Holiday parties are both incredibly fun and incredibly
stressful, particularly if you have kids. Keeping them entertained for hours at
a time is difficult enough, but add in the necessity for them to be on their
best behavior around your adult friends and family members seems to complicate
matters. Not to worry, however: there are several fun and cheap ways to
entertain the kids during your holiday parties!

Holiday Movie

If you have a DVR, then in the days leading up to the party,
schedule it to record any kids-appropriate holiday films. Netflix is another
alternative (consider adding the DVD option for the month of December if the
streaming selection isn’t enough). Most video rental places (including the
former megastore, Blockbuster) are closed nowadays, but streaming options are
more varied than ever, so hold it to a democratic vote amongst the kids to
decide which holiday movie to watch during the party.

Arts & Crafts

For younger kids, coloring books (or pages printed from the
Internet, if you don’t want to buy a book) are the cheapest and least messy
ways to keep them entertained. If they’re prone to boredom, have them host an
art show for the adult party attendees later on in the evening and distribute
prizes based on different artwork categories (they’ll likely be a lot more
focused on creating a masterpiece when you add that competitive element).

Older kids can enjoy other artistic pursuits, such as
homemade vases (in school, I tore up tiny pieces of masking tape, put them on
empty Snapple bottles, and dyed it after it was fully covered), iron-on beadwork, and more. Most of these require some materials upfront, but your local
craft stores or SumoCoupon likely
offer some coupons to help you lower the cost of art supplies.

Games

Typical kids’ games such as Tag or Hide-and-Seek are highly
impractical for holiday parties, where there are fancy heels to trip over or
champagne glasses to knock over. Instead, encourage the kids to play charades
or leave them with a plethora of board games to play with (this generally works
better with older kids, since the younger ones may not have the attention span
to play for more than half an hour or so).

Personally, Apples to
Apples is one of my favorite games to play at any party, but sometimes the
topics can go over the heads of the 18-and-younger players. Luckily, there’s Apples to Apples Junior or Apples to Apples: Kid Edition. For a
game that accommodates up to 10 players, dropping $20 on a box of Apples to Apples is a relatively small
investment compared to the hours of enjoyment kids will get out of this game
while the adults mingle in the main hub of the party. 

Kelly Kehoe is a staff writer for Money Street Smart and works with SumoCoupon.com, a site full coupons and coupon codes.