Mardi Gras Activities, Crafts and Games for Children

Everyone knows that Mardi Gras is the holiday for adults, and who could resist it with all the allure of being able to party and have fun? But even children can have fun with Mardi Gras (not in the same way as adults do, of course).

Arts and Crafts

Mardi Gras Beads

Everyone knows that Mardi Gras is famous for its beads, so why not have your little one make their own Mardi Gras beads? This is a fun project that can take many different forms.

Materials:

- Some sort of pasta with a hole in the middle (like ziti or elbow macaroni)

- Either yarn or some sort of string

- Markers or paints

- Glitter pens (optional)

- Beads (optional)

- Glue

- Cardboard or newspaper to paint on is recommended

Activity:

This is an easy and fun project. Tape one end of the string to the top of the table (this allows them to slide the macaroni on without it falling back off).

I would recommend putting down newspaper or cardboard or something to cover up any surfaces you don't want made messy. Then just let your children go crazy. If they have paint, let them paint the macaroni any colors they wish (traditional Mardi Gras colors are purple, green, and gold, but this is their project, so it can be whatever they want). If they have markers, let them color them whatever color.

This part is optional, but for a little more creativity and Mardi Gras fun, let them add accessories to their new necklace. Mardi Gras is supposed to be fun and crazy, so let them go wild. Let them add glitter where they want or confetti things or let them add little beads in between the macaroni to make a neat pattern. You might need to help them with the gluing, though.

When they finish, just tie the two ends together in a knot and voila, they have a brand new necklace to wear and be proud of!

Mardi Gras Coloring Pages

The best part about any holiday is the coloring sheets (or that's what I always looked forward to at least).

There are plenty of good sites about Mardi Gras coloring sheets. Here are some of the best ones:

Coloring Pages/Posters

More Coloring Pages

Mardi Gras Crown

Materials:

- Poster board or thin cardboard

- Construction paper

- Scissors

- Paint, crayons, or markers

- Glue

- Glitter (optional)

- Glue-on decorations (optional)

Activity:

Cut a strip of cardboard big enough to fit around your child's head with some overlapping (you might need to glue two strips together for it to be long enough) and it should be at least four inches wide. Then cut a strip of construction paper that's about the same length and about two inches wider (so at least six inches wide).

Glue the construction paper to the cardboard with their bottoms flush against each other. Use the extra paper on top (there should be about two inches to work with above the cardboard) to cut a zig-zag crown pattern in the top of it.

You might have to do all the preparation yourself, but here comes the fun part. Let your child decorate the crown however he or she wants (after all, they are king/queen). Make sure they decorate the paper side and not the cardboard side, though.

For added fun, let them add glitter or any other decorations they might be able to glue on, or just let them decorate it with the traditional marker.

Then just make a ring with the cardboard and paper (design facing outwards) and glue them together and there you have yourself a nice crown.

Activities

King's Cake

While this isn't exactly just an activity for kids, it's always fun to include them in it.

For those of you who aren't away, the King's Cake is an old tradition of Mardi Gras. For a complete explanation of the history behind it, click here.

My French class did this last year. We baked a King's Cake and it was a really neat experience. The main thing about a King's Cake is that you bake it with a small plastic baby inside it and whoever finds the baby in their piece of cake is traditionally supposed to have good luck.

Either way, you can't go wrong with cake. Letting your children help out is a great bonding activity, although it has the potential to get pretty messy. For the recipe for King's Cake, just click here.