SNOW MUCH FUN!
Ideas for a winter-themed party or bat mitzvah
Despite popular belief, frosty winter is actually white hot. Think about it: what’s not to love about hot cocoa, sledding, and snow days? Plus, nothing is more breathtaking than a fresh, twinkling, powdery-white snow.
A winter wonderland theme is the perfect way to celebrate a milestone like a bar mitzvah and offers a lot of creative variety in terms of decor, food, and fun. Decorations can be done DIY, party games are as vast as the Artic, and as long as it’s warm and delicious, almost anything food can fly as far as chow goes! So, if you want your winter wonderland-themed bar mitzvah to be as cool as possible, follow these tips to ensure that your kid, and all of your guests, all have one chill time:
Food
Set up a hot chocolate fountain next to a small, decorative sleigh filled with mini-marshmallows. Trays of cookies in wintery shapes such as mittens, gingerbread men, polar bears, and snow men, will please your guests’ palates and add color to the decor, especially if you decorate them with sugar, sprinkles, and icing in colors like blue, green, pink, and white.
You have free range as far as main courses and side dishes, but it would be wise to serve warm, hearty, foods like roast beef, stuffed cabbage, roasted potatoes, sweet potato fries, and, of course, some matzo ball soup.
Decor
Stick to a simple palette utilizing whites, silvers, blues, pinks, purples, and greens. Use white chiffon tablecloths to emulate snow and toss fake snow (or white feathers) and snowflake confetti across the tabletops. Purchase or use DIY cardboard snowflakes to hang from the ceiling and scatter some of your faux snow across the floor. Hang tinsel, faux icicles, and mistletoe from table corners, entranceways, and the ceiling. Purchase fake snow online rather inexpensively; all you do is add water and you have very realistic-looking snow to spread all over the beautiful fantasy world you’re creating. Also utilize a lot of branches and pinecones. Create a grand entrance to your child’s winter wonderland by having guests enter trough a decorative arch flanked with silver, white, and blue balloons.
Games
Organize snowball relay races in either one of two ways. Give each child a straw and a “snowball,” i.e., a cotton ball. The children have to keep the snowball from falling by sucking it through the straw; whoever makes it to the finish line without dropping their snowball wins. Apply the same idea to a spoon and an ice cube — just make sure to pick up any spilled cubes! Play “freeze” by creating two to three groups of your young guests. When the DJ plays a song all the players have to dance until he calls “freeze!” Any players still moving have to leave the dance floor until only one player is left.
Set up craft tables for the kids – they can make snowmen out of marshmallows, chocolate chips, and jellybeans or snowflakes with construction paper, glue, and glitter.
Giveaways
Hand out gift cards to places like Starbucks or the local ice skating rink. Kids also adore wool winter animal hats, such as penguins, bears, cats, pigs, owls, or pandas. For smaller prizes or party favors, fill treat bags with snowflake glitter and tinsel, and include a mug personalized with your child’s name and the date of the bat mitzvah. Hot cocoa kits and winter-themed pencils and stickers, blue and green Pop Rocks, pixie sticks, and cotton candy are all great gifts as well.
By Ily Goyanes
Bar & Bat Mitzvah Guide - http://bit.ly/2dYGV0Z