The Party Edit

From dream party themes to brilliant birthday party ideas and star interviews, inspiration for every event starts here!

How to Decorate for Halloween

Halloween is almost here and for many kids it's the most exciting time of the year. From transforming into favorite characters to heading out for trick-or-treating with candy buckets [...]

Birthdays, crafts

Free Craft Activity: Hoopla Party Game Fun

Hoopla is an excellent game for kids of all ages to play. Perfect for parties or whenever they want to have fun. We’ve designed a colorful hoopla game for them to create, easily made from paper card and paper straws. We also reveal our favourite classic party games, which we know you’ll love too. Make the Hoopla Game Who can get the highest score? This is an amusing traditional game for the kids to make and play. Click here to download the template. You will need: A printer, paper and card, glue, scissors, sticky tape, 5 paper straws (cut to a length of 5.5 inches/14 cm. We’ve got a great range of glittery and striped straws, see here.) and pencil and putty (or any tool for making holes in the card). How to Make: Step 1: Print out the template for the base and the hoops, and glue them onto the card. Step 2: To attach the straws, pierce holes into the base where the X’s are marked by placing a piece of putty underneath and pushing through a pencil. Make sure the holes are big enough for the paper straws.Step 3: Push the straws through the holes by approximately half an inch. Cut three slits into the bottom of each straw and fan out the slits. Tape them down flat to the underside of the base piece so that the straw stands upright. Repeat this until you have stuck down all 5 straws. To make the straws extra secure, you could glue an extra piece of card to the underside of the base.Step 4: Cut out the hoops and now you’re ready to play! Each straw is worth a different number of points. Each player throws their 4 hoops and writes down their score. Whoever scores the most points after all the players have had their turn, wins! The 3 Most Fun Party Games Ever! Our hoopla game will be a highlight of your party. Here are some other traditional games we love too – which can all have a different twist if you want to match your party theme. 1. Pin the Tail on the Donkey We’re sure you know this classic game, where blindfolded children stick a paper tail on a picture of a tail-less donkey, and the winner is the child who gets it as close to the point where the tail should be. But, have you considered tweaking this game to match your party theme? For example, ‘pin the jewel on the tiara’ for a princess party or ‘pin the patch on the pirate’ for a pirate party. Let your imagination flow! 2. Memory Game A great game to play when the kids need a bit of quiet time, or at the end of the party to get calm before they head home (parents will thank you for this!). All you need is a tray filled with memorable objects, along with a pen and paper for each child. You can make the objects match your party theme. For example, if you’re having a mermaid party, then all the objects can be underwater themed like seaweed (green tissue paper), fish candies, fish scales (sequins), a seashell and plastic whales/dolphins and turtles. Place the tray with objects in the centre of the table and set a timer for one minute to let the kids gaze at it and memorise everything. When the minute is up, remove the tray and everyone has to write down as many objects as they can remember. The child who remembers the most is the winner. 3. Musical statues and bumps Get the kids to burn off their party excitement with lots of musical games. For this, you’ll need a funky playlist, check out our Meri Meri Summer of Fun Playlist on Spotify. For musical statues, put the music on and get the kids to show off their most impressive dance moves. They then need to keep statue-still when the music stops and they’re out if they wobble. Keep playing until one person, the winner, is left. And have you tried musical bumps? Instead of standing still the players have to sit down quickly when the music stops. The last person to sit down is out. You could make this even more relevant to your party theme by getting the children to sit in special areas. For example, if you’re having a space party divide the room into the ‘Moon’, Neptune’ and ‘Mars’ zones. Tell the children to sit in a specific zone when the music stops, varying the zone each time. This will cause lots of running about which will wear the little darlings out! And have you tried musical bumps? Instead of standing still the players have to sit down quickly when the music stops. The last person to sit down is out. You could make this even more relevant to your party theme by getting the children to sit in special areas. For example, if you’re having a space party divide the room into the ‘Moon’, Neptune’ and ‘Mars’ zones. Tell the children to sit in a specific zone when the music stops, varying the zone each time. This will cause lots of running about which will wear the little darlings out!Make your birthday parties even more special with fabulous tableware and decorations. We’ve got many fantastic ranges with popular themes like unicorns, space, princesses, mermaids, pirates and knights. Or you can never go wrong with a Happy Birthday themed party! Check out our range, which includes colorful and pastel choices.