DIY Indoor Snowball Fight and NorthPole Christmas Gift Ideas

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When you were a kid, what was your favorite thing about Winter? Besides Christmas and the days without school that is. We have a lot of great memories of family traditions from when I was younger from going sleigh riding, snowball fights, ice skating, baking cookies, homemade hot cocoa and lots more. All surrounded by fun family activities.

If we can ever get time away from school, homework, and work; we like to spend our time building more family memories and traditions. It seems most family traditions tend to surround the upcoming Holiday season. And it’s no different for our family.

But as I get older, I’m finding myself less willing to go out and freeze in the cold for a lot of the family traditions that I partook of as a kid. I guess I’m becoming a stick in the mud. I just don’t like cold. But I don’t want my kids to miss out on those fun memories and family traditions. And with Christmas coming up it’s the perfect time to make memories.

In anticipation for the new NorthPole movie being released on the Hallmark Channel; Hallmark released a great line of NorthPole toys that will make great Christmas gifts for kids this year. But more than that, they are all about creating memories surrounding family traditions!

I wanted to carry on some fun family traditions and memories from when I was a kid and Hallmark is going to help make that happen. I stopped by Walmart to pick up my supplies. Boy did they have a lot of great toys and books! I was hard pressed to stay on task; because I kept finding cute baking items and fun toys I wanted to play with. Like the NorthPole Communicator. Man that thing is so cute!

But I forced myself to get what I came for and get on home so I could set up for the fun.

DIY Indoor Snowball Fight

So what tradition do I want to have with my kids? A snowball fight! We always had snowball fights when I was growing up. But while we did just get some snow, it’s not good for snowball fights. Just a light dusting of dry snow. Not enough for forts or packing. Plus it’s freezing out there! Remember old fuddy duddy and stick in the mud here.

Now you can’t have a snowball fight without going outside or good snow. Or can you?

One of the things I remember doing as a kid when the weather was too cold to go outside or even in the summer when we didn’t have any snow; we simply had an indoor snowball fight. Usually we used these cute little sponge blocks my mom made us. Well I’m not that handy with a sewing machine. So I took the easy way. I picked up these adorable and fluffy Magical Snowballs from Walmart. They are soft like a sponge ball; but also fluffy and soft on the outside. They are the perfect Snowball! You can throw and not get hurt. Plus they are white and fluffy just like snow. And when you hit them they light up and blink different colors!

To host an indoor snowball fight you need to 1) build indoor forts and 2) create an indoor snowball kit.

For the forts you will need:

• Blankets
• Cushions and Pillows
• Chairs and Couches
• beadboard/plywood (optional)

To make a fort find a nice place in your home where you can set up two different forts across from each other. Our front room is a nice spot because it’s not too big but still allows for two forts, if we use the staircase. First use some plywood or beadboard to protect any valuable/breakable surfaces. Not like these magic snowballs can do any damage, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Then set up your forts. For ours at the stairs I used our Kitchen chairs and some blankets. You need to make the line that they can hide behind. And the blankets are perfect for blocking the flying snowballs.

For the second fort I pulled the couch away from the wall. Piling pillows up on the sides to make three towers to hide behind with 2 lower “windows” to toss the snowballs through.

Then I cover it all over with a blanket to keep the pillows from falling over.

Lastly you want to make sure that the magic snowballs will remain in the snowball fighting zone. And not flying all over your house. So at our doorway out of the livingroom and into the rest of the house I set up another beadboard to keep any stray magic snowballs in play. It also makes clean up easier since the snowballs all stay in the same room.

Next you need to create your Indoor Snowball fight kit. You will need

• Magic Snowballs
• Tin Bucket
• Chalkboard spraypaint
• Liquid Chalk marker
• painting tape
• and maybe some winter/Snowflake stickers

Take the tin bucket and make sure it is clean and ready for painting.

Use the painting tape to mask off the area you want to have your mini chalkboard sign.

Then follow the directions on your Chalkboard spray paint to ensure a good coating for the chalkboard. I used 4 applications to get it how I wanted mine. Allow to fully dry. I waited until the next day to finish.

Once it is dry then you can remove the painting tape and make sure there isn’t any extra chalkboard anywhere. If there is; well you are in luck. Since the pail is non-porous you can actually scratch the extra off if it gets where you don’t want it.

Now decorate it with snowflake stickers. I couldn’t find any stickers with snowflake shapes that I liked that were big enough. So I ended up using some window clings. It still worked.

Next take your liquid chalk marker and in your best handwriting add Snowball Fight or whatever message you want to the chalkboard. Then you can proceed to finish decorating the bucket with little dots to give the impression of more snow falling.

Make sure you allow it to dry fully before moving on. Once the chalk paint is dry then you can fill up the bucket with your magic snowballs and you are ready to host a fun indoor snowball fight.

Now it’s time to begin the indoor snowball fight! Divide up into teams and assign forts. Then divide up the Magic Snowballs between the teams into their own tin bucket to be housed at each fort. And then let the fun begin!

They can throw all they want. They can have all the joy of a real snowball fight without getting cold, and without breaking anything! Plus it is a lot of fun to watch. Or even better yet, get involved yourself!

Be prepared to laugh and giggle and have your kids get crazy and excited. Just check out our short video clip of the kids in action!

A video posted by Amber Edwards (@jadelouisedesigns) on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:25pm PST

When attention starts to die down then bring out the Avalauncher! Set up the targets and let the kids practice shooting snowballs at the targets in the house.

At the end, make sure to have the kids help pick up the Magic Snowballs, put the couches and cushions and pillows away. And then have a fun treat waiting at the end like my favorite Christmas Chocolate shortbread cookies. Or you can make other cookies using some of the other fun Hallmark Northpole toys.

Not only can you make magical family traditions they will cherish for years to come, but all the fun Northpole toys make excellent Christmas gifts too! Can you image the fun you’ll have on Christmas morning with this stuff? Plus you will have all those fun cardboard boxes to help build forts! Oh the possibilities!

Find more Holiday fun and magic by following Hallmark on Facebook and Twitter! And check out more of our Holiday fun on our Instagram!

What are your favorite Holiday Family Traditions?

Which Northpole Toys do you want to play with?

How do you host an indoor Snowball fight?