Spectacular Snow Party -9yr- Snowman Race

Party theme:  Tyler’s Spectacular Snow Celebration for my 9 year old who loves all things winter related. 

INVITATION: It was pre-printed single sided with children sledding down a hill during a gentle snowfall with cottages and trees dotting the sides of the hill. It was perfect for our theme and the information included that it was for Tyler’s 9th birthday, date, time, location, rsvp info and a line asking the kids to bring sleds and snow clothes. The stamps were adorable gingerbread cottages that matched the cottages on the invitation perfectly! 

DECORATIONS: I concentrated my efforts in 4 main areas: front porch, foyer, gift table and dining room/kitchen.

Porch: in front of the porch we placed a sign that had a picture of a snowman and said, Let it Snow! In the corner of the porch were my cross country skis and poles. Hanging on one side of the front door was a wooden snowman holding a plaque with our last name on it. From one side of our name to the other was a twine string with our first names written on seven different colored wooden mittens hanging from the twine.  On the other side of the door was a 4 ft. inflatable snowman, I got on clearance after Christmas for $4.50! The doormat had little penguins eating snow cones.

Foyer: I have a half circle table in my foyer; I covered it with a snow style tree skirt folded in half. In one corner of the table I placed an 18 inch waving snowman and a child size pair of silver double bladed ice skates. In the other corner was a large rectangular basket filled with the favors. In the center of the table I placed a 5x7 picture of Tyler and his little sister swooshing down a hill on a sled that we had taken a few weeks earlier (when we were checking out where the best sledding hill in town was).  Behind the picture I placed a 12 inch white leafless tree and at the corner of the picture we had a little snowman on a sled.

Gift Table: The gift table sits in front of our front window. On the windows we hung paper snowflakes that we learned how to make online. Above the table hung two 18 inch store bought snowflakes at different heights (that I got a store to cut down and sell to me for only 25 cents each!). The wooden table has a glass protective top, between the wood and glass we sprinkled snowflake confetti that we made with a little punch and white paper.

Dining Room/Kitchen: This is where I concentrated most of my efforts. I placed a blue tablecloth on the large dining room table and sprinkled it with more of the homemade snowflake confetti. From the chandelier I hung 5 variations of snowflakes that we later made as a craft. From the top of the chandelier to the walls we hung white crepe paper streamers and homemade white paper chains, varying every other one. (It was really pretty and one of my favorite things!) On the glass doors we stuck 12 silver crystal style snowflakes in varying sizes.  

Above the opening between the dining room and living room I hung a homemade snowman banner. ( Directions:  on 7 Styrofoam plates I made snowman faces. I used my circle punches and made 2 bigger black circles (eyes) and 5 smaller black circles (mouth) and cut out an orange paper carrot nose for each one. I punched 2 holes with a paper hole punch and ran blue curling ribbon through them to create the banner.)  On the door to the basement we hung a 6 ft. door cover that was an adorable snowman on a blue background (on clearance for 25 cents). Also in the room was a grapevine wreath with a snowman and the saying, Warm Winter Wishes and a freestanding 4 ft. cloth snowman dressed in winter clothes. I added snowman snow globes and figurines in among my food dishes and drink area.

COSTUMES: Tyler wore a fleece pullover with a picture of a snowboarder on it and a button that said Birthday Boy. 

FOOD: When everyone arrived we started the party with food. I spent a lot of effort coming up with theme related food that also represented Tyler’s tastes. We named all of the food and drinks and made cards with the name and a little picture of a snowflake, reindeer, snowman, moose, etc. for each one. Guests used white round plates to mimic snowballs and the cutlery was displayed in a red plastic container printed with snowflakes. The menu: Sloppy Joes in a crock pot with buns in a large white basket (they must have been pretty good because one of my nephews ate 5 of them!).

Frosty Freeze Sticks: skim mozzarella cheese sticks that I drew black dots for eyes, mouth and buttons and an orange carrot nose with sharpies on the wrappers. I cut red sparkly felt into top hat shapes attached with double sided tape and red and white striped sparkly wired ribbon for scarves. These were served on a long rectangular snowman platter.

Powdered Snownuts: powdered doughnuts with chocolate chip eyes and mouth (I used leftover frosting to stick the chips to the doughnuts) and candy corn noses. These were served on a very large glass platter with snowmen on it. Snowman noses: carrot sticks served on an oval snowman plate; with dip served in a pedestal snowman bowl.

Snowman Party Mix: mini marshmallows, pretzel sticks, candy corn and chocolate chips served in a blue tin printed with snowmen and the words, Let it Snow.

Snowy Sugar Cookies: snowman and number 9 shaped sugar cookies iced with a vanilla glaze and sprinkled with white sugar crystals served on a square red snowman platter.

Melted Snowman Dip: a mixture of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, cool whip, chocolate chips and candy corn with pretzel sticks sticking out served in a clear bowl placed in the middle of a red snowman plate with graham crackers for dipping.

Drinks: On one end of my long counter space we served Frosty Drinks: iced tea, 6 different varieties of soft drinks, a crystal ice bucket and blue plastic cups. On the other side was our Hot Cocoa Bar: which consisted of a huge pot of steaming hot chocolate served in white Styrofoam cups that we drew snowman faces on.

In a 3 section snowman dish we served Snowman Poop (Tyler picked this name): mini marshmallows; Snowman Buttons: dark chocolate M&Ms; and French Vanilla Snowmen: French vanilla snowman shaped marshmallows. On a glass pedestal cake plate I placed a paper snowflake and Snow in a Can: whipped dairy topping; Chocolaty Syrup: chocolate syrup topping; and Reindeer Candy: chocolate sprinkles. In 2 mugs were Peppermint North Poles: peppermint sticks in a red snowman mug and Gumdrop Goodies: gumdrops in a blue mug with snowmen in a snowball fight.  I also had toothpicks in a snowflake holder for guests to use if they wanted to just eat the candy instead of putting it in their hot cocoa. 

ACTIVITY: Sledding!!! This was the main event of the party as far as Tyler was concerned!  After eating, my husband loaded the kids and sledding supplies into our suburban (including the new sled he purchased to surprise Tyler) and took them sledding for an hour.  They went to a beautiful park that overlooks a river in the distance where the sledding hill is amazing.  They really lucked out and were the only ones there until the last 5 minutes. The kids had a great time and we have dozens of pictures to prove it! My husband had put together thermoses of hot cocoa for them to drink on the ride back home. After they arrived back at our house and warmed up (I had a roaring fire going) we started the games. 

GAMES: Pin the Carrot on the Snowman, Snowman Race and Snowman Piñata. Pin the Carrot on the Snowman: We used the snowman door covering in the dining room and I had cut out carrot noses from orange paper and placed two-sided tape on the backside. We covered the kids’ eyes with a scarf and spun them around, whoever was closest to the snowman’s original nose won. The prize for that game was cinnamon animal crackers that came in an adorable snowman box with 3 dimensional details (on clearance for 75 cents).

Snowman Race: we had the kids break into 4 teams of 2. They were given a hat, scarf, 2 medium blue felt circles (eyes), 5 small black felt circles (mouth), 3 large green felt circles (buttons), an orange felt carrot nose and a roll of toilet paper. The first team that could wrap one player up to look like a snowman and get the felt pieces to stick won. It was so funny and they had to get creative to get the felt to stick to the toilet paper! The winners got to pick either a chocolate walrus (purchased on clearance for 25 cents) or box of chocolate snow caps that I had placed in winter themed gift bags.

Snowman Piñata: we hung a string pull snowman piñata (I got the piñata for 20% off at a Black Friday sale) and gave each kid a small snowman bag to hold the candy. They took turns pulling the strings until the birthday boy pulled the right one! After this we opened gifts and then did a craft. 

Craft: Snowflakes. After Christmas I purchased a snowflake craft kit that made 24 different foam snowflakes (for only 99 cents!). It also included sequins, adhesive dots and gold cord to hang them. I added bottles of glue because I thought the adhesive dots were kind of a pain to use. After snowflakes we had cake. 

CAKE: I made a snowman cake. I already had a pan in the shape of a snowman’s face with a hat. I made a white cake and used vanilla frosting. For the snowman’s face I left the vanilla frosting its original white color but for the hat I tinted it black. I made a double row of yellow M&Ms for the hat band, red M&Ms for the mouth, green gumdrops for eyes and an orange gum drop for a nose. We placed a number 9 candle in the hat. I also had pre-scooped vanilla ice cream into balls and froze them on cookie sheets to look like snowballs. These were served on snowman cake plates that I got on clearance for 50 cents per pack of 12.  

FAVORS: I used the same snowman bags for the favors that I had used for the piñata candy. They were little blue bags with a snowman in a red polka dot top hat and a red scarf that I got for 75% off. In the bags each kid received a chocolate covered marshmallow snowman (on clearance for 5 cents!) and a 4 oz. bag of chocolate balls wrapped in foils of different snowmen faces (on clearance for 25 cents). The kids also took home their piñata candy, snowflake ornaments and game prizes.

This is a great party theme if you are on a budget. I was able to get the most for my money by: (1) getting most store bought items on clearance after Christmas, (2) making lots of the decorations and game supplies ourselves with things we had around the house and (3) using Christmas decorations and winter items that we already had.  The party ended up costing under $100!