Fun and Inexpensive Birthday Party Games 

You’ve sent invitations, ordered the cake, and bought favors, but how can you keep young guests entertained? Games. Here are five easy, inexpensive ones to play at your child’s next party.

Bucket of Pennies
This game works best with two teams. Place two empty coffee cans at opposite ends of the room. Give each group a large cup full of pennies. One at a time, have a child place a penny between his knees, walk over to his team’s can, and drop the coin in without using his hands. The team with the most pennies in the can in 10 minutes wins.

Pass the Orange
This game works best with at least 10 kids, divided into two teams. Teams stand in line, one person behind the other. First person in each line takes an orange and places it under her chin. The first player then passes the orange to the next person, who will also place it under her chin. Hands are not allowed during the transfer. If a player drops an orange, the team must start over. The team that gets the orange to the end of the line first wins.

Pass the Parcel
Pass the Parcel is a twist on musical chairs. You’ll need wrapping paper, a small prize, and music. “Wrap your prize in a box and in as many layers of gift wrap as you have kids attending,” says Lisa Kothari, creator of the party planning website Peppers and Pollywogs. “Have the children pass the parcel around to one another while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel must unwrap one layer. The game continues until the last child unwraps the final layer and wins.”

Sock ‘Em
Sock ‘Em is also a variation of musical chairs. “Make a huge pile of socks, perhaps 10 times as many as the number of kids attending the party. Play music and have the guests try to put on as many socks as possible while it is on,” Kothari says. “When you turn the music off, whoever has the most socks on wins the prize.”

Nature Scavenger Hunt
“This type of scavenger hunt is the perfect way to get your kids connected to the natural world,” says Jennifer Ward in Let’s Go Outside: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature (Trumpeter, 2009). All you need are your backyard or a local park, a list of items to find, and paper or cloth bags.

Kids can work alone, in teams, or with a partner. Structure this game however you think would work best for the guests’ ages. The winner is either the person who collects the most items in 15 minutes or the first to finish. What should kids look for? Ward has these suggestions:

• Something a bird would use in a nest.
• Something a squirrel might like for lunch.
• A rough rock.
• A smooth pebble.
• A leaf that isn’t green.
• Something that would feel nice to walk on with bare feet.
• Something that would be uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet.
• Something larger than your thumb.
• Something larger than your thumbnail.
• Something yellow that grows in nature.
• A leaf with a pointy tip.
• A multicolored rock.
• An animal’s track (such as a snail’s trail or paw print); note what it was and where you saw it.
• Locate a spider’s web. Ask kids to leave the web intact without disturbing it, but make a note of where they saw it.

At the end of the scavenger hunt, Ward suggests letting the kids compare what they found. “As an added challenge, encourage teams to return each item to the location where they discovered it.”

Myra Wright is a freelance writer and mother of three.

December 2009