Sometimes it seems like springtime and summertime birthdays have it all. Outdoor picnics, pool parties, and lakeside fun make for some of the best birthday parties.
Cold weather birthdays can also be fun, though, and in fact can be even better with just a little creativity. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on great cold weather birthday ideas either.
Get Crafty
Some of the easiest parties, as well as the most affordable, depend on fun arts and crafts for the kids.
- Snowflake craft party – Especially during the winter when snow is falling, a fun craft idea is to make snowflakes. Decorating is simple with tiny snowflakes that you cut yourself and hang from walls or the ceiling. Make a simple sheet cake with some white frosting and draw on snowflakes with colored frosting. For a fun group activity, provide paper, safety scissors, crayons or markers, and glitter for everyone to make their own unique snowflakes.
- Gingerbread house party – After reading the story about The Gingerbread Man, bring everyone in a room to make their own gingerbread houses using graham crackers, icing, and candies to decorate. For your birthday cake, use a simple sheet cake with your own little gingerbread man and/or gingerbread house topper.
- Little chefs party – Have your guests show up with their own aprons or big t-shirts to cover their clothes, and let them build their own sandwiches. For dessert, have everyone ice and decorate their own cupcakes. You can even provide little chefs hats made out of paper for them to take home.
Dress It Up
To put an extra fancy spin on a party without spending much money, have a dress-up party where all of your guests come in costume.
- Pirate party – With all of your guests dressed up like pirates, orchestrate a treasure hunt indoors. For an extra activity, invite everyone to do some arts and crafts and draw their own treasure maps. You can even build a pirate ship out of large cardboard boxes for a fun play area and decoration.
- Prince and princess party – This is for little girls or little boys that love to dress up like royalty. Have all guests come dressed as princes and princesses and then throw your own little ball complete with dainty finger foods and a theme cake.
- Book character party – A great children’s birthday party with a learning twist. Have your guests come dressed as their favorite book characters, and take turns telling the stories that their costumes come from.
Play Pretend
If there is one thing that almost every child loves, it’s to use their imaginations. Put their imaginations to the test with fun “playing pretend” themes that make the indoors something else entirely.
- Spa day party – Complete with mini manicures and dressing up each other’s hair, turn your home into a salon for an extra special spa day party. You could even provide simple mini facials with mud masks and cucumbers.
- Camping party – Turn your living room into the great outdoors by setting up a tent and letting your guests go “camping” in your own home. Top it off with s’mores made in the oven and telling stories around a “campfire”.
- Dance party – It’s pretty simple to turn your home into a disco with the lights turned down low, the stereo turned up, and the furniture moved out of the way to make room for a dance floor. You can even find fun disco ball lights pretty inexpensively at your local party store.
You don’t need a pool to have a great and inexpensive birthday party. Wintertime is the perfect opportunity to make use of simple solutions for extra fun birthday parties indoors. With a bit of creativity, you can throw the best parties without breaking the bank.
