New Year is the most beloved and long-awaited holiday for children. New Year's games for children near the Christmas tree, incendiary and funny, will help make it truly fun. Even the shyest child can be stirred up, and a sad child can be in a better mood if you approach the issue with imagination and love.
Secrets of organizing New Year's games near the Christmas tree for children
The uniqueness of New Year's round dances is that children often gather at them from strangers and of different ages. This happens at Christmas trees before theatrical performances or city matinees. But every child, as a rule, also participates in events organized in kindergarten or school, where he is surrounded only by friends. In order to successfully plan the scenario and games with children at the holiday, it is advisable to know in advance several parameters that characterize this particular group:
- number of guys;
- age category;
- the principle of grouping.
You can even organize games for two children at your home Christmas tree, but one of the secrets of the special happy atmosphere of New Year’s events is their mass character. This is how both adults and children work: if a lot of people are happy around us, we also become happy, and we want to have fun with everyone. The economic factor also speaks in favor of large round dances: after all, at least three adult artists participate in the entertainment - Father Frost, the Snow Maiden and Baba Yaga (or another fairy-tale villain), so it is advisable to combine three groups of children of 10 people into one, rather than holding a Christmas tree separately for each.
As the number of participants increases, the golden rule comes into play: the more children, the more entertaining characters. When the Christmas tree is held in a large hall, and there are a lot of guests, games prepared by older children in carnival costumes fit well into the performance. Just recently they were just as small themselves, so they will be happy to give a holiday to the children and will easily find contact with them.
When involving older children as animators, you must do this according to their wishes - only in this way will little volunteers be able to amuse the kids and enjoy the holiday themselves.
In addition to kindergarten, school and city matinees, children attend Christmas trees organized by the administration of clubs and sections. In such cases, the event may reflect the corresponding specifics, for example, in a dance school, children can show Father Frost and the Snow Maiden their concert performance, and in a music school, they can perform a vocal number. Kids will be pleased to show off elements of their acquired skills in a relaxed, festive atmosphere.
Tangerine Paradise
For each participant, prepare a deep plate with the same number of peeled tangerine slices. At the bottom of each plate there is a note with some wish or any suggestion, for example, “Rely on Santa Claus, but don’t make a mistake yourself.” Each participant sits at the table in front of his plate. All participants have their hands tied behind them. At the “start” command, the participants begin to destroy the tangerine slices, doing this carefully and quickly so as not to stain the note and to be able to read what is written there faster than others. Whoever is first is well done.
New Year's games and competitions for children of different ages
When organizing a matinee, you must take into account the age of the participants. For children aged 3–4 years old, simple and fun games are suitable, based mainly on repeating the words and actions of the leader. You can organize interesting competitions for older children. The tasks should be simple so that children can answer quickly and in unison - after all, this is not a school lesson, but a holiday.
New Year's games under the tree for children 3–4 years old
Kids are often shy in front of the big and loud Santa Claus. They feel much more confident in group games. The very tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree, singing along to your favorite New Year's songs, begins at this age.
I'll freeze it!
One of my favorite games with Santa Claus. Kids stretch out their arms to the music and wave them, dancing, and Santa Claus runs in a circle, trying to touch his palms and freeze them. When he approaches, children should quickly hide their hands behind their backs and then put them out again. In the next round, Santa Claus threatens to freeze ears, then noses, legs, and so on. Each time the children hide or cover the indicated parts of the body, and then show and dance again.
Snowballs in the window
Children are divided into two teams, for each of which they need to prepare a bucket with “snowballs” in the form of lumps of crumpled white paper. The Snow Maiden and her assistant are holding two hoops - these are the windows in Father Frost's home ice cream factory, which needs cold raw materials. At the command of the leader, the children throw snowballs in relay order, trying to hit the hoop. The team with the most hits wins.
Cleaning the snow
Here's the thing: the children made so many snowballs for the ice cream factory that they completely overwhelmed it! Now the presenter hands the same teams a dustpan and a brush. Kids should take turns, passing tools to each other, to collect paper balls into an empty bucket while listening to cheerful music.
Holiday Train
A fun activity loved by both kids and adults. The leader moves around the hall in a dance to the music, gathering behind him a chain of children holding on to each other. Gradually, everyone present is drawn into a cheerful dancing “snake” that wriggles throughout the room. Each participant holds the person in front by the waist or puts their hands on his shoulders. The game creates a feeling of celebration and general rejoicing in children.
New Year's games and competitions for children 6–7 years old
Children of senior preschool age will appreciate funny competitions and active games for attention accompanied by cheerful music, where they will need to perform certain movements, focusing on the signals of the presenter.
What it is?
Two chairs are placed under the tree, and the competition participants sit on them. The presenter blindfolds each person and gives him a bag with several simple toys inside: a ball, a doll, plastic animals. Players take turns taking items out of the bag, feeling them and naming them. The next pair of children are not only blindfolded, but also put one mitten on their hands. They must guess the same objects. With each new level, the complexity of the game increases: mittens are put on both hands, toys in bags are quietly replaced with new ones, and so on.
This kind of entertainment will appeal not only to children, but also to adults at a New Year’s corporate party, if you use your imagination when choosing items in bags.
Spruce forest
Santa Claus tells the children that different Christmas trees grow in his forest: small and even smaller, tall and even taller, wide, narrow, and so on. He misses them very much and asks the guys to show what types of Christmas trees there are when he names their features. At first, Santa Claus gives commands slowly, then faster and faster. Then he begins to confuse the children, showing incorrect movements that do not correspond to the words.
Cow, crown, boxes
A game of attention. Children stand in a circle, cheerful music plays, Santa Claus, stretching out the first two syllables, pronounces one of three words: “Ko-ro... va!” The guys should pretend to be cow horns with their hands and hum. When they say “crown,” they will need to place one hand on their belt and with the other, spread their fingers above their head in the shape of a crown. “Box” - squat down and cover your head with your hands. At first, Santa Claus speaks slowly, and then gradually increases the pace and makes incorrect movements himself, trying to confuse the children.
If the children liked the game, you can try another option - with the words “well done” (jump in place), “hammer” (clap your hands) and “milk” (meow).
Festive table
Santa Claus and Snow Maiden got very hungry while they were rushing to visit the children for the holiday, so the guests need to be fed. To do this, children will have to urgently remember and shout out as many edible things as possible, the names of which begin with the letter “m” (for Santa Claus) or the letter “s” (for the Snow Maiden). You may also have to treat Baba Yaga to appease her - for this, foods starting with the letter “b” will come in handy.
Games near the Christmas tree for children 8–10 years old
Older children, who have already attended New Year's parties many times, will be interested in playing various guessing games and completing an exciting quest. They will also enjoy original quick crafts near the Christmas tree.
Guess the song
The presenter should prepare in advance several short retellings in which the children can easily recognize their favorite New Year's songs. This musical game can be played by the Snow Maiden, who will leisurely walk around the Christmas tree, gracefully gesticulate and tell the task. You need to speak slowly, adding new details about the content of the song, until the children guess and start shouting out the correct name. For example:
- a song about a small coniferous tree that froze, but was taken into the house, warmed and dressed up (“The little tree is cold in winter”);
- the green beauty grew up in the forest in the company of a bunny and an angry wolf, and then left on a sleigh with a peasant (“A Christmas tree was born in the forest”);
- Once upon a time, Father Frost and Snow Maiden were talking. Santa Claus asks his granddaughter how she is doing, where she has been, and the Snow Maiden has these teeth and a wolf tail! (“Tell me, Snow Maiden, where you were”);
- lives in the forest, in a house with an icy ceiling and a creaky door, one old woman. She dresses the trees in snow coats, freezes the rivers, and covers the entire forest with frost (“Winter lived in a hut at the edge of the forest”).
A variation of the game is to recognize the song by the music. This fun can easily be turned into a competition by dividing children into teams. All participants will, of course, receive gifts.
Snow fortress
A competition to quickly build a fortress will help test the team spirit and amuse the kids. The material for it can be white plastic cups symbolizing snowballs. Children need to be divided into teams so that no more than 5 people work on one fortress, otherwise the participants will interfere with each other. The presenter marks the time and gives a signal to start. Fast music plays, and the guys work together to build their fortresses like a house of cards, trying to make them as high as possible. After the agreed time has passed (from 2 to 5 minutes), the presenter stops the music, and the children must stop working. The team with the highest fortress wins.
If the fortresses are the same height, the number of cups used will help determine the winner: the more, the better.
Funny drawings
To play, you will need two sheets of Whatman paper attached to the wall. Children are divided into two teams, all participants need to be blindfolded. The players’ task is to work together to draw a snowman on whatman paper as evenly and beautifully as possible. To do this, they will have to agree on who will draw which part and agree on the placement of the lines on the paper. The optimal number of children in one team is three people. This way everyone will have a place on the canvas.
There is another version of the game. The paper already has a ready-made silhouette of a snowman, and players need to draw on it eyes, a mouth, a carrot nose and various accessories: a scarf, a hat, a broom, buttons. The difficulty is that you need to do this blindfolded. One of the participants puts on a headband and goes to the canvas with the intention of drawing something specific according to the instructions of the presenter, and the team directs his actions, loudly shouting where the next element needs to be placed: to the right, to the left, above, below!
New Year's quests
A relatively new type of entertainment for the New Year and other holidays is themed quests. They are good because they are suitable for both older preschoolers and teenagers. The essence of the quest is to consistently solve entertaining problems to achieve a goal. Usually this is a search for treasure or hidden gifts. Children will enjoy completing interesting tasks together, for example:
- puzzles;
- puzzles;
- ciphers;
- puzzles;
- Crosswords.
When drawing up a scenario and tasks, you need to take into account the capabilities and interests of children. Here are some recommendations for conducting an interesting quest:
- The older the children, the larger the coverage area may be. For example, 1-2 school classrooms will be enough for first-graders, and children in grades 3-4 can be given an entire floor for searching.
- Simple tasks should be alternated with more complex ones, but all of them should be doable for children.
- The New Year's quest scenario will fit well into the plot of any fairy tale. For example, the Snow Queen stole New Year's gifts, and the only way to find them is to collect all the fragments of a broken mirror, one for each completed task.
Children will appreciate non-standard tasks. For example, place the next clue in a box and put a cut orange in it. The guys will have to find the right box from several of the same scent.
To arrange fun New Year's games for children and create an atmosphere of a real holiday, you don't have to spend large sums. It is enough to be creative and think about what exactly this or that group of children will like, what will make them laugh and delight. And the main thing is to feel like children yourself, at least for a little while, and get into the spirit of the most magical holiday of the year.
