Nutcracker Party {Bookish Birthdays}

This Nutcracker party may be one of my favorites!

Five and a half years ago when I found out my due date with Baby #2 was mid-December I was instantly worried about my poor kid who would be brushed aside in the holiday frenzy. Turns out he came a week and a half early, December 4th, and his birthday has been the MOST FUN! Each year his birthday is mingled with cookies and tree decorating and festivities! I’ve made sure that we have birthday parties that are dedicated to him and aren’t a “combo,” but the parties have had seasonal themes that are a blast to plan and execute!

Last year we had a gingerbread party and the year before a Corduroy theme. This year it was a Nutcracker party! We keep it super small, mostly family, but with “birthday boy-planned” games and food. My kids actually plan their parties starting about six months before their birthdays because they LOVE brainstorming games to play, themes, and decorations! My new 5 year old decided on the Nutcracker theme 100% himself… “so we can do a battle at my party”…. I’ll just leave that right there.  But battle we did!

For our at-home parties, we usually follow the same general outline:

• craft while everyone is arriving
• storytime
• active games
• food
• more games

Here’s how that went down for our Nutcracker theme:

Craft– choice of coloring pages or sewing project.

I got the coloring sheets from Twinkl. I had previously signed up for a free account and was able to download these. NOT an affiliate link! 🙂 There are lots of coloring sheets on google search!

I had used my Silhouette cutting machine to make the holes in cardstock paper for these Christmas tree weaving crafts. This was not an easy craft– many of the kids needed one-on-one help. But they are darling and the older kids did great (7yo or so). I tried doing this with a handheld hole punch first and in order to do it that way, I had to cut the paper in a triangle shape because it wouldn’t reach (see the smaller one in the right corner of the pic above). I also needed needles with jumbo eyes to fit the yarn through (aff). We used pony beads as ornaments/lights.

Storytime. I don’t know how many more parties I’ll get away with doing storytime, but I did this year! We read this beautiful version of The Nutcracker with illustrations by Susan Jeffers (aff). You might like to look at my post of our favorite Nutcracker books here!

Then, we did a quick retelling/picture walk as I handed out parts, attached onto a yarn necklace for our actors and actresses. Next, they role played the story as I read the text again; I paused at the end of each page to play a snippet from the music by Tchaikovsky as they acted/danced/battled. Super fun!

Games! Birthday Bookworm came up with two games that were both a HIT! First, we played Spot the Difference, and Spot the Similarities. We broke up into two teams and the kids had one minute to brainstorm as many things as they could that were DIFFERENT about the nutcrackers in our collection. Then, we repeated with one minute to spot similarities. Yes, they included things like they have hats 🙂

The second game is a variation of “Hide the Thimble” which we’ve been playing at co-op during our history class– this game dates back to the colonial era! In our version, kids took turns being the “hider” of a mini (ornament size) nutcracker while the rest of the kids left the room. The hider must put the nutcracker in a visible place; when the seekers find it, they must NOT make a sound but silently sit down. This was a nice quiet game 🙂

After some food, we settled down to watch the first half of the Nutcracker on Youtube! Our favorite version is from 1993 and stars Macaulay Caulkin. There’s some narration at the start to help grab their attention and set the (literal) stage.

And finally, we handed out these adorable favors! From the Dollar Tree! Score! I made the tags myself. You can download them here as a jpg file. (I made them on transparent background so you can print on any color you like. I used “kraft” cardstock.)

Thanks for reading about our “nutty” fun! I did consider having the kids crack some nuts… my own two kids have LOVED that so much and it’s occupied them for hours! Didn’t think that was a party activity, though. LOL.

Would you host a nutcracker party?? Connect with me in the comments below or on my Instagram or Facebook accounts! Two links labeled (aff) above are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.