The gift bow… a decoration on a package that makes it look nice for a few minutes and is then discarded. Maybe it gets put on someone’s head if there are kids around, but generally, it’s a short life for the gift bow.
While wrapping gifts I realized I have a bag of gift bows that never get much use. I don’t even know why I have them. But it got me thinking…I’m always looking for easy activities to keep my kids occupied on the days leading up to Christmas. It’s an added bonus if the activities turn into family competitions too.
Check out these fun games using gift bows. The rules can be easily adapted for any age group, or simplified for a fun learning activity for toddlers.
For all of these games you just need gift bows, bowls, and some blue tape (or thick ribbon).
Gift Bow Minefield
Materials: lots of gift bows, blindfold
How to Play: Toss all the bows on the floor! Then, in bare feet, tiptoe through the bows without stepping on any of them. You can try this blindfolded or race each other to get through quickly.
Bow Balance
Materials: a few gift bows
How to Play: place a bow on top of your head. While it is balancing, walk across the room (or the bow minefield!). Try balancing bows on your shoulders, back of your hands, back, etc.
Gift Bow Bowl Catch
Materials: lots of gift bows, two large bowls (think popcorn bowls)
How to Play: two people stand a few feet apart, one has an empty bowl and the other has a bowl full of gift bows. Toss the bows (all at once) to the other person to catch in their bowl. Whatever they catch, they toss back (all at once). Continue tossing back and forth until no bows are left.
Add Difficulty: you can up the challenge on this game by making each person step back every time they catch bows
Bow Stacking
Materials: a couple gift bows
How to Play: super simple – see how many gift bows you can stack on top of each other
Gift Bow Line Up
Materials: a couple gift bows, blue painter’s tape (or a wide ribbon)
How to Play: create a tape line suspended above the ground (e.g., between kitchen cabinets, across two chairs, etc.) and then try to balance the bows on the tape line. It’s a bit trickier than it seems.
Make it Easier: small kids might struggle with this so try getting them to stick the bows to the sticky underside of the tape
Tape Net Toss
Materials: a couple gift bows, blue painter’s tape
How to Play: start with two tape lines suspended above the ground (like for Gift Bow Line Up) and then add cross pieces of tape to make a net. Purposefully leave some holes big enough for a bow to fall through. Then stand a feet back and toss the bows onto the net. See how many you can get to stay in the net.
Add Difficulty: give each player gift bows of one color, then they can try to knock out the other person’s bows from the net and score based on color.
Did you try to play?
These games are great for near Christmas time but you could also use them any time you find yourself with a lot of gift bows – birthday party, baby shower, bridal shower, anything!
Let me know if you tried any of these games and what you liked best.
