Winter Wonderland Ideas for Kids

When the winter weather outside is too frightful for your kids to play outdoors, set up a winter wonderland inside that will keep your kids entertained and having a blast for hours. The winter wonderland theme also lends itself well to a birthday party during the winter months. Whether it's a party with a bunch of kids, or just an afternoon of indoor winter play with your children, be sure to include entertaining games and activities related to the winter wonderland theme.

  1. Winter Wonderland Decor

    • Turn the living area of your home into a winter wonderland. Cover your couches and chairs with white sheets. Pile white packing peanuts in corners of the room to look like snowdrifts. String holiday lights all across the living area. You can also hang icicle-shaped lights on doorways. Cover mantelpieces and staircase banisters with white garland. Your kids can make paper snowflakes to tape to the windows, and draw a paper snowman to attach to a door. You can also use real winter items as props, such as a small sled and a shovel next to the pile of packing peanuts.

    Winter-Themed Arts and Crafts

    • Engage the kids in winter-themed arts and crafts projects that they can display or use to decorate their winter wonderland. To make transparent, glittery snowflakes to hang in the windows, have the kids draw snowflake designs on plain, white paper cut into small, round circles. Cover the paper snowflake designs with waxed paper, cut to the shape of each paper snowflake circle. Give the kids glitter glue to trace the snowflake design onto the waxed paper for each snowflake, which you can then paste to the windows once the glue has dried. Another idea is to have your kids make a textured winter wonderland scene on card stock paper. Provide them with cotton balls for snow, small twigs for trees and scraps of colored tissue paper for other creative elements.

    Winter Wonderland Games

    • Engage the kids in games related to your winter wonderland theme. For one game, divide the kids into two-person teams, with one person turning her teammate into a snowman. Each snowman must first don an oversized white sweatshirt and sweatpants. Then his partner must stuff white tissue paper in his shirt to fill it out, tape three large paper buttons to the sweatshirt, wrap a scarf around his neck and put a top hat on his head. For another winter-themed game, blow up as many white balloons as you can, which represent snow, and divide the kids into two teams with a territory. Using small pieces of cardboard, the teams create a "blizzard" using the cardboard fans to blow the "snow" balloons to their side. The team with the most balloons on their side in the allotted time wins.

    Winter Wonderland Snacks

    • Bring the kids into the kitchen with you to create kid-friendly snacks that go with the winter theme. One idea is to use round cookie cutters of various sizes to create snowmen out of pizza dough. The kids can then cover their pizzas with sauce, then white cheeses, using things like black olives or chopped pepperoni for the buttons and facial features of the snowmen. You can also make snow wands, by having the kids dip pretzel sticks in warm white chocolate, then into white sprinkles. Another idea is to have the kids use Christmas tree cookie cutters to cut tree shapes from pita bread. The kids can then spread cream cheese on them, and add slices of shredded zucchini to give the trees some greenery.

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