need Christmas party ideas............

[Denisemomof4]

I'm limiting our party to ten youth ages 11 - 13. There will be both girls and boys. I'd LOVE to have Christmas themed games or activities and am open to suggestions!

 

I may have both an activity AND a game (ornament making, cookie decorating, etc.) but am hoping you wonderful ladies can give me some help!!! I will need the kids to be occupied for about 3 hours.

[Aggie]

Twelve Days of Christmas Song:

Each person picks a random number out of a jar. Everyone sings TDOC and when your number comes up, you sing (or act it out) that by yourself.

 

For example, if I get '5', when the 5th day comes up, I stand and sing, "Five golden rings!" It sounds lame, but we have a blast with it! Some of the kids are real hams!

 

Tape Christmas character names on everyone's back. They have to ask yes/no questions to figure out who they are. If you have easy character names, you can have the them paired up and kids must find their match. Like Santa and Mrs Clause, Mary and Joseph, etc.

 

White elephant gifts are fun, too!

 

One year they each did a scrapbook page and I gave each guest an acrylic frame for their page. Cheap, easy, not messy.

 

hth! I'll be watching for new ideas, too!

[MariannNOVA]

Not much here but some stuff we have done:

 

I've had the kids make cards for the troops overseas (there are time constraints - you would have to check and see what they are);

 

I've made the basic graham cracker mini gingerbread house and then each child has been able to decorate their own;

 

Have them decorate little picture frames from Michael's (sometimes these can be purchased for as little as $1.);

 

I love the cookie decorating idea -- even decorating cupcakes is fun;

 

Or, dipping pretzel logs into frosting and decorating them in Christmas colors;

 

HTH:D

[AK_Mom4]

DD17 and DS15 give these ideas 2 thumbs up for ages 11-12:

 

Sledding, snowman contest, WII rockband, silly games like putting gummy worms in pie plates of whip cream and having the kids fish them out without hands. Pinata, make your own ice cream sundae, and Christmas tree decorating.

 

Decorating sugar cookies and eating them got double thumbs up!

[Denisemomof4]

you ladies are AWESOME!!!! Between what I had planned and what you wrote, I think I have three hours filled easily.

 

If I don't have this party until the second week of December, will it be too late to make boxes for our troops? Maybe a New Year's Eve box? How would I go about sending boxes to our troops? I've never done this on our own before but have done it with a group of people. I would have everyone bring items to ship over and we would enclose all our notes.

 

:bigear:

[Desert Rat]

bumping it back up to page 1 so hopefully you'll get a response to your military mail question. I also wanted to add that we do a holiday open house every year and usually have a variety of ornament kits to put together. The parents actually like them more than the kiddos! I get mine on Oriental Trading dot com. Cheap and good quality, especially the bead ones.

[Denisemomof4]

bumping it back up to page 1 so hopefully you'll get a response to your military mail question. I also wanted to add that we do a holiday open house every year and usually have a variety of ornament kits to put together. The parents actually like them more than the kiddos! I get mine on Oriental Trading dot com. Cheap and good quality, especially the bead ones.

 

thank you! I can google the boxes for our troops for ideas, too.

 

Shoot! I just threw away an Oriental Trading magazine! That's a great idea!