small triangles, push a piece of pretzel (trunk) into the base and use a mini cutter on a strip of yellow pepper to create a star
- Christmas cupcakes – decorate plain cupcakes with:
Christmas trees – pipe a tall swirl, add mini sugar balls and top with a sugar star
Reindeer – pipe a flat swirl over the whole cake and add a smaller swirl (reindeer head and muzzle), layer a chocolate button on the muzzle and top with a red Smartie. Finish with sugar eyes (most supermarkets sell these) and pretzel / chocolate matchstick antlers.
Snowmen – cover the top of the cupcake with a flattish swirl of icing and then dip into blue and white sprinkles. Add a snowman made from piped buttercream blobs (use a plain nozzle), or marshmallows. Decorate with a sugar carrot nose and individual sprinkle pieces. Short of time? Cheat! Use paper cupcake toppers.
Kids’ Christmas Party Bags
Finish on a high note by giving each child a goodie bag filled with sweets and small toys or trinkets.
Suggestions:
- Mini candy canes
- Mini packs of Haribo
- Mini tubs of slime
- Mini ‘Slinkies’
- Christmas themed stationery items
- Christmas hairclips
- Mini craft kits
- Christmas stampers
- Mini Christmas colouring books.
Follow our tips and ideas or mix and match them with your own, and you’re well on your way to hosting a fabulous Kids’ Christmas Party. Have fun!
>> Hire a Christmas Entertainer
PartyWizz helps you book the best kid’s entertainers and party services in UK and Ireland. From magicians and face painters to party packages and photographers, you’ll find those in your area on our easy-to-use platform. Whether you’re planning a birthday party, christmas party, christening, communion or a corporate family day, go to PartyWizz to find the perfect service providers hassle-free!
