Winter Wonderland Birthday

Recently my oldest daughter turned eleven and requested a Winter Wonderland themed Birthday. Here is how we turned our home into a magical snow covered forest using simple supplies, little expense, and time. I also made some free printables that are available to download below. Many of these ideas can be used in winter celebrations at school or church. They also may be helpful and fun for snow days, winter break, as well as winter book play.

Decorations:

I draped light blue plastic tablecloths over our walls and cut trees out of white poster board to quickly create a snowy scene and repeated this throughout our home. I also used snowflake ornaments leftover from Christmas and hung them from the ceiling with fishing line to create the illusion of snowflakes falling.

The birthday girl and her sisters helped me to paint a huge snowman on scrapwood. I projected my snowman coloring page (see download below) onto a large board, outlining it with a black Sharpie. It made for a wonderful photo prop and was a great way to quickly set the scene.

Here is little sister posing in front of the finished painting, wearing her snowsuit.

My kids helped me to craft a variety of snowflakes out of tissue paper, white and brown paper bags, and poster board. To finish off this space, simple 7 inch white paper plates were taped to the wall using painter’s tape to create snow.

There are a lot of tutorials on paper bag snowflakes out there but I found this one from Lovely Etc. to be particularly helpful. As I was working with my kids, I ended up using glue sticks rather than a glue gun. We also used 12 paper bags to create each of our snowflake but in hindsight should have used nine. Some were suspended from the ceiling with little command hooks and fishing line and some were taped to the wall using painter’s tape.

The snowflakes cut out of tissue paper were probably my favorite. They are made by folding tissue paper in half, then in thirds, then cutting out your random designs. They were by far the most efficient way to make a lot of snowflakes and much easier for kids to cut through a pile of tissue paper rather than regular paper.

My daughter learned how to make snowflakes out of coffee filters at school and ended up making a bunch to help us further decorate our home. These looked especially lovely in our windows.

In our living room, my kids helped me to drape our fireplace and bookshelves with fake snow. We continued our snowy backdrop, taping more tissue paper snowflakes up to further decorate. The smaller snowflakes were made by cutting tissue paper into quarters before folding and cutting. I made a banner that is free to download above and laid out several activities for the kids. They are each described in further detail below.

The birthday girl helped me to glue cotton balls onto clear fishing line to create snow falling from the ceiling. You just dip jumbo cottons balls into glue then squeeze the cotton balls around the fishing line, leaving some space in between. This is a great decoration to make with kids because they tend to create more random patterns which end up looking more realistic.

We added a ballon garland and taped more white tree cutouts and snowflakes to our windows. We also hung twinkling lights and added Poly-fil to create snow. I displayed several canvas paintings my kids made as well as a beautiful glass piece featuring a cardinal and winter tree made by PNW glass artist Terri Shinners of Glass Fusing with Friends.

Party Activities

I made some winter themed coloring pages that are free to download above for personal use. I make more personalized coloring pages here.

I purchased these beautiful snowflake charms here from Amazon and set up a little invitation to make necklaces and keychains. I laid out a variety of alphabet beads, winter colored pony beads, and elastic string for kids to create. My daughters and their friends really enjoyed this simple setup.

I purchased this winter puzzle from Amazon. I often like including a 100 piece puzzle as a party activity. It is a doable size for multiple kids of varying ages to finish together… challenging, enjoyable, and not too frustrating.

I made some simple winter hats for the kids to color and decorate. This file is best printed out onto white cardstock, colored, cut out, and stapled together after measuring your child’s head. They are available here and can be personalized with kids’ names, ages, or event.

I just added this simple sign to our giant Lego stash to invite kids to build their own Lego snowflakes. Sometimes kids just need a little inspiration to create something new from what they already have. The activity signs I made are available here.

I purchased these beautiful wooden snowflakes from Amazon and set them out with acrylic paint pens and adhesive gems for the kids to decorate. The kids spent a lot of time here. Many of my daughter’s friends ended up decorating their face with the gems as well with some even creating sparkly mustaches.

My daughter requested gingerbread cookies shaped like snowflakes. I used this recipe from Sally’s Baking. I purchased the snowflake cookie cutter here. I ended up using only one of the sizes but have used the other sizes to add some fun to my kids’ school lunches. The smallest sized cutter in particular makes white cheddar cheese look especially pretty.

Decorating cookies is always a hit and setting up this activity was as easy as setting out vanilla buttercream frosting, these gingerbread snowflake cookies, along with some paper plates, plastic knives, and a few sprinkles, and letting the kids have at it. My favorite recipe for vanilla buttercream frosting is this one from Two Sisters.

I purchased snowflake tattoos here. These were the same ones I had previously purchased for little sister’s Frozen birthday. Including a little area for kids dedicated to temporary tattoos is a super inexpensive and low prep activity that is always well loved.

I made a mitten template and used it to cut out mittens from 5X7 scratch art paper. This is another super low cost activity that the kids always enjoy not only at their parties, but as an activity on the go for all those waiting periods. This would also be a great activity paired with The Mitten by Jan Brett.

I purchased these canvases from Walmart and made two snowflake templates for kids to paint. The templates are free to download above for personal use and can be used for a variety of projects. I also ended up switching out my fabric tablecloth for plastic tablecloth which made for much easier cleanup.

Here is little sister who wanted to dress like a bee for sister’s party. She didn’t get the memo that it was winter themed l.o.l.

Here is my other daughter working on her canvas. I provided kids with Faber-Castell connector watercolor paints as well as a black Sharpie to sign their painting.

We made a ginormous snowflake pinata together from cardboard. This is an easy and wonderful way to make larger, sturdier pinatas, that can fit into any party theme. You just need to cut out the shape of your piñata twice, add 3-4 inch cardboard strips to the sides, and tape everything up with masking tape. We use masking tape as it can be painted or easily covered up with tissue paper and won’t show through.

We covered our snowflake pinata with dark blue crepe paper streamer and glued on some white poster board for the snowflake. My kids always enjoy helping me to make and fill these pinatas. As the cost of making these are minimal, we get to splurge on filling them. We filled ours with the birthday girl’s favorite candy treats as well as a mix for her family and friends.

Here is her sister (who purposefully dressed in a white dress to look like a snowflake), taking her turn hitting the pinata.

Lastly we made winter candles. I purchased these beautiful snowflake stickers. The kids cut and rolled vellum paper, taping them into cylinders to create the candles. They added these battery operated tea lights inside. They used 7 inch white paper plates as the base, gluing Poly-fil as snow around their candles, adding these mini snowy trees, and resin cardinals. This turned out to be the biggest hit and some girls stayed up to forty-five minutes after the party to finish their candles.

Food:

I followed this recipe to make chicken noodle soup but switched out the ditalini noodles for this snowflake pasta. I made a huge pot and called it Snowflake Soup.

My daughter requested beef barbecue. I used my crockpot to easily brown five pounds of ground beef. You just dump the meat in, adding 1/4 cup of water for every one pound of ground beef and cook on high for three hours. I added a cooked onion, some ketchup, and brown sugar to taste. We served them in a warmer with hamburger buns. The winter theme food tents are available here and can be customized.

We enjoyed some twice baked potatoes. I slice the potatoes into two, rub with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for an hour at 400 then scoop out the filling, adding melted butter, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. I then refill the potatoes, topping them with crushed cooked bacon and more cheddar cheese, putting them back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes for the cheese to melt.

I followed this recipe from The Cookie Rookie to make queso in my crockpot. We kept it on a warmer to serve with tortilla chips but it also tasted great drizzled over the potatoes.

We had a bowl of shrimp chips we labelled as snowflakes and they dissolve on your tongue just like snowflakes!

We also served homemade mac and cheese (not pictured as I forgot to take a proper picture before it was all devoured) and made traditional Vietnamese egg rolls. The egg roll recipe handed down from my mom can be found here.

We had a hot cocoa bar. This is something we always like to serve at all of our winter gatherings. I followed this recipe from Wishes and Dishes to make the crockpot hot chocolate and laid out some simple toppings (mini marshmallows and candy canes, chocolate spoons, cookie straws, whipped cream, and sprinkles).

We mixed rainbow sherbet with a few bottles of ginger ale to make a winter punch. I added a few drops of blue Wilton icing gel to achieve the winter blue color. The party sign I made is available here. My youngest two used blue Sharpies to draw snow and snowflakes to decorate all the clear cups.

My daughter requested a tiered chocolate ice cream cake. I had never made a tiered ice cream cake before but it turned out even easier than making a regular tiered cake. As the layers are pretty solid, you just stick the top cake on without needing to use any extra straws or dowels for support. I used this recipe to make the chocolate cake and this recipe from Sugar Spun Run to make the stabilized whipped cream frosting. I piped some vanilla buttercream around the edges and my daughter helped to make white snowflakes, winter trees, and deer using these tree molds and this deer mold and white Ghirardelli melting wafers.

Here is the birthday girl frosting the bottom layer of her cake the night before. You have to work fast with the whipped cream frosting, refreezing, then adding another more finished layer.

I used this recipe to make the Rice Krispies treat. My kids don’t like chocolate chips or frosting on them so I just added some snowflake sprinkles, pressing them into the pan, before cutting them into squares to serve.

My kids helped me to make chocolate covered Oreos. We used our Wilton melting pot to quickly melt Ghirardelli melting wafers, dipped our Oreos, and then added some winter sprinkles. Super quick and easy and there are always none leftover.

I used this recipe to make the vanilla cupcakes subbing the almond extract for vanilla. I made these simple cupcake toppers, cut them out, and taped them to toothpicks. The toppers are available here.

Favors:

In lieu of paper bags, I used canvas bags I had previously purchased from Amazon. They were leftover from sister’s Matilda birthday. I made a snowy owl template and traced it onto each bag with a black Sharpie, inviting guests to further decorate with these acrylic paint pens. As most guests RSVP’ed I included all their names but made sure to make a few with no names just in case. Everyone enjoyed decorating them and then filling them with pinata candy and crafts they made.

Here is the birthday girl posing with some of her presents. As you can see, our middle daughter is quite a ham! My greatest joy in creating these parties for my children is seeing all their excitement and happiness. I enjoy planning and creating with my kids and love helping them to see how we can easily make decorations and fun activities from simple everyday supplies.

My kids are still enjoying this setup. After putting away Christmas decorations, decorating for winter in general keeps our home fun and festive. The birthday girl had two friends who ended up staying the night after her party and they were inspired to add more snow and create a winter play/movie. My daughters have also spent many afternoons since rearranging everything to create a spa called The Relaxing Snowflake. The above signs were made by my eight-year-old who still needs a little work on spelling but were too cute not to share.

I create more printable activities for kids here.

To see my other kids’ parties click here.

If you use these printables or party ideas, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.

I hope this post is helpful in planning your winter celebrations and activities.