A Winter Wonderland Party is Snow Much Fun!

Written by Pam Molnar; Photo: Fotolia.com

Winter is a tough time to host a birthday party for your child. It’s cold and generally unpleasant outside, forcing you to be creative with your indoor party theme. This year, embrace the chilly weather by hosting a Winter Wonderland Party! A great indoor party offers the best part of Mother Nature’s frosty venue, but in a much warmer space. 

Decorations

The colors for this birthday party theme are white, light blue, and silver. Check holiday clearance racks or check your own stash of decorations for snowflakes, icicles, and white or blue lights. Inexpensive décor includes DIY centerpieces made from glitter-sprayed tree branches. You can create your own paper icicles to hang from the ceiling or doorways, and balloons are a great way to decorate your space in the theme colors.

Food and drink

Start with easy white snacks for the kids like popcorn, yogurt pretzels, and mozzarella sticks. Serve up white cheddar mac and cheese, pizza made with white garlic sauce, or cheesy potato pancakes. And your guests will love blue Gatorade, blue raspberry lemonade, or blueberry smoothies to help wash everything down. Desserts are easy with the use of blue food coloring, coconut shavings, or blue gelatin mix.

Games

Snow Pile - Fill two large pots or boxes with Styrofoam packing peanuts (a great way to recycle from the holidays). Purchase several mini toys, making sure
 to have at least two of every toy. Place matching toys in opposite pots and mix well with packing peanuts. Two players compete to find the toy you called out: a yo-yo, a pencil, etc. The first child to find it gets to keep their toy. Refill the pot for the next round of snow pile fun.

Shovel the Snow - Purchase three large bags of cotton balls and spread them out on the floor. Players are blindfolded and given a large serving spoon and a bowl. Players need to scoop up as many cotton balls
as they can in one minute. Another way to play is to purchase colored cotton balls: white, blue, and yellow. The game is played the same way, but this time players lose points for picking up the dreaded yellow ‘snow.’

Walk Through the Blizzard - This is a great game 
to work out some of those winter wiggles. Decorate a hallway in your home with streams of paper attached at different heights and stretching from wall to wall. The kids have to make their way through the maze and back by climbing over, sliding under, and going around the paper. Players break into teams and go through one at
a time to gather the winter items on the other side: a toque, gloves, scarf, jacket, etc. The fastest team through the indoor blizzard is the winner.

Crafts

Snow Slime - A fun and easy winter craft for kids to create and enjoy is snow slime.

You will need:

6 oz. bottle of Elmer’s glue

1⁄2 Tbsp. baking soda

1⁄4 Tbsp. eye contact solution

Glitter or food coloring

Storage container or Mason jars with lids


Mix well. Add glitter or food coloring as desired. Store in a plastic storage container or Mason jar with lid.

Hand Warmers - Use up scrap fabric or buy flannel material to create 3x3 inch squares. Depending on the age and skill of your guests, you can pre-sew three sides together. Let the guests fill them with uncooked white rice and then hand sew the bag to seal it shut. Bags can be heated in the microwave for 30 seconds and held in hands to warm up on cold winter days.

Snow Flake T-Shirts - Purchase white or light blue T-shirts, blue and silver glitter, Elmer’s glue, and plastic snowflake stencils. Have the kids outline the stencils with a pencil and then retrace with glue. Shake glitter over glue to create cool snowflake designs. This messy project is a real crowd pleaser - at least for the kids.

Goodie Bags - Fill a Mason jar with packages of hot cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, and white chocolate chips. Attach a note with directions to make snowman soup: “Add a cup of hot water, one package of cocoa mix and marshmallows and chocolate chips to taste. Stir well and drink slowly. Enjoy.”

Pam is a freelance journalist, and a mother of three. Pam and her family love hosting themed parties for any occasion. Follow her on Etsy at Pam’s Party Printables, etsy.com/shop/PamsPartyPrintables.