12 Of The Best Kids Birthday Party Games

An endless array of crowd-pleasing games is a children’s birthday party prerequisite. While they are captivating for kids, they can be painstaking for parents!

When it comes to kids birthday party entertainment, you have two choices. You can:
1. Hire someone to keep the children amused or
2. DIY with great kids birthday party games

If your budget allows and you are able to hire a superhero or a fairy to help with the fun, then you are all set! A good entertainer will keep the children on their toes and completely entranced with a variety of different party games and activities. Check out some of our favourite party entertainers.

However, if your budget doesn’t stretch that far, or your child’s birthday party has fewer kids, you can easily entertain them with some clever birthday party games. Check out this list of Kids Birthday Party Games for kids of all ages. Most of them can be tailored to fit in with your kids birthday party theme, so get a little creative and your little one will have the best birthday party ever!

Birthday Party Games for 2-3 year olds

Balloon Fun
What you’ll need: Balloons, Space to play
Blow up lots of colourful balloons and let children loose in the garden or at an enclosed playground. They will have lots of fun throwing, catching and kicking them. As an alternative you can let them play balloon volleyball by stringing up a rope between two trees and let children hit the balloon over the rope.

Frozen Water Play
What you’ll need: A large container, balloons of various shapes, food colouring, eye droppers
Fill balloons of different shapes with water and place them in the freezer for a couple of days. On the day of the kids birthday party, cut away the balloon, leaving the frozen shape. Place the iced shapes into your children’s wading pool or even baby bath. The children will have lots of fun dropping food colouring onto the frozen ice bergs with the eye dropper and watching the colours change

Jump The Rope
What you’ll need: A long rope, a small cushion or a sock half filled with rice, dried beans or sand
Tie the cushion or sock onto the end of the rope. Swing the rope around you slightly above the ground and the children try to jump the rope as it comes around. Start swinging it slowly at first until they master the skill.

Birthday Party Games for 4-6 year olds

Dressing Fast
What you’ll need: Dress-up clothes (mum and dad’s old clothes works well)
Give each child a pile of similar clothes. When you say “Go” they must run to their pile, put them on over their own clothes and do up all the buttons. Whoever finishes first, wins. If you wish to extend the game, you can add extra tasks to it. For example, once dressed, the child must run to a tree and back.

Musical Jars
What you’ll need: Similar empty glass bottles or coffee jars, metal spoons
Leave one bottle empty, then fill the others with varying amounts of water and fill one completely. You can add a little food colouring to the water to make the water level easy to see. Let the children experiment with different sounds the bottles make by tapping them with the spoons.

Clothes Peg Races
What you’ll need: 10 pegs per team, a clothes line strung between two chairs
Divide children into teams of two. Each team has a container with ten pegs. When you say “Go” the first team member has to clip their pegs onto the line. They can only use one hand (the other hand is behind their back). Once all the pegs are on the line, the second player has to take them off (also with one hand) and put them back in the container.

Birthday Party Games for 7-9 year olds

Treasure Hunt
What you’ll need: Paper and pen for writing clues, treasures
Hide clues around your house or backyard, with each clue leading the children closer to the prize. This game can be easily adapted to your kids’ birthday party theme. For example, if you are having a pirate party, create a treasure chest from a paper box and fill it with costume jewellery and coins. If you have more than 8 children, divide them into teams and create separate sets of clues leading to different locations

Three Legged Races
What you’ll need: Stockings or scarves, long rope for the finish line
An oldie but a goodie! Tie one person’s right ankle to the other person’s left ankle. Get them to practice walking together until they are used to the rhythm. Establish a starting line and a finish line. When you say “Go”, each team must get to the finish line without falling over.

Sweet Sucker
What you’ll need: Small lollies (like M&Ms or skittles), small bowls, straws
Give each child two small bowls and a straw. One of the bowls should be filled with small lollies and the other bowl should be empty. When you say “Go”, the children must suck the lollies onto the end of the straw and transfer them to the other bowl.

Birthday Party Games for 10+ year olds

Balloon Bulls Eye
What you’ll need: Balloons
Give every child a balloon to blow up and ask them to hold the neck of the balloon shut with their finger. Place a target in the middle of the floor and on the count of three, everyone releases their balloon. Whichever balloon is closest to the target wins

Guess Who
What you’ll need: Pieces of paper, a pen, sticky tape or safety pins
Write the names of several famous people on to pieces of paper. Pin a famous name on the children’s backs and let them work out who they are by asking questions such as “Am I female?” or “Am I a movie star?”. They can only ask one question at a time and receive yes/no answers. Whoever discovers the identity of their famous person with the least number of questions is the winner.

Musical Chairs
What you’ll need: Chairs, music
Most 10+ year olds love music, so this is a great game to play at their party. Set up the chairs in two rows, back to back (one less chair than the number of players). Turn on the music and let the players dance around the chairs. When the music stops, the children must race to sit in the available chairs. Whoever is left standing is out of the game. In the next round, remove a chair, start the music and the walk begins. Whoever is the last person left in the game wins.

There you have it! Birthday parties are much more fun if you have a few kids birthday party games planned. So get your shopping list out and your game plan ready for a stress-free birthday party your child will never forget!

To ensure your party goes as smoothly as possible, check out our Kids Birthday Party Checklist.

Written by our roving reporter Ivana Katz