Hosting Your Own Winter Olympics

Keep the kids busy this half term by creating and hosting your own Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics will kick off tomorrow in Beijing, why not gather the family and create your version of the Winter Olympics in your house. Pair off in teams or compete as an individual for that coveted gold medal. Taking part will get the kids interested in the Olympic Games. We are here to help and have put together everything you need to make a fun event. Good luck!

Opening Ceremony

Let the games begin ... with an official Opening Ceremony. Let each team parade through the house proudly bearing their flag — either a national flag, a creative team flag, or a family flag you create together. Use poster board or coloured fabric for your flag’s base, and decorate your flag with markers, felt cut-outs, or pictures. Add elements that show your family’s culture and traditions, symbols that represent your family, or just stick to fun designs. Feel free to be creative.

Light Your Torch

With the flags ready to go, hit play on the Olympic fanfare & theme song and begin your parade. Take a few laps around the living room and wave to the crowd. After you’ve been introduced, take your seats and get ready to watch the torch lighting. The torch symbolises the true start of the Olympic games. To make your torch, head on over to Oh My Creative’s blog where you can learn how to make a customised Olympic torch using tissue paper, a cardboard roll, and tea lights.

Let the Games Begin

For your indoor at-home Olympic games, put a little spin on classic Olympic events. Depending on the event, you can split the family into teams or play one-on-one. Assign each event a point value depending on the difficulty. In the end, whoever has the most points wins the coveted gold medal.

The first event: Ice hockey — but this time, it's indoor balloon ice hockey. Split the family into two teams and find a place in the house that is fairly spacious. Use cardboard gift wrap tubes or pool noodles as "hockey sticks," and blow up a balloon to use as the “puck.” Set a goal at either end of the room, and see which team can score the most points.

Ice Skating: Since you’re already at the ice rink, you might as well keep those skates on and head over to the "indoor skating" competition. Put on your slippiest socks, designate a smooth surface as your performance arena (kitchen tiles or hardwood planks should do nicely), and pick your favourite song to choreograph a routine to, complete with twirls, leaps, and jumps. Pick judges and break into pairs or compete as an individual. The skater with the highest score takes the points for this round.

Curling: Following the ice skating, head on over to the curling arena. This tabletop version of curling might not look like the setup in the Olympics, but it's just as fun. Split back into teams and see who can master sliding the stones into the target to take the win.

For your family version of the Winter Olympic games, you don't have to limit yourselves to the same winter sports events that make up the "official" Olympics. Any of your favourite indoor games is fine. For more ideas for Indoor Olympic events, look up - how to make glow-in-the-dark bowling or an indoor obstacle course.

Refuel With Food

After all of the events, your team of athletes is sure to have worked up an appetite. Since this is the Winter Olympics, pick cuisines from the countries that will host the next winter games. Snack on tasty dumplings and steamed buns or a Chinese takeaway from 2022 host city Beijing, China, or pizza and pasta to represent the 2026 Olympic games, which will be held in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Award Gold, Silver, and Bronze

Now that the games are coming to a close, it’s time to wrap up with a medal ceremony. Instead of just giving everyone a plastic medal, make your own. There are many ways to make homemade medals, have a look online for ideas.

For the medal ceremony itself, stack different-sized chairs or cardboard boxes to make a tiered medals stand. Before you hand out the medals, ask each participant to pick a song to receive their medal, which can stand in for their official national anthem.

Closing Ceremony

Now that the games are coming to a close, it’s time for the official closing ceremony. To celebrate the end of the indoor games, have everyone enter the living room arena all at once. Relive the highlights of the events and celebrate the closing ceremony with a big dance party.

 

source: camp.com