Rudolph Party -7yr- Snow Monster Game

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Party  My daughter's birthday falls in December, and she was a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer fan, so we picked that as the theme of her birthday party. This party, however, could be easily done as a holiday party, not just as a birthday! I had 10 four year olds in attendance and it was very manageable and fun. I think that the games and activities would work for older children as well (my 7 year old and her friend loved it too).  

INVITATIONS: I found official Rudolph invitations online. These matched the plates, tablecloth and napkins. There are so many on-line printables, stationary items, etc. that finding an invitation should not be difficult!  

DECORATIONS: We used red, light blue and dark blue streamers and balloons, (these colors matched our invitations and party ware), cute Christmas spiral decorations that we bought at the party store that hung down from the ceiling, and pictures that the girls had drawn of Rudolph, Santa, etc. hung on the wall to be a little art gallery. On the CD player we had a CD of music from the movie playing. 

PLATES AND NAPKINS: I found some plates and napkins online that were Rudolph designs that were in a red and blue color scheme. We also used red forks and spoons. 

FOOD: Tortilla chips and dips, along with a pitcher of ice water set out for the parents.  

COSTUMES: Prior to the event, each child was furnished with a costume: Girls: t-shirt tie-dyed in brown, with a triangle of sparkly white felt on the front (to be the white on the deer's throat); simple brown fleece skirt made with an elastic waist with the bottom fringed, tie died brown tights; black gloves. Boys: t-shirt tie-dyed brown, black gloves. As each child arrived at the party they were given a pair of reindeer antlers (the girls had a red and white polka dot bow hot-glued on them to be like Clarice's), and a black nose drawn on with face paint. The birthday girl had the only red nose.  

CRAFTS: As children arrived they were able to come inside the garage and do crafts. We had pony beads to be strung onto pipe cleaners to make ornaments (with sticky labels pre-made with their names on them to put on them as soon as completed so we would know which necklace belonged to which child). As some started to finish that, we had a Christmas tree sticker craft, with a Christmas tree and the ornaments all as stickers to decorate. These came from Oriental Trading. When it was time for games, we labeled with everyone's name, picked those up, and told them they could finish them at home.  

GAMES:

(1)Pin the nose on Rudolph. We drew a great picture of Rudolph and made noses out of red construction paper, put the children's names on them, and put red glitter on them. This was all prepared before the party.

(2) We next used the picture of Rudolph and placed an empty pet food bowl in front of it. The children tried to throw bean bags (3 per child) into the bowl, pretending the bags were full of reindeer food and we were feeding Rudolph.

(3) Santa says had a gift bag with a picture of Santa on it filled with strips of paper that said things like Hop 3 times, quack like a duck 2 times, etc. Each child got a turn to pull one out, and then we read it and did it as a group.

(4) While we were busy doing the last game, my helper hid packages around the room. The packages contained jingle bell necklaces that I had made (Oriental Trading). I had wrapped the necklaces in red tissue paper and white ribbon. I was careful to wrap the them to be easy for little hands to unwrap. I described that packages were hidden in the room and told the kids on the count of 4 (the age of the birthday girl) to go and find them and bring them to me. They did, and also found the extra couple that I had hidden. We put them in the center of our circle and played Musical Packages. We played music from the movie as we passed around a package, and whoever was holding it when it stopped got to go sit beside the wall and open their package. We went around in a circle until everyone got one. I played too so that I was the last one left rather than one of the kids being the last one.

(5) Silver and Gold I asked the kids if they remembered Yukon Cornelius from the movie and they all said yes. I asked what was Yukon always looking for and they said Silver and Gold. So I had already blown up lots of Silver and Gold balloons and had them in a trash bag (2 per child) and just tossed them out in the room. They loved it and played happily tossing the balloons in the air and trying to catch them for a few minutes. When time to pick them up I just held the trash bag and they brought them all back to me. Last I asked if there was anyone scary in the movie. They all thought of the Snow Monster.

(6) Snow Monster game  Daddy was the snow monster and he said he was hungry for reindeer, and so we said Snow Monster Snow Monster are you hungry? and he said no, come closer, and we'd ask again, and he'd say no again, over and over (with us getting a little closer each time), until one time he said yes and chased us. We played several rounds of that and then I asked the snow monster if he'd rather have cake and he said sure! so we went and had that instead. 

CAKE AND PRESENTS: We went into the kitchen for cake and ice cream, the kids sat on the floor around a Rudolph table cloth. The cake was chocolate with white frosting, made to look like snow drifts on the sides. It was covered in candy snowflakes and edible glitter sprinkles. A big picture of Rudolphs face was drawn on the cake. Happy Birthday was written in red and white swirled icing to look like peppermints. We bought a set of figurines that were characters from the movie and placed them around the edges of the cake. Cake was served with juice pouches and ice cream. As the kids finished eating they went back into the room where we were holding the party and I pulled the silver and gold balloons back out for them to play with. When everyone had finished eating we collected the balloons and opened presents.  

MORE GAMES: Treasure hunt: The last gift that the birthday girl opened was a card that said Dear XXX, I have a pinata hidden for your friends and you. Can you find it? Follow the clues! Love, Rudolph. So then we went on a treasure hunt. We looked around the room and found a clue. It said A house may be big but I like them small. Have someone help look who's really tall. We slipped on our coats and went in the backyard to the playhouse and found a clue on the roof. It said How do you like to go up in a swing? Up in the air so blue? This is where I think you should look, and you will find your next clue. The next clue was tied to one of the swings. The next clue said Near the big tree you will see, another clue, where can it be?

We then had to figure out which tree was the biggest and then look near it and we found the clue. It said Go back to where you began. Look under the table and find my fun friend. So we went back and looked under the table and Rudolph the pinata was hiding there, wrapped in a tablecloth so he wasn't discovered earlier. We strung up the pinata and broke him open. I had made the pinata out of different shaped balloons that I covered in paper mache and then hot glued together. Then I covered in fringed crepe paper. Inside were gummy deers (Oriental trading) and lots of Christmas chocolate candy from the $1 store.  

FAVOR BAGS: On the way out, the kids were each given a favor bag, which contained a bendable reindeer and a flashing fiber optic ring. The favor bags were a craft that I made and looked like a little reindeer (once again, Oriental Trading). Each had a name tag hanging from it so that we could put the child's crafts with it earlier in the party.  

THANK YOU NOTES: Thank you notes were made by us  a picture of the birthday girl riding a reindeer (on a merry go round) that says XXX and Rudolph want to say thank you on the outside, with the personal message written on the inside.