Memorial Day is just around the corner and it's one day or weekend that is often filled with friends and families that get together to enjoy the outdoors. Everyone loves a good picnic with good food and fellowship. It's also a time to reflect and honor those who have served our country. Adding Memorial Day themed games or activities to play with guests will help everyone have an exciting day. There are many traditional games that can be played. Volleyball and horseshoes for the adults or balloon toss, Red Light Green Light and a sack race for the kids are certainly old favorites. But here are a few games to help your party have that special Memorial Day theme.
Pin the Beard On Uncle Sam - This game is played just like Pin the Tail on The Donkey. Instead of a donkey you use Uncle Sam. Either print from the internet or purchase a picture of Uncle Sam. Glue the rough side of Velcro on the picture where his beard is located. You can use a strip of Velcro or several depending on how difficult you want the game to be. Then you make a beard using felt and cotton balls. Cut the felt into the shape of a beard and then glue the cotton balls to one side of the felt. The felt should stick to the rough side of the Velcro, but if you're concerned it won't, then you can glue the soft side to the back of the felt. The best part about this game, you can use it again the Fourth of July.
Search for the Stars - This is a Treasure Hunt game that can be used indoors or outdoors. You can make a flag out of cardboard and either paint or color the blue rectangular background and red & white stripes or again glue felt to a piece of cardboard. You can also purchase poster board and paint or color with markers. The key is to forget the stars. The stars are next! Purchase white stars, plastic ones are sold at most craft stores, or make your stars out of felt, white cardboard or other materials that can be glued or taped to your flag. Just make sure that the stars are an appropriate size and will fit on your flag. Remember the smaller the flag, the smaller the stars and the game will be more difficult. Before your guests arrive, hide the stars in your yard or throughout the house. You can set a time limit or just have guests be on the lookout for the stars. Collect them all and complete your flag.
Poppy Pick Up - This is very similar to an Easter Egg Hunt, only you don't really need to hide the Poppies. Purchase artificial poppy flowers from your local craft store. You can run the game in two different ways. If you know approximately how many guests will be attending your Memorial Day party, split your guests into teams. Purchase an equal amount of different colored poppies and when it's time spread the poppies throughout your yard. Give each team one basket and assign them a color. The team that picks up all of their poppies of the same color the quickest wins. Or if you don't want to split your guests into teams, purchase poppies of all the same color and the guest picks up the most poppies wins. With this version you can divide the guests by age group so that everyone can have an equal chance to win. If you find that purchasing artificial poppies is too expensive you can always make them yourself. There are multiple poppy making ideas available with a quick search of the internet.
Guests of all ages will enjoy these games and your entire Memorial Day Celebration. And don't forget, they can easily be used on Fourth of July or Veteran's Day. Nothing is better than tasty food, laughter and a few games to bring everyone together.