Winter One-derland Party

Love the play on words! If your little one is soon to turn 1 and it is cold and wintry outside, a perfect theme for your party may be a fabulous “Winter One-derland!” It will work well if you are not having older kids attending the party … otherwise, just drop the play on words and host a Winter Wonderland Party. This is a great plan for many ages! If it is December, January, or February and you are sure to be throwing an indoor party, here are some ideas to pull this theme together.

Winter Wonderland Party Invitation:

Cut out an array of mittens, snowballs, scarves, and snowflakes in your party colors, and write all of the pertinent information on the cutouts. Use winter cookie cutters as guides; they can pull double duty later for craft projects or treats.

Another idea is to paint styrofoam balls your party color, for snowballs, and attach a tag with the party details. These will need to be hand-delivered.

For your party colors, use white (for snow of course), and another color you like. There are plenty of first birthday themes out there and many decoration options. These balloons and streamers can decorate the party room. Since you are emphasizing winter, if you go with a first birthday decoration theme, you may want to keep it on the generic side.

To go completely with the winter wonderland party theme, hang snowflakes from your ceiling at different lengths. You can decorate the party walls with big snow people you cut out from large pieces of cardboard, and other wintry items, such as mittens, hats, scarves, etc. Cover you furniture with white sheets, place styrofoam packing peanuts all over the party room for the snow, and create the look of a frozen lake by placing clear plastic bags on the floor.

Place a sign stating, “Danger: Thin Ice!” Hang twinkly lights all over the party room. Make snowmen out of white balloons by taping three different sizes together and decorating their faces with markers. The kids can do this as a party activity as well.

Crafts:

Make Snowmen: Mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 2 tbs. veg. oil, 1 tbs. cream of tartar, 1/3 cup silver glitter, and 1/4 cup white powdered tempera paint. Cook over medium heat, stirring until a ball is formed. Knead the dough until cool. Provide bowls with bits of cloth, paper, beads, pipe cleaners, felt, etc. Have the guests sculpt their own snowdough snowman and decorate it.

Make Snow Globes: Use baby food jars. Fill the jar almost to the top with water and stir in a few drops of glycerin, 1/2 a teaspoon of glitter, and star and moon confetti. The glycerin increases the density of the water and causes the glitter to fall much more slowly. This is a great party goody for the kids to take home!

For Activities:

Hopefully, you will have snow and you can make snow angels, build real snow people, go sledding, go on a winter nature hike, and simply play in the winter one-derland! If not, there are plenty of indoor games to play.

Have a Race to the North Pole: Set up different “places” in the party room, and have the kids complete a different task at each place as they make their way to the North Pole. For example, have the kids go to Klondike, where they wrap yarn into a coil. Then they will visit Greenland, where they dress in heavy winter clothes so they can go to the Arctic Circle, where they map their progress by drawing a circle with a compass. Finally, the kids will reach the North Pole.

Play Hot Snow Ball as you would Hot Potato.

Have a blizzard: Split the kids up into two teams and have each team pick a goal in the room. Blow up a large amount of white balloons for snow, and provide small fans to the two teams. Have the kids try to fan as many of the balloons to their designated goal areas as they can. The first team to get the majority wins!

Create your own winter wonderland. Hide icicle ornaments of various lengths all over the party area. Have the two teams hunt for as many as they can find and then, as a team, piece them together. Whichever team forms the longest icicle wins!

Winter Wonderland Party Menu:

Make snowman pizza using cheese, olives, and other veggies for toppings!

Make different-sized pancakes and have the kids make snowmen out of them. Use chocolate chips to decorate the snowmen!

Make a batch of sugar cookies and cut them out into different winter shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with sprinkles, candy, and frosting.

You could also make Pigs in a Blanket, to keep the piggies warm!

More thematic treats include:

Ice Chips: Any type of chip with a dip

Snowman Crackers: Use cream cheese and veggies to decorate crackers.

Mud and Snow: Make hot chocolate with whipped cream

Mini Snowballs: Serve little donuts rolled in powdered sugar.

Polar Ice Cap: Prepare blue Kool-Aid and mix it with ginger ale and vanilla ice cream. Serve your Polar Ice Cap in clear glasses with straws.

Send home the snow globes as your party favor!