Host Your Own Winter Olympics at Home: 20+ Easy Indoor Games for Kids
Get in the Olympic spirit and host your own DIY Winter Olympics at home with these easy indoor games for kids! They’re perfect for a family game night, parties, or snow days.
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The Winter Olympics start this Friday, and I’m excited! While the winter games are a bit less flashy than their summer counterparts (Did you know there are only 16 different events for winter?), they’re still an amazing showcase of athletic ability. As someone who has very little hand-eye coordination, I am amazed by what these people are capable of! Besides, who can resist the nail-biting suspense of curling?
Several years ago, I hosted a big Backyard Olympics Party in the summertime for our neighborhood, and it was a huge hit! We had over 25 kids come, and we spent an afternoon playing games, eating popsicles, and hanging out together.
For the winter games this year, I decided to do something similar, just on a much smaller scale: a Winter Olympics family game night!
All of our games were inspired (more or less) by real Olympic events, and they were simple to pull off with supplies we already had at home. We took advantage of a free weekday evening together, and had so much fun competing, laughing, and making ridiculous memories together!
So, if you’re feeling the need to infuse a little extra fun into your winter, grab your family (or a few friends), and host your own Winter Olympics game night!
Here’s everything you need to know to plan one yourself.
What Is a Winter Olympics Game Night?
A Winter Olympics game night is exactly what it sounds like: a series of silly, low-pressure “events” inspired by real Winter Olympic sports.
For our night, I came up with a list of different events that family members could compete in. Some required a little skill, but most were minute-to-win-it–style games designed to be quick, playful, and ridiculously funny.
Keep in mind, you don’t need to do all the events. Just choose 5–6 games that work best for your group, gather your supplies, and you’re ready to go.
Two “Rules” to Remember:
- Keep it SIMPLE! It’s easy to get carried away with fun party ideas (Pinterest rabbit-hole, anyone?), but I really wanted to keep our Olympic games low-prep and inexpensive. No fancy supplies needed! Because the truth is you really don’t have to spend a lot of time or money to make awesome memories with your kids!
- Keep the competition FUN & FRIENDLY! Competition is key to the Olympics, but I wanted to make sure that friendly competition didn’t turn into intense sibling rivalry and hurt feelings (been down that road before). I intentionally planned a mix of games so kids of different ages and abilities could all have fun.
How to Set Up a Winter Olympics Game Night (Step-by-Step)
1. Choose Your Players
Decide who you’ll invite to participate in your Olympic games. Maybe it’s just your immediate family, or maybe you’ll invite cousins or friends over to join in the fun. You could even use these games with a youth group or classroom.
Then decide whether you’ll play individually, in pairs, or on teams. I think having a team to cheer for can make for a more fun and supportive Olympic environment. That way, even if an individual chooses not to participate in an event, he or she can cheer on other teammates who are competing.
2. Pick Your Events
Choose 5–6 games from the list below (depending on how much time you want to dedicate to your Olympic games). Try to include a mix of active games and less-intense challenges so that everybody can find something to be successful in.
3. Gather Your Supplies
All of the games listed below use really basic supplies that you probably already have at home. Gather everything you’ll need ahead of time, and keep it in a basket or bin nearby to make transitioning between games quick and easy.
4. Decide How You’ll Score (or Not!)
It can be fun to keep score, but if your group is a little too competitive for their own good, you can skip the scoring and just play for fun. If you do choose to keep score, you can download my “official” score sheet below.
5. Kick Things Off with an Opening Ceremony
This isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s fun to start off the evening by playing the Olympic fanfare and passing around a pretend torch (see how I made one here).
Supplies for DIY Winter Olympic Games
Most of these games use simple household items:
- Cotton balls or pom-poms
- Straws
- Plastic cups
- Painter’s tape
- Ping Pong Balls
- Paper plates
- Socks, wool dryer balls, or fake snowballs
- Towels
- Laundry baskets
- Toothpicks
- Cookies
- Balloons
- Hula hoop
- Sheets of paper
- Blindfolds
- Chopsticks
- Timer (phones work great for this)
You probably already have most of these at home. You likely won’t need ALL the items listed above. Make your own list of supplies based on the games you choose below.
Speaking of, let’s get to the games!
Easy Indoor Winter Olympics Games
Games Based on Winter Olympic Sports
Are some of these a stretch? Absolutely! But they’re also really fun, so go with it, okay?
Ping Pong Downhill “Ski” Ball
Tape disposable cups to one end of a table and label them with different point values. Prop the opposite end of the table up with books to create a slope. Players stand at the high end and roll ping pong balls downhill, aiming to land them in the cups. When all balls have been rolled, add up the points. Highest total score wins!
Supplies: Ping pong balls, plastic cups, painter’s tape, books
Curling
Curling is quite possibily the quirkiest sport, but everyone seems to love it! In this version, instead of a curling stone, players slide an ice pack (think school lunches), hockey puck, or other similar object across the floor, trying to get it as close as possible to the center of a taped target (the “house”). The stone that lands closest to the “button” (center mark) wins the round.
Supplies: Ice pack or other “stone”, painter’s tape
Cross Country Cup Race
Line up 20 cups in a line for each player (this works great as a head-to-head competition). Have a box or laundry basket at one end of the row of cups. Players must race to get all their cups in the box, but can only touch one cup at a time. First to get all their cups in the box wins!
Supplies: Cups, box or basket
Blizzard Biathlon
Use a straw to blow one cotton ball at a time across the table from the starting line into a taped target zone. How many can you get in one minute? Variation: Make this a relay race where afterone teammate gets a cotton ball across, they run back and give the next teammate a turn. The team with the most cotton balls in the scoring zone when time runs out wins!
Supplies: Straws, cotton balls, painter’s tape
Cup Slalom
Set up a zig-zag line of cups as an obstacle course. Players must weave a rolled-up sock or wool dryer ball (or you could reuse the ping pong balls through the cups without knocking any over. Fastest clean run wins.
Supplies: Cups, sock or dryer ball
Speed Skating
Place each foot on a paper plate and “skate” from one side of the room to the other without stepping off. Time each player or race head-to-head.
Supplies: Paper plates
Speed Eating
Instead of speed skating, try speed eating! Measure out equal servings of a food like Jello, pudding, or ice cream, and have participants race to see who can finish first! Keep your hands behind your backs to make it extra challenging (and entertaining!) Variation: Hide 3-5 small candies in a pile of whipped cream or pudding and challenge players to find all the candies faster than their opponents.
Supplies: Bowls/plates, your choice of food
Towel Luge Slide
Sit on a towel and scoot yourself across the floor to the finish line using only your hands. First one across (or fastest time) wins!
Supplies: Towels
“Hockey Puck” Face Race
Give each participant an edible “hockey puck” (an Oreo or similar small cookie) to place on his/her forehead. When you say go, all participants try to wiggle the cookie down into their mouths (no hands allowed). If the cookie falls off, the participant has to put it back on their forehead and start over. The first person to eat the cookie wins!
Supplies: Cookies
Toilet Paper Luge
For each player, unroll a length of toilet paper and lay it across the table. Place a small toy animal (or similar) on the far end of the paper, with the rest of the toilet paper roll closest to the player. When someone shouts “Go!”, players roll the toilet paper back up as fast as they can, pulling the toy toward them without making it rip. The first player to retrieve their toy wins.
Supplies: Toilet paper, toy animals or small stuffed animals
Triple Flip
Maybe you can’t do figure skating in your living room, but here’s a fun game inspired by the sport. Give each player three blown up balloons and challenge them to keep them up in the air for a full minute. While the timer is running, play music that you might hear in a figure skating competition and assign bonus points for those with the best “artistic” moves.
Supplies: Balloons
Other Fun Olympic-Inspired Games
These games aren’t Winter Olympics specific, but they’re great challenges that will get you laughing.
World Traveler
The Olympics are all about bringing together athletes from all over the world! How many do you know? In one minute, players must name as many countries as possible. The player to name the most wins! To avoid any players from taking ideas from one another, make this a written test. (This challenge is best for older teens/adults.)
Supplies: Paper, pens
Snowball Shot Put
Set up targets using buckets, a laundry basket, or a cornhole board. Players toss rolled-up socks, bean bags, or wool dryer balls (“snowballs”) and earn points for accuracy.
Supplies: Socks or bean bags, baskets or other targets
Mini Javelin Throw
Give each player a set number of toothpicks and challenge them to throw them into a bowl a short distance away. Person with the most javelins that land in the bowl wins!
Supplies: Toothpicks, bowl
Aerial Tricks
Give each player some paper. When you start a timer, they must make and throw paper airplanes in hopes that one of them with land in a designated target area. Continue to fold and throw planes until one hits the mark!
Supplies: Paper, painter’s tape (for target)
Hula Hoop Contest
Take turns seeing who can keep a hula hoop going round and round the longest! If you have a large group, consider having kids compete in heats and then have a “final” where the winners of the previous heats face off. Or, if you only have one hula hoop, just time each participant individually and the winner is whoever gets the longest time.
Supplies: Hula Hoop
Ball Drop
For this game you need 5 ping pong balls and an egg carton. Write various point values in the bottom of each egg cup (1, 5, and 10 or whatever points you want to use). Place the egg carton on the ground. Participants take turns holding a penny above their heads and dropping them into the egg carton. Each participant drops a total of 5 pennies. Add up the points from all drops to get the participants total score. Variation: Drop clothes pins into a jug instead. It’s harder than you might think!
Supplies: Ping pong balls, egg carton
You Blew It!
Set up six cups in a row filled almost to the top with water. Place a ping pong ball on the first one. Players must blow the ping pong ball from one cup to the next without touching it until they get to the last (sixth) cup. Time each person, and the fastest time wins!
Supplies: Plastic cups, water, ping pong balls
Perfect Ten
Set up ten cups upside down on a table in front of each player. Blindfold the players. When time starts, players must try (without peeking!) to use one cup in their hand (no using the other hand!) to pick up all the additional cups without knocking them over. First person to have all their cups in a stack wins!
Supplies: Plastic cups, blindfolds
Snowball Stack Up
Give each player a set of chopsticks and a pile of large marshmallows. See how many marshmallows you can stack on top of each other in one minute touching them only with the chopsticks. Tallest tower at the end of one minute wins!
Supplies: Large marshmallows, chopsticks
Snowball Toss
Have each player pick a partner on their team. Have the partners stand 2-4 ft across from each other. One gets a pile of marshmallows (or wadded up paper balls) and the other gets a plastic cup. When the timer starts, the player with the marshmallow tries to toss the marshmallow into their partner’s cup. Keep trying until time runs out, when the team with the most marshmallows in their cup wins! Variation: If you want the game to be harder, get the miniature marshmallows to throw.
Supplies: Marshmallows, plastic cups
Medals & Awards
You don’t have to do any awards, but if you’re hosting a larger group, it can be fun to give each person a medal and a certificate of participation at the end (you can download the certificate I designed at the bottom of the post).
There are several options you can use for creating kid-friendly medals:
- Buy these really simple medals from Amazon (sometimes they have them at the dollar store, too).
- Make edible medals using golden Oreos and Fruit by the Foot.
Olympic Winter Games Printables
Now, one last thing before you head off to bring your awesome Olympic Winter Games to life. I’ve made some printables for you that will really take your event up a notch! They’re completely print-and-go, so it’s SUPER simple for you.
Here’s what’s included:
- Master List of Games & Instructions: Print out this list for easy reference during your event.
- Schedule of events & score sheet: Use this if you decide to keep score.
- Certificate of participation: Hand these out to each athlete along with a medal at the end of the games!
- Decorative banner just for fun.