Birthday Party Games -- Four Fun and Easy Ideas

You bought the decorations, ordered the cake, and made the party favors. You are all ready for your child's birthday party, right? Wrong. What about birthday party games? You can't invite several kids over to your home and expect them to entertain themselves, can you? So, you need to come up with some fun (and easy) party games.

Well, here's what not to do-don't head to the store and buy a thing...yet. Don't be tempted to buy one aren't much fun for kids. What can you do instead? Try one of the ideas below; these games are easy and inexpensive to make and will definitely be fun for all of your partygoers.

Race to Decorate

Materials needed: 1 roll of crepe paper streamer for each 2 partygoers; use crepe paper that matches the decorations you are using to decorate for the party

How to play: Divide the partygoers into teams of two. At your signal, the teams begin to race-one person uses the crepe paper streamer to wrap around his partner as quickly as possible. The first team to use the entire roll of crepe paper wins.

Skittle Vacuum

Materials needed: 1 cup and 1 drinking straw per child; family-size bag of Skittles (may need 2 bags of Skittles if you have more than 6 partygoers)

How to play: Empty the bag of Skittles onto a paper plate and have the children sit in a circle around the plate. Show the kids how to use their straws to 'vacuum' up a Skittle by sucking the air up into their straws. At your signal, partygoers use their vacuums to fill their cups with Skittles until the plate is empty. The kids get to keep their Skittles, of course-so, everyone is a winner at this birthday party game!

Snowball Fight

Materials needed: 20 sheets of white paper that can be crumpled up

How to play: Divide the kids into two equal groups and set each group up on opposite sides of the room or party area. Give each group 10 sheets of the white paper and instruct them to crumple them up into balls, like snowballs. At your signal, tell the kids to begin the snowball fight. Kids will have a blast pelting each other with the paper balls! The object of this birthday party game is for one team to manage to get all of their snowballs on the other side. This may not happen, though; the kids may get the sillies instead.

Fruit-by-the-Foot Race

Materials needed: 1 Fruit-by-the-Foot fruit snack for each partygoer; clothesline, tape or pushpins, and clothespins

How to play: To set up this birthday party game, string the clothesline from one wall to another at about the height of the kids' heads, securing it with tape or pushpins. Attach the Fruit-by-the-Foot snacks to the clothesline with the clothespins, spacing them about a foot and a half apart. At your signal, have the kids begin eating the fruit snacks-but, be sure to tell them that they cannot use their hands. The partygoers must put their hands behind their backs and eat the entire Fruit-by-the-Foot using only their mouths. The first child to finish wins!

So you can see-birthday party games do not need to be complicated or expensive. They just need to be fun, and all of these games definitely fit that description. Try one or all of these ideas at your child's next birthday party and you can be certain that all of your partygoers will have a great time.