Fun games for a May Day party!

May is such a wonderful month.

May Day has ancient origins and some amazing traditions! And it's celebrated in many ways in countries all over the world.

Traditional May Day party gatherings include honoring the May Queen, maypole dancing, the preparation of May flower baskets, and gingerbread baking!

Whether you just want to have the kids over to celebrate the start of May, or have a May birthday child, here's a selection of party game and activity ideas.

May Day party printables

It's very simple to tailor the word bingo game for little kids, as you can enter your own words - so you could add a few of your kid guests' names, some baby animal or flower/plant words, as well as the words May, spring, sun, rain and so on. Or just choose a simple picture version for very young children.

May Day party games

All the children stand along a marked line in front of Mother. They need some space to move wherever Mother tells them.

Mother stands in front of the children, and tells one of them to take a number of steps forward or back. There are different kinds of steps that can be taken:

• giant steps
• baby steps
• bunnyhop steps
• tiptoe steps
• sleepwalking steps

When asked, each child must ask "Mother may I?" If Mother says "Yes you may" - they can move. If she says "No you may not" - they can't!

But if a child forgets to ask Mother, they go back to the starting line. Ohhhh!

Hobby horse relay
Divide the kids into two teams and give each team a "hobby horse" made of a short broomstick. If you can make a small horse's head from sturdy card and add a tail - the kids will love them!

The whistle blows - and they're off! The first child from each team hobby-horse-rides off to your marked point, turns round, and rides back to pass the hobby horse to the next team player. Worth playing a couple of times, and you can switch the team players around - and let the grown-ups join in too!

Run, run as fast as you can...
...You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

Kids will enjoy a simple game of tag outdoors with this gingerbread man chasing game. Give the gingerbread kid a head start, and when he or she is tagged by another child, then the game begins again.

Hide the gingerbread man
It's fun if you use a real gingerbread man! Along the lines of "hunt the thimble", hide a gingerbread man in the room while the children are outside. The first child to spot the gingerbread man either gets to eat it... or put it in their goodie bag... or hide it for the next person!

Pin the ribbon on the Maypole
Use a large piece of construction paper as a backing for a picture of a striped maypole. Make sure your maypole is wide enough for the kids to pin or stick their ribbon on.

Prepare named ribbons of different colors for each child.

When blindfolded, each kid has to try and pin their ribbon onto the maypole!

May Day dances

• Morris dancing is traditional in England. With small bells attached to their legs and carrying swords, sticks, bells or white handkerchiefs, the kids can dance about accompanied by music from a recording of nursery rhyme favorites or any other dance music of your choice.

• A Maypole dance can be a little more difficult to organize - but if you are able to set up a pole with long ribbons attached that the kids can dance round, winding the ribbon round the pole as they go, this really can be a memorable activity.

  You could, of course, use a tree - and attach the ribbons to the treetrunk and have the kids skip around that!

More May Day party ideas

Here are some more fun activities for a May Day party:

1. Get crafty and make some gingerbread men finger puppets. Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter to draw round, cut out two gingerbread man shapes per child. Stick them together at the sides, leaving a space for the kids to pop Mr Gingerbread man on their fingers.

   The kids can color in the men, and use sticker shapes for the eyes, nose and mouth.

2. Why not decorate a real gingerbread man! Use freshly baked or store-bought gingerbread men and have the kids decorate them with squeezy icing, raisins and sprinkles.

3. Make May Day party flower baskets out of folded paper plates with ribbon handles and tissue flowers - or even small pretty gift bags with artificial or real flowers. Add cookies and candy. These can be taken home from the party, or if you have friends and relatives nearby, why not deliver a May basket to them?

   The traditional way of delivering these was to hang them on the door, ring the bell and run away!

In Hawaii, May Day is called Lei Day. So games for a May Day party luau could provide you with more ideas to make this day extra special!