Christmas Eve Games For Children
Author: Owen Jones
So, what are you going to do with the children on Christmas Eve to make the day that bit more special for them and wear them out enough so that they will sleep through to at least nine o'clock on Christmas Day, because that is the actual reason behind the party in the first place.
A few of these games could be played before or even on any big day and some may be adapted for different age groups, because in essence, they are only ideas for you to play with.
1] Hire a face painter. Lots of students from the local art school can do face painting and children love it - girls particularly adore Hello Kitty and a face painter could do half a dozen kids in an hour. You could theme your face painting to suit your party. Do this first thing to get the party moving along.
2] Some families have a tradition that everyone in the family may open one gift on Christmas Eve, but that the rest have to be a surprise for the big day. So why not drag out the act of giving the present by turning it into a Treasure Hunt?
This is also a good means of getting the children out of your hair, while you are worrying about those last minute things that you have to get on with. A lot of individuals keep old Christmas cards to cut up for decorative reasons, so you could compose clues on the cards and place them about the house and garden.
3] A little more sedate, but still a lot of fun, is a sing-song. Do this after tea to give the food opportunity to go down. You don't have to sing carrols (in fact best not to, they will already have had enough of them).
Try some choral singing. Sit everyone around the room or in a circle outside and sing songs where a quarter of the circle begins, and the next quarter comes in after a couple of bars.
You could also attempt memory songs like: "I am the music man and I come from down your way and I can play...." or "Tomorrow is Christmas Day and in my Christmas stocking I will get an ...Apple", the next one repeats the refrain, but says an Apple and a Bunny" and so on to Z. A circle is also great for Chinese Whispers.
4] A different great circle game is Musical Chairs and another is Pass The Parcel. Musical Chairs is a good game for using up some of the vigour that eating will have restored to the party-goers.
So is Pass The Parcel although it is a lot more sedate in that the children stay seated. Both games get younger children to howl with laughter and help tire them out.
5] A harder game is Where is Santa? A child is chosen to become Rudolf and is escorted out of the room to get blindfolded while someone is selected to be Santa. Rudolf is brought back in and paced in the centre of the circle still blindfolded.
Santa has to wink at various people who have to say "Yo, ho, ho". Santa is the sole one who never speaks.
6] How about Pin the Tail on the Reindeer for the final game and give a prize for the winner of each game.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on various subjects but is currently concerned with Hello Kitty face painting. If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.
A few of these games could be played before or even on any big day and some may be adapted for different age groups, because in essence, they are only ideas for you to play with.
1] Hire a face painter. Lots of students from the local art school can do face painting and children love it - girls particularly adore Hello Kitty and a face painter could do half a dozen kids in an hour. You could theme your face painting to suit your party. Do this first thing to get the party moving along.
2] Some families have a tradition that everyone in the family may open one gift on Christmas Eve, but that the rest have to be a surprise for the big day. So why not drag out the act of giving the present by turning it into a Treasure Hunt?
This is also a good means of getting the children out of your hair, while you are worrying about those last minute things that you have to get on with. A lot of individuals keep old Christmas cards to cut up for decorative reasons, so you could compose clues on the cards and place them about the house and garden.
3] A little more sedate, but still a lot of fun, is a sing-song. Do this after tea to give the food opportunity to go down. You don't have to sing carrols (in fact best not to, they will already have had enough of them).
Try some choral singing. Sit everyone around the room or in a circle outside and sing songs where a quarter of the circle begins, and the next quarter comes in after a couple of bars.
You could also attempt memory songs like: "I am the music man and I come from down your way and I can play...." or "Tomorrow is Christmas Day and in my Christmas stocking I will get an ...Apple", the next one repeats the refrain, but says an Apple and a Bunny" and so on to Z. A circle is also great for Chinese Whispers.
4] A different great circle game is Musical Chairs and another is Pass The Parcel. Musical Chairs is a good game for using up some of the vigour that eating will have restored to the party-goers.
So is Pass The Parcel although it is a lot more sedate in that the children stay seated. Both games get younger children to howl with laughter and help tire them out.
5] A harder game is Where is Santa? A child is chosen to become Rudolf and is escorted out of the room to get blindfolded while someone is selected to be Santa. Rudolf is brought back in and paced in the centre of the circle still blindfolded.
Santa has to wink at various people who have to say "Yo, ho, ho". Santa is the sole one who never speaks.
6] How about Pin the Tail on the Reindeer for the final game and give a prize for the winner of each game.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on various subjects but is currently concerned with Hello Kitty face painting. If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/http://owenjones.articlealley.com/christmas-eve-games-for-children-2396527.html
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