Hosting a winter birthday party is often challenging since you’re limited to indoor venues, but don’t let that stop you from planning a fun celebration this year. The Chicago area boasts plenty of indoor locations perfect for all types of gatherings. With a little planning, it’s easy to put together a few entertainment options to make your party one to remember.
Pequod’s Pizza Birthday Parties
Happy Birthday Cake Cupcake Toppers by GlitterandFrills is licensed with CC BY 2.0
Are you looking for an indoor venue for a child’s birthday party? Try Pequod’s Pizza and choose either its Lincoln Park or Morton Grove location. Pequod’s is friendly, down-to-earth, and fun, making it the perfect spot to celebrate birthdays for kids of all ages, from toddlers to teens.
For small celebrations, feel free to grab a table and enjoy. For larger gatherings, reserve Pequod’s party room, which can accommodate up to 50 people for up to three hours. The room boasts three flat-screen TVs, several large leather booths, and an entertainment center. Choose a party special that includes unlimited pizza and soda, or invite your guests to order directly from the menu.
Whale Tale
Why let the kids have all the fun? Adults deserve to celebrate too, and Whale Tale, a restaurant and bar, is the perfect venue for almost any kind of get-together. Located just steps away from Pequod Pizza’s Lincoln Park location, Whale Tale features party rooms perfect for private events of up to 50 people.
During your party, enjoy Whale Tale’s substantial beer list, which includes several beers on tap, such as Blue Moon Belgian White, Goose Island 312, and Spiteful Pequod IPA. You’ll find bottled beer, an extensive wine list, and several cocktails on the menu.
Children’s Birthday Party Ideas
You’ve made your guest list and decided on a location. Now it’s time to plan the entertainment.
Solve a Mystery
Kids love a good mystery to solve, so why not consider a mystery-themed party? For a simple activity, make mystery bags using brown paper lunch sacks. Place a different object in each sack, then invite the children to reach into the sacks and guess what’s inside. The child with the highest number of correct guesses wins. Nemours Reading BrightStart! has many fun ideas for mystery bag items.
Spy crafts also go along well with a mystery theme. Supply the materials needed to make toilet paper roll binoculars, pretend cameras, or invisible ink. For the cake, consider one shaped like a question mark, magnifying glass, or trench coat. You could even hide the cake and come up with clues to help the kids find it.
Dance the Day Away
Let your young guests burn off some energy by hosting a dance-themed party. Freeze dance is a fun game that gets kids moving in a controlled manner. Turn on some tunes. When the music stops playing, everyone freezes. Need a little quiet time? Require silence as well. Anyone still moving or talking when the music stops must sit down until the next game. The winner is the last one standing.
Another fun indoor idea is to teach the new generation some older dance moves. The Twist and the Mashed Potato are some fun ones from the 60s. For the 70s, try the Hustle, and for the 80s, consider the Running Man or the Electric Slide. YouTube features lots of dance tutorials if you need some help.
Get Crafty
Kids enjoy creating, so consider a craft-themed party. To make it fun for everyone, choose activities the children can do on their own that require little adult assistance, depending on the age of your party guests.
Candy Bracelets
For kids to make candy bracelets, supply thread and candy with holes, such as Lifesavers. You could also opt for cereal, such as Cheerios, or even pretzels if you’d like to limit the kids’ sugar intake. Have the kids string the candy onto the thread to create their bracelets.
Photo Booth Props
Photo booth props are easy to make, and the kids can use them to pose for pictures when they’re done. Before the party, photocopy props, such as mustaches, goggles, and hats, onto colorful cardstock. Then have the kids cut them out and pose for some cute photos.
Marshmallow Tower
To build marshmallow towers, give each child several toothpicks and marshmallows. The bigger the structure they want to build, the more toothpicks and marshmallows they’ll need. Set a timer for 15 minutes and see who can build the tallest tower. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a contest. You may prefer to let the kids work together and see what they create when they work as a team.
Party Games for Adults
For adult celebrations, simple is often better, so if you’d rather not plan a theme, put together a few party games instead.
Pictionary
Pictionary was inspired by Charades and is a good way to get people talking to each other. You’ll need paper, pens, and markers. If you have several participants, divide your guests into teams. Assign one person from each team a word or phrase and have them draw clues to help their team members guess the right answer. Everyone calls out what they think the answer might be until someone guesses correctly. Here’s an online Pictionary word generator to get you started.
Would You Rather?
Would You Rather? is a good game for small groups. During each round, one person asks a Would You Rather? question, and the rest of the group takes turns answering. For example, a question might be, “Would you rather eat at a restaurant alone or go to the movies alone?” The goal is to spark conversation and help people get to know each other better. If you need some good questions to ask, Ponly has many examples.
We here at Pequod’s Pizza hope you found these birthday party ideas helpful. If you have some additional suggestions, let us know, and when you’re ready to start planning your next celebration, please give us a call or send us an email. We hope to hear from you soon.