Party Playground

Archive for October, 2011

Oktoberfest is known internationally for its beer, food and frivolity. To get into the spirit, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t bring a little bit of Germany to your abode and host an Oktoberfest party. Games like those below will be sure to raise a few laughs and liven up the occasion.

“Beer Jug Relay” Oktoberfest Party Game

This Oktoberfest party game is a great one for when everyone has partaken in a few ales! It needs to be played outside, as it could involve getting wet if you’re not careful. All that’s needed for this game is 4 large buckets, 2 beer jugs and a fairly long area in which to play the game. Before the game, fill 2 of the buckets and place them side by side at the starting line, and place the 2 empty buckets side by side at the finish line. Players split into two even teams and line up, with the person at the head of each line receiving a beer jug. The object of the game is for players to fill their team’s bucket at the finish line, by taking turns to transfer the “beer” from one bucket to the other. The trick is, each player must do this by filling the jug and balancing it on the palm of their hand as they walk down. The first team to transfer all their “beer” is the winner of this Oktoberfest party game.

“A what?” Oktoberfest Party Game

This is also a great game for when festivities are well underway. After a couple of beers, guests won’t know their “whits” from their “whats”. All that’s needed for this game is 2 small objects, for example a knife and a fork. Guests sit in a circle, and the two objects are given out randomly. The game starts by one of the players holding an object passing it to the person on their right, saying “This is a whit”. The person on the right replies “A what?” to which the first player responds “A whit”. This question-and-answer routine continues halfway around the circle, at which point the second object – a “watt” – is added to the circle and sent around in the opposite direction. Anyone who confuses their “whits” with their “watts” or their “whats” must leave the circle. The last 2 players left are the winners of this hilarious Oktoberfest party game.

The actual planning will depend on the age of your kid; toddlers and pre-schoolers will enjoy home-made instruments, tweenies and teens can go with disco parties or their favourite pop star’s music. You can also focus on music from different countries.

Invitations:

Invitations can range from normal card invitations with images of music notes or instruments, to invitations made from CD’s, sheet music (and no, you don’t have to use your music books, just make copies or search online for images to download) or drums made from small empty canisters with the invitations inside.

Birthday Cake:

Birthday cakes can be in the form of drums, boom boxes, gramophone players, radios, or music instruments like guitars and pianos. You can use modelling paste to make musicians and also place it on the cakes or next to the cakes.

Make party snacks that look like music notes or music instruments. Use cardboard templates to cut out shapes from slices of bread, pizza dough or cookie dough and add different toppings. Decorate Marie Biscuits or any other suitable biscuits to look like CD’s. Turn old vinyl records into bowls to hold candy and crisps.

Decorations:

This will once again depend on the specific music theme you choose. Here’s a chance to use all those old CD’s by attaching them to foil swirls; simply cut some coloured foil pie plates in a spiral, attach the CD’s with glue and hang from the roof.

Music notes cut from brightly coloured construction paper can be mounted on the walls or hung from the roof as well. It also adds a festive touch to the table decorations.

Buy or let print big posters of popular musicians or favourite singers and decorate the walls with it.

Party Games and Activities:

Young kids will enjoy games like musical chairs or musical glasses – pick some glass bottles that make a good tone when you strike them. Six will do. Fill the first bottle with water, the second one with less water, and keep going until you get to the last one. By this time, you should just be able to fill it with about an inch or so of water. When you tap each bottle using a spoon or stick, you will notice that they produce a different tone and sound.

Glasses can be filled in the same way, wet a finger and rub it around the rim of each glass. Each glass will make it’s own sound depending on the amount of water in it.

Drums can be made from brightly painted empty coffee cans; toddlers will love pots and pans with a wooden spoon, fill balloons with a small amount of sugar before tying, make shakers and other noisemakers by filling empty plastic bottles and empty tins with beans or rice.

Karaoke, name the song/tune and musical trivia are all games that will be enjoyed by older kids.

Consider giving dance lessons to the kids especially if your party theme centers around music from other cultures or earlier eras. If you do not know all the dance steps yourself, ask friends or family members if they can do it, or if your budget allows it, hire a professional dancer from a dance studio. If all else fail, buy a DVD with the appropriate dance steps and let the kids have a lot of fun following the basic steps.

Party Favours:

If you let the kids make their own music instruments as part of the party activities, they can take it home with them.

Older kids can be presented with a CD with music from the era you chose – you can easily choose songs before the party and burn CD’s on your computer. if you have a graphics program and printer, design a CD cover with the date and time of the party as well as the birthday kid’s name on it; the party guests will have good memories of the party every time they listen to the music.

Children love to dress up for a party and a music themed party theme will give them the opportunity to step into another era as they can become rock ‘n rollers, pop stars, drummers or dancers for the duration of the party and who knows, one or two of them may just discover their future careers while enjoying the music at your child’s birthday party.

When planning a doggy costume party you probably want to stick to a theme. Here is a good one- Dogs!

Get all your friends to bring their pugs, poodles and labs so everyone, especially the pups, can come dressed as their favourite canine hero.

To make it a real canine style party you have to play doggy theme music. Here is a list of some of my favourite party ‘dog music’.

The theme from ‘Underdog’
You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog
Who Let the Dogs Out
Walkin’ the Dog
Black Dog
Diamond Dogs
Dog Tired of Cattin’ Around
Dogs
Puppy Love

If Who Let the Dogs Out doesn’t get your guests into a party mood, I don’t know what will.

Try playing the boppier songs to get everyone in the party spirit and then the slow numbers at the end to wind things up.

You may want to get a copy of one of ‘Love Songs for Dog Lovers’ but maybe that’s carrying it too far. There’s ‘Dog Tracks, songs by dogs’ and ‘Songs to Make Dogs Happy’.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time searching out your own favourites, Disney has an album of Dog Songs. The album includes the songs, Me and You and a Dog Named Boo by Lobo, How much Is That Doggie in the Window by Patti Page, Gonna Buy Me A Dog by The Monkees, Cruella de Ville by Dr. John, Hound Dog by Jerry Lee Lewis, Puppy Love by Paul Anka and more.

Dogs of Our Lives by The Re-Bops are another good themed party music album. You will probably recognise all the songs and your guests and their pets will enjoy a laugh.