Colourful Holi Party Ideas For Kids

Holi, the ultimate festival of colours, is a beautiful way to celebrate the arrival of spring in India. Young or old, shy or bold – everybody loves to get smeared with colours on Holi! While that’s one way to celebrate this joyous festival, we also suggest that you arrange for some fun Holi games for kids to keep them occupied indoors.

It may be tempting to simply let your kids go out with the crowd on the roads and have fun splashing colours and squirting water on each other. However, it may not always be safe for the little ones, especially when the crowd gets rowdy.

Additionally, chemically engineered colours can trigger rashes and allergies in your kid’s sensitive skin. Your best bet is to plan some games for the Holi party and let your kids have fun with colours in a safe and controlled environment.

This fest of vibrancy presents you with the wonderful opportunity to try innovative Holi party ideas for kids. But before we begin, a few words of caution –

• Use natural colours. You can even make your own DIY Holi Colours.
• Don’t let the colours get into the eyes and mouths of your kids.
• Water-filled balloons should be avoided by younger children as they can cause injury. Older children should exercise caution while playing with water-filled balloons, and NOT aim at delicate body parts.
• Do not forcibly pull unwilling children to participate in the fun.

Holi Games and Party Ideas for Kids

1. Rainbow Rain Dance

One of the Holi games ideas that would surely be a hit amongst the young ones is the Rainbow Rain Dance. The venue has to be an open space like an outdoor garden or the terrace of your building. Make the area safe by getting your patio furniture and plants out of the way and ensuring that the area is secured by boundaries.  Play the best Holi special songs in the background and you’re all set.

You can use any tools such as pichkaris (water guns), buckets, tumblers, plastic cups, sprinklers, garden hose and inflatable swimming pools, or even hang shower-heads surrounding the party area. Start the rain dance, and allow your kids to throw and splash water on each other to their heart’s content. However, supervise closely and follow some safety rules.

2. Holi Photo Booth

Hang a plain white cloth (roughly the size of a bedsheet) in an open space. Ask kids to go mad and splash all kinds of colours on the cloth. They can decorate it however they want – splash colours, draw graffiti, doodle, leave hand or footprints, etc. Once everyone is done, hang a sign that says ‘Happy Holi’ on top of the cloth, and your Holi photo booth is ready!

3. Bring Out The Little Picasso

This Holi festival game will not only be loads of fun but will also encourage creativity in your kids. Arrange finger painting or Rangoli drawing competitions amongst kids of the same age group. You will need an empty hall or an outdoor space like a terrace for this game too. For the finger painting competition, spread large sheets of canvas or opaque, white plastic sheets on the floor and ask the tiny Picassos to draw and paint something with their fingers dipped in colours.

You can give them acrylic or oil paints, but ensure that the kids follow the safety rules. Rangoli competition should on the vacant floor. Let the kids form groups of 3-4 members and ask them to draw vibrant rangolis in groups. It’d be even more fun if these competitions have some theme. Reward every child to boost their confidence. Make sure that once they are done, the kids wash their hands properly.

4. Colour-Themed Snacks

Let’s face it – snacks and drinks are the main attraction of any party! So why not go crazy with a colour theme for your Holi party snacks? You can either pick a single colour and work recipes that include different shades of the colour, or you can simply organise your food in such a way that it looks colour-sorted.

5. Face Painting

No doubt Holi is about colours, but it is also a festival of reconnecting with the child within you and finding joy in being silly! So this game, meant for children and parents, is bound to put a smile on everyone’s face!

Pair children up with their parents – mom or dad, whoever is available and willing to get a little messy. Arrange for poster paints, watercolours, water, and paintbrush. Then, ask children to paint their mom’s or dad’s face! To make this more exciting, you can give children a theme and clock the competition, giving them each 3 minutes to paint their parent’s face.

6. Little Chef in The House

The kitchen is usually forbidden territory for most children. But with this Holi game idea, you can allow your children to enjoy Holi and make snack time fun! After all, what is a party without colourful snacks?

The idea is simple: either children can whip up their own original dish and make it as colourful as possible, or you can give children a ‘base’ food (such as a plain cake, or vanilla ice-cream, or a plain pizza base, etc.) and ask them to add colourful toppings to the food to decorate it (making a beautiful Holi themed cake, a colourful ice-cream sundae, or a finger-licking pizza respectively!). This can turn into a competition too, with the judging criteria being how colourful the final recipe is!

7. Dress Code

Holi is about forgetting your sophistication and going a little mad! So why not insist everyone come dressed in white clothes? There is something very satisfying about spoiling a perfectly white t-shirt or a pair of shorts! We mothers are always after our kids, scolding them every time they drop food or other things on their clothes. Imagine their glee when they realise they do not have to worry about it on Holi! Yay!

8. Colourful Party Favours

While pictures are great, other kinds of more tangible memorabilia can make your party exciting. So, create a party favour hamper for all children that come to the party. Make it colourful with stationery supplies, candy, and other bright and colourful things!

9. Race to Colour

This game for the Holi party is less-messy and can be played by kids and parents alike. Keep buckets filled with coloured water at the starting line and an equal number of empty buckets at the finish line. Give a plastic cup to each child and ask them to fill their cups with coloured water and race to the finish line to pour the water from the cups into the empty buckets, until the buckets are filled.

The challenge is to spill as little water while running as fast as possible to the finish line. However, the fun twist here is that the winner gets all the buckets of coloured water poured on him. Make sure both the winners and losers get to sample delicious Holi recipes!

10. DIY Holi T-shirt

Little minds are all about imagination and creativity. This Holi, let your kids create a unique DIY Holi t-shirt for themself. Allow your little ones to make something innovative and full of colours and patterns. This activity will surely lift their festivity spirit!

11. Awards

One exciting way to make children participate in all activities planned for them is by organising awards! At the end of the party, you can declare awards like ‘Most Colourful Outfit Award’, ‘Messiest Kid Award’, etc. to the kids.

12. Different Take on Pichkaris

We all love pichkaris and cannot imagine celebrating Holi without one. But here is a unique game to liven things up with pickari-juice game. You need to fill small pickaris with fruit juice instead of water, and kids will be divided into pairs and have to squirt juice from the pichkaris into each other’s mouths. The first one to finish all the juice will win the game.

These are just a few fun Holi party ideas for kids. You can always experiment and innovate with these and come up with some versions of your own. But remember to be safe, clean and lenient with your kids, for them to have real Holi fun that they will remember for a long time. Be safe and have a Happy Holi!

Also Read:

Mouth-Watering Holi Sweets Recipes
Best Holi Gifts for Your Loved Ones
Effective Ways for Making Natural Holi Colours at Home