So this year I am the room mom for my son's 3rd grade class, in past years I have only been 'Co-room mom' or just helped out whenever, so I have only had to plan one party throughout the year or so. But this year I have been in charge of all of them... Halloween, Christmas, and upcoming Valentines Day. For Halloween we did a Harry Potter theme, it was so much fun but I got so busy I forgot to take pictures and document everything... so I made sure to do it for this party! One of my friends is the room mom for her son's class as well so we have been getting together and doing the planning for the parties, it is nice to share the insanity (and cost) with someone ") Anyway we decided that for Christmas to do something with the beloved book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. After much brainstorming, Googling, and lots of hours cutting and crafting I am proud to share our Grinchmas celebration!
To start off, on the 1st day of December we gave all the kids these adorable booklets we printed off found on Seussville.com to get them excited and in the spirit of Christmas! In the booklet it describes the Grinchmas season as doing one good deed each day and to spread holiday cheer. They come with all sorts of ideas that the kids can do each day. I just LOVE these!
Also in the booklet we included activity sheets, a Who-Pudding recipe, and a page where the kids could help give back by mailing in 3 good deeds that had done and Random House would donate a book to a child in need in their community! How amazing is that!
To help the kids remember to be doing good deeds I also made a large Grinch for the classroom and placed him on the wall with a pile of hearts that were cut out. Throughout the month when kids saw or did random acts of kindness, they would fill out a heart of what they saw/did and place it on the Grinch to help his heart grow.
There was lots of love in that classroom by the end of the month!
The day of the classroom party I decorated the outside of the classroom to welcome the kids to Whoville for their
Whobilation Celebration!
Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze! Welcome Christmas!
When the kids came inside the Grinch and Cindy Lou were there to great them, along with some classroom presents.
The classroom was also decorated for the celebration...
one of my favorite elements were the hanging ornaments from the ceiling, they just added that extra touch that makes me smile ")
For the party the kids watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"
After the movie the kids enjoyed a Who Feast!
For the feast we served a can of Who Hash...
Our version of Who Hash was Chex Mix, pretzels, and M&M's. The can labels were designed by Food In Literature.
some delicious Who Pudding...
and a drumstick of Who Roast Beast!
Aka: bag of popcorn
Special 'Whoville Guest' chair covers
Adorable straw flags from Soiree-Event Design.
WH-2-O beverages
After the feast the kids were divided into 3 groups and rotated around to different activities.
One of the rotations was a Grinch Punch-a-bunch game.
I set up a board with holes cut out to place cups in covered with tissue paper. The cups were all pre-filled and decorated for the party and so we just swapped out used ones with new cups for each rotation of kids. The kids would punch through an ornament and inside would be a question about the movie/book and a prize.
There were 2 different prizes they could win, one was a bag of green sixlet Grinch pills
and the other was a Grinch 'licked' candy cane ")
The next rotation station was a Grinch ornament craft for the kids to make. These were so adorable and easy to do!
The kids each got a clear ornament and swirled green paint inside. We had Grinch vinyl faces that the kids put on the outside of the ornaments, then colored the eyes yellow with a paint marker, and hot glued (an adult did the gluing) a strip of green feather boa around the top.
Then they flipped them over and put a heart sticker on the back and attached a tag with an ornament hook.
The last rotation was a photo booth were they could take fun pictures with their friends.
The Grinchmas banner was also from Make It Festive on Etsy, thanks again so much Mandy!
Thanks Kim and Lori from That's So Creative for sharing the wonderful props and inspiration!
Here are a few poses from some of the kids that I am friends with their mothers and they gave me permission to post
their kids picture...
There are so many other fantastic Grinch themed games, food ideas, and parties you could include or change for your own celebrations but I hope you enjoyed seeing our class party and wish you all a
very Merry Grinchmas!
Tips: This party was actually not too expensive. I used rolls of wrapping paper on sale from Hobby Lobby for the table runners, chair covers, photo backdrop and other areas; parents donated all the food for the feast; we used butcher paper from the school to make the whoville arch, whoville characters and grinches; the booklets were free printables and we bound them at the school as well; clear ornaments, paint, feather boas, paper straws, and ribbon were also on sale at Hobby Lobby; and all the cups, tissue paper, poster board and other little various items
were from the dollar store.
