Winter Wonderland Faux Snow Party

Miss G has been in love with snow for a few years now.

Even though she has never seen snow.

A snow party is what she wanted for her 6th Birthday

{which is funny because the last 3 years of her  she always asked for a beach or swimming party -- which is a tad hard in winter}

Ironically last year for her carnival party in the park it was FREEZING! Wind blowing things everywhere and guests so cold I think I ran home for blankets.

And then the year we opt for a SNOW party complete with mittens and scarves?

IT'S HOT! It was almost like a summers day! Gah!



Anyway on to the details of the party {warning its long!}

I found so many ideas on the internet and came up with a few of my own. It was hard to limit myself! I think this may be my new favourite theme. I suggest you do one too! It is so easy and fun.

Foamerators

I think I orginally found this idea many years ago at Betz White. As we have a lack of real snow in Australia I was trying to think outside the box for similar looking fakeness! I thought our foamerators would be fun and provide white goodness.

To make a foamerator all you need is empty water bottles, an old towel and rubber bands. Basically you slice off the bottom of a bottle. Cut a square of towelling and attach it to the bottom with a rubber band. Then you dip your bottle in a bowl full of water and detergent mixed.

Then the fun begins. Take a big breath and BLOW into your bottle and a big snake of bubbles will come from the bottle. Very fun. Remind kids to NEVER breathe in with the bottle to your mouth {you will get detergent taste in your mouth} only blow out.  After 10 mins or so kids will be tired from all the blowing.

Ice Dig

I found this idea also many years ago via Crafty Crow . Originally we used it as a summer activity to keep cool. For this activity you just freeze a bunch of small toys/beads/whatever in a container of water. Then you allow the children to dig out the treasures using tools. We used forks this time.

Photobooth

Originally I started out making winter props - igloo, snowman, snowflakes, penguins etc. I was painting them on large packing cardboard with the intent to have photos beside them. When The Mr procurred a LARGE TV box from work I thought this would work as a 'insert your head' photobooth. One side of the box had a snowman, the other side a penguin.  As I've lost my artistic ability over the years to achieve this I used our trusty projector. Find a picture you like, project it onto cardboard and trace around the edges. I then painted the image {we have been gifted left over house paint, and acrylics over the years. I'm still using them for every project!} Using a stanley knife cut a circle large enough for kids head to fit in.

Spiders/Icecream Floats

All Miss G asked for in a snow party was that there be 'Spider Drinks'. I thought that a wonderful idea that suited the theme {orginally I was opting for a hot chocolate bar with all the fixings} White Fluffy Goodness in pretty cups. Just like Snow. These cups became the take home gift of the party instead of lolly bags.

Dry Ice

This one is all thanks to The Mr. I wasn't intending to have this but of course it was a hit! Miss G mentioned 'what about that white smoke stuff Daddy had at his party'? There is a place very close to our house that sells dry ice. A bag of the pebbles cost $17. Well worth it and we still have some left.
Place dry ice in warm water. Make sure an adult does it and do not allow children to touch the ice. Lots of squeals and ooohhh and ahhhh's with dry ice in the house!

Snow Globes

There are many ways to make snowglobes (baby food jars etc) but I wanted the easiest way for a party full of little kids. Purchase a tray of water bottles. Give each child a bottle. Ask them to take a drink from it to lower the water. Then lay out an arrangement of beads, trinkets, glitter etc - anything that will fit through the top of the bottle. {lots of glitter is a must}. When finished, place lid back on and secure with tape {so no little siblings will think it is good to drink}. Now shake and you have a pretty snowglobe. Also can double as a take home gift. All the children loved their snowglobe.

Snowflake Facepainting

I'll credit this idea to the lady from a Gecko's animal party I went to. After an hour of animal handling she asked who wanted their faces painted. I thought what a brave lady, how will she do all these faces in a few minutes? Turns out she just used a lizard stamp and stamped it onto the kids! Brilliant! EASY idea!

So I was very happy when I lucked upon a foam snowflake stamp in the clearance section of spotlight for $3. My 9 year old was the facepainter of the party. She did a GREAT JOB! We just used regular nontoxic acrylic paint in a tube. We applied the paint to the stamp with a small paint brush and just stamped it on to each child's cheek or arms. She then applied some shimmer dust over it. This was simple, easy, quick and looked really effective I thought.

Fake Snow

I purchased some of this fake snow from a party shop for $5. Two sachets {$10} were enough to fill a big plastic container. It kinda feels like a type of gelatin. Kids got very excited about this and ended up throwing it everywhere and 'skating' on it as it was very slippery all over my outside tiles. I suggest laying down the ground rules of just playing or building with it if you don't want a snow fight :)

Playdough

I made 5 batches of playdough and left it white {no food colouring} and simply added glitter to the dough. This activity was to make  a snowman. I left a bag of googly eyes out to keep it simple {just dough, googly eyes and sticks for arms} the abundance of eyes meant we had lots of alien looking snowmen!

Pinata

As you all know it isn't a party of ours if there isn't a pinata! This pinata was one of my most simple yet and cost virtually nothing to make. I used a cereal box as the body to hold the lollies and trinkets. I 'paper mache d' junk mail all around the box to make it sturdier. I then painted it white {same house paint used to make the photo props} I then cut out two big snowflakes from white cardboard and simply stuck them to the front of the box. I always lay down serious ground rules with pinata's. I state I've been doing pinata's for about 5 years {about 15 pinata's so far} and I've NEVER had an injury and that aint gonna change! We mark a line where the children must stand behind {measure with the stick you are using and swing it in all directions - then make the children stand back further than that} and remind them they are not to run for the goodies until the person has stopped swinging!


Cakes

I made a double layer vanilla cake with white icing and used fondant to create a snowflake for the top {I printed a snowflake off the internet and placed it on top of the icing and cut around it} It was a pretty quick and easy process. This was my first time using fondant so it didn't turn out as great as I envisioned. But the birthday girl saw it and said "Oh mum ... that is FANTASTIC!" so I suppose that is all that matters.

The day before the party I remembered about Chocolate Ripple Cake and thought that is the perfect kind of cake for a snow party. Wish I thought of that before I made the other cake! Ripple cake takes all of 5 mins to prepare and is so easy! So I made 2 of those also. The layered cookies and the whipped cream swell overnight to miraculously turn into CAKE!

I also thought oreo pops with white chocolate could be 'Snowball Pops' so I made a batch of them too. {2 packets crushed oreos, 1 package cream cheese - mix. Roll into balls and dip in chocolate ~ easy recipe}

Decorations

Paper Doilies are your best friend! On the walls, under the plastic table cloth, to eat food on. To hang like snowflakes. I used White lanterns {borrowed from a friend} and purchased Snowflake decorations from a party shop. I made scarves for each child by cutting up a $5 polar fleece blanket {gave me 12 scarves} and mittens for party favours. Icicles and igloo made out of cardboard boxes {taken from neighbours recycle bin} Photobooth made from a TV box.


Extra Ideas I didn't use but are still great:

I have loads of branches in a pile in my back yard. Paint branches white and use to decorate
Fill plastic pool/container with shaved ice
Ice fishing
'Freeze' music game
Igloo Cake
Party Bags in stocking shape
Decorate a Felt Mitten
Hommus Dip in snowman shape (olives for eyes and carrot nose)


And that was our Winter Wonderland Faux Snow Party! Phew!