Game Ideas for Kid’s Birthday Parties

Are you looking to entertain a group of kids for a birthday party? I've got 10 wonderful and fun game ideas just for you. It all started with my son turning 11...

It was his last year at primary school and he wanted to invite lots of friends to a party. I couldn't afford an entertainer or take 20 kids on an outing. Honestly, I really didn’t want to hang out at the local leisure centre for a themed party, either. I took a deep breath and prayed for sunshine. I decided to have the party games in the local park and a barbecue at home for (gasp) 22 boys and girls.

So what party games will a boisterous herd of bouncing 10 and 11 year olds want to play without getting bored or silly or, heaven forbid, over-excited? You know that all ages present their own challenges. After a bit of research, here's some party games. If you have a game your kids loved, let us know or indeed, about any disasters!

Here's 10 fun party games every child will love...

The Chocolate Game

Sit everyone in a circle and place a tray in the middle with a hat and gloves, knife and fork, die and a large wrapped bar of chocolate.

In turn, players throw the die. If they throw a 6, they must put on the hat and gloves before they start to unwrap the chocolate with the knife and fork, and then start to eat it.

Lots of children? You'll want 2 sets of hats, gloves and chocolate on the go with 2 dice being passed around.

Pass the Orange

Arrange the kids into 2 teams – boy, girl, boy, girl... The child at the front of each team has an orange tucked under their chin. At the start of the game the orange needs to be passed to the next team member – chin to chin and no hands allowed! When the orange gets to the last person, they come to the front of the line and start again. The winning team is the first one which gets their starting person to the front again (after 2 goes each).

Human String Relay

Tie a spoon or a key to the end of a ball of string – for 2 teams you will need 2 strings with spoon or key. Divide the kids into 2 teams. Line up both teams single-file. On the shout of "Go," the first person from each team must put the spoon/key down his shirt and trousers or skirt. The string is then passed to the next team mate and threaded down through their clothes…and so it goes on.. When it has gone through the entire line, and everyone is attached, then the last person at the end of the line must reverse the process (While the first person winds the string into a ball as it comes back out of each person's clothing). The team to finish unwinding the string first wins.

Obstacle Relay

You basically need to construct an obstacle course around your house or garden or local park. Again, divide the kids into 2 teams and lay out identical courses side by side. Each “obstacle” is laid out at about 2 m distance so you can decide how much room you have and therefore how many obstacles. Your course can be anything you like but suggestions are:

1. A pile of clothing to put on – hat or wig, gloves, big welly boots
2. A bucket of water with an apples bobbing in it – each child has to pick up an apple with his teeth (no hands)
3. A sack to get into
4. Some netting pinned to the ground to crawl under (army style!)
5. Some lipstick to put on
6. A plank on 2 bricks to walk along

For each team, every player takes a turn to run the course, the next player starting when the previous one finishes. You will need to plan the course so that the extra clothes etc are taken off again before the end of the course so you can quickly re-lay for the next person.

After this, I’ll need a gin and hopefully the kids will be weary enough to sit down and eat some party food…we’ll see.

Some more inventive kid’s party games

Egyptian Mummy Wrap

Divide the kids into pairs - one is the “Mummy” and the other the “Mummy Wrapper”. Give each “Mummy Wrapper” a roll of toilet paper or crepe paper streamer. On the word "Go!" have the Wrappers race to see who can wrap up their Mummy first. The game is tricky because the faster they try to wrap, the more the tissue will tear, causing them to keep restarting!

Hot Potato

Everyone sits in a circle with one child chosen as the "leader." Begin passing a potato (or other object) around the circle, while the "leader" sits with his/her back to the group and eyes closed. Everyone must accept the potato, and may not hold it longer than a second. At any point the "leader" can yell, "Hot Potato," and whoever has the potato is out. Continue to play until there is only one kid left, and he/she is the winner.

Sense-Sational

Test their powers of smell! Fill paper bags with a variety of items that have an aroma, such as coffee beans, salami, toothpaste, orange peels, chocolate, and so on. Be sure the smells are familiar to the age group. Then pass the bags around and let the kids smell them without looking inside! Give prizes to whoever guessed them all correctly (or whoever guessed the most correctly).

The Shopping Game

Set up your shop – this is a great job for an older sibling or cousin. You need a table with dishes of various sweeties and lollies, each sweetie costs a certain number of pasta pieces so make some labels. Scatter dried pasta in a “hidden but visible” way in the sitting room or garden. Give each child a paper party bag with their name written on it.

When everyone is ready, the kids run off to find pasta pieces and then they go to the shop to buy their sweets. Some kids will scoff everything straight away but a surprising number like to fill their bag and take them home. A ready made party bag! This game can last 20 minutes and if you make it the last game you can always give a bag to siblings arriving to collect their brothers and sisters. Everyone is happy and you appear to be a generous host!

Centipedes

Two teams. The players stand in 2 lines with their hands on the waist of the player in front of them. Position a marker about 2m in front of each team. On hearing “Go” the teams run round the marker and then return... While running no one can take their hands off the waist of the person in front of them. If the chain is broken the team looses the game. Repeat!

Islands

This works best with a large group of kids, and you only need newspaper and music! You could even play it with a group of older kids or adults!

Basically, you need a sheet of newspaper for every five players (although one or two extra won't hurt for larger groups), spread around the room. Ideally, there should be a reasonable amount of space between each sheet. Similar to musical chairs, except that whenever the music stops, everyone has to stand on a bit of the newspaper. Anyone not standing on newspaper after a few seconds (or failing that, the last person to get on the newspaper) is considered out - they then get to help with judging the next rounds.

Every couple of rounds, you can either take away one sheet of newspaper or tear half off each sheet. If they didn't know each other before the party, they will by the end of it.

If you have a fun Children's Party Game that you'd like to share, drop us a line at our Customer Service email.

Fun but fatigued,

Melissa