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Gnomes Galore! It’s Christmas time and gnomes start popping up all over the place! So, what better way to celebrate than to include these ever-present holiday dressed woodland creatures 🙂 Whether you have a ton of gnomes around the house or are just building up your Holiday Gnome collection, these kid and family friendly ideas will be perfect additions to your party! From simple gnome themed snacks to gnome searches and treasure hunts, read through to check out our easy and budget-friendly ideas!
PARTY DECORATIONS
What better way to decorate a gnome-themed Christmas party than with Christmas Gnomes 🙂
What exactly are Gnomes? Well, they’re woodland creatures that are typically characterized with large hats that cover their eyes, fluffy and full beards, and a prominent big oval nose. And for whatever reason, they’ve become extremely popular around the Holiday season, so you can definitely find them in dollar stores, craft stores, and around most holiday decorations!
If you’ve got the time and want to keep your little ones busy, you can craft a few homemade gnomes and set those up all around the party area! A quick search on the internet and you can find several easy crafts, from sock gnomes to paper plates with cotton balls and more!
THE TABLE
We decorated our table with a few gnome themed plates, mini stuffed gnomes, and a few gnome themed boxes from the Dollar Tree. We also set up a Wooden Gnome at each table setting, which the kids used later on for a craft.
We also created some very basic gnome images and had those scattered around the tables and party area. BUT while they may have looked like regular decorations, they were actually part of a party game 😉
PHOTO AREA
Photo backdrops are a great way of setting a theme and double as a nice and easy activity! Pick a backdrop that functions as decorative, add a few props to the scene and you’ve got a great place to hang out!
For this party, we picked a Gnomes Backdrop and set up some of our DIY Snow Blocks on the floor. The snow blocks are such a hit! If you have some time to wrap a few large package, kitchen, or shoe boxes, the little ones will LOVE building with them! If you have any gnomes, tree stumps, or tree stump pillows, bring them all out! If you want to get a bit more into the gnome spirit, then a Gnome Cutout Banner might just do the trick 🙂
SNACKS & PARTY FOOD
No party is complete without some party food! And themed-snacks and goodies will go great with the party!
Should we start with what gnomes eat? A quick search and it looks like they’ll eat mostly garden veggies or fruit (makes sense, they’re woodland creatures 🙂 ). So, a spread of some of the yummies veggies and fruit would be perfect!
You could also have a few DIY gnome treats and let the kiddos create their own!
- Strawberry Gnomes: this one is a classic strawberry and whipped cream pairing! Swirl some whipped cream on a plate and top it off with a strawberry “Santa” hat.
- Ice Cream Gnomes: for all the ice cream lovers, scoop up some vanilla and top it off with a sugar cone! (Or for a slightly neater version, prep some large marshmallows and cones to let the kiddos pick their own ice cream!
ACTIVITY TABLE
We typically set up an activity table for kids to keep entertained while everyone arrives AND after all the games are done. These activities are simple and easy and typically don’t require too much supervision!
- Christmas Gnome Stickers Sheets – These are just stickers with gnomes and other Christmas themed stickers. Lay out some construction paper and crayons & let them build out their own Gnome scenes!
- Wooden Gnome Painting – This one is a great paint pen activity. If your little ones and guests haven’t used paint pens, they’ll love exploring this method of painting/coloring. The paint pens are also less messier since you’re not using palettes or tubs of liquid paint. Markers would work too, though the colors don’t show as nicely.
GAMES
Games! Games! Games! What is a party without a few games 🙂 We had a few simple ones that kept the kiddos busy throughout the party!
- Balloon Gnome Races: dress up some balloons as gnomes, attach them to a straw, and let them glide down a string! See who’s balloon gets the farthest, fastest! Note: We did try to dress up our balloons with some construction paper and cotton balls but those were quickly passed over for just drawing with markers (‘too much drag’ when sending their gnomes across the room – nice bit of learning fun in there 🙂 )
- Finding Gnomes – If you have a good number of gnome decorations, you could ask the guests to find as many as they can. We didn’t have enough to make a ‘Search for all the Gnomes’ game fun enough, so we created a few basic gnome images. If you’re in a similar boat, print out a few gnomes, hide them all around the party area, and see who can find the most! Note: Feel free to use the gnome images for your own personal use, link back here, and/or save the post 🙂
- Christmas Gnome Treasure Hunt – Save the best for last! Whenever possible, we add a treasure hunt or escape room at the end and this party was no different! This one takes guests along a search to find some Christmas or Winter friends so the Christmas Gnome can celebrate with them! Click here to check out the full details!
GNOME SEARCH
For this gnome search, you can print out as many of the gnome images as you’d like. (Again, feel free to use the gnome images for your own personal use, link back here, and/or save the post). The actual answer for the sheet will depend on how many you’ve printed 😉
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for checking out our holiday article. Hopefully this has helped or maybe even inspired more ideas! If so, we’d love to hear it! Let us know in the comments below or follow us on Pinterest.
Also, if you’re looking for other Holiday Ideas, check out our other posts here!
Happy Creating & Happy Holidays!
