Christmas Eve Games For Kids So, what are you going to do with the kids 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. Some of these games could be played before or even on any big day and some can be adapted for different age groups, because basically, they are merely ideas for you to play with. 1] Hire a face painter. Plenty of students from the local art college can do face painting and children love it - girls especially adore Hello Kitty and a face painter could do half a dozen kids in an hour. You could theme your face painting to match your party. Do this first thing to get the party romping along. 2] Some households have a tradition that everybody in the family is allowed to 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 action of giving the gift by turning it into a Treasure Hunt? This is also a great way of getting the children out of the way, while you are worrying about those last minute things that you have to get on with. A lot of individuals save old Christmas cards to cut up for decorative reasons, so you could write clues on the cards and put them around 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 need to sing carrols (in fact best not to, they will already have had enough of them). Attempt some choral singing. Sit everybody around the room or in a circle outside and sing songs where a quarter of the circle starts, and the next quarter comes in after a couple of bars. You might 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 good for Chinese Whispers. 4] Another fun circle game is Musical Chairs and another is Pass The Parcel. Musical Chairs is a great 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 remain seated. Both games get younger children to hoot with laughter and help tire them out. 5] A more difficult game is Where is Santa? A child is chosen to become Rudolf and is escorted out of the room to be blindfolded while someone is picked to become 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 only 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 every game. Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many subjects but is currently concerned with Hello Kitty face painting. If you would like to read more, please visit our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.