Purim Carnivals this weekend

This is the weekend that every synagogue the world over will be holding their Purim carnivals. These carnivals, held on Sunday, are for young children and are looked forward to all year round. Kids dress up in the Purim costumes, there are plenty of games and prizes, and lots of great junk food to eat. What kid wouldn't want that kind of fun?

There are very typical games that are held everywhere. One classic is the fishing game, where fish are cut out of paper and laminated, and then a magnet is glued onto each fish. The fish are placed in a wading pool, and kids 'fish' for them with poles strung with twine and a magnet on the end. The prize for catching a fish is, of course, a goldfish! Goldfish are a standard of Purim carnivals, and few children come home without at least 2 or 3 of them. We once got five each, for a total of 10 goldfish. Lucky us!

My kid's favorite game has always been 'shave the balloon'. Oh, it's a simple one where shaving cream is rubbed onto a balloon and then the child has to 'shave' the balloon without popping it. When it inevitably pops, the shaving cream goes flying and plenty of shrieking hilarity follows.

Some other classic Purim games include:

Blackout - Snuff out a candle with a water pistol.
Miniature bowling - Set up of ten pins.
A trip through Israel - Set up an area with a large relief map of Israel constructed by older kids. On this set up a system of miniature golf or croquet. The object of the game is to get the ball all around Israel and back to Jerusalem while keeping under the "par" of strokes set up by the booth owners. The person who stays under par wins a prize.
Pitching pennies
Balloon bursting - Face of Haman can be drawn; balloon can be Haman's hat.
Pin the tail on Mordecai's horse.
Paint a mural describing the quotation from the Book of Esther; Procedure is then the same as "pin the tail on the donkey".
Ring toss
Basketball throw
Guess the number of beans in the bottle.
Dig for treasure in the Negev. Prizes are buried in a sandbox and each person is allowed a certain number of "digs". A variation of these is to give each person a stick with room for his name on it. Bury a dollar bill (or a key to a prize) and let each person place his stick in the box. Whoever comes closest to the prize wins.

Other activities might include:

The Shushan Salon. Have a "beauty parlor" offering wild hair colors, face painting, and tattoos.
Negev Sand Art Booth. Have a sand art craft booth.
The Costume Parade. This is an important and traditional feature of Purim.
Decorating Crowns. Set up a craft booth where the kids can decorate cardboard crowns with glitter, plastic gems, and stickers.

Usually, like Charles Fromage (Chuck E Cheese), kids get to pick out their prizes with tickets. Trading and bargaining furiously, kids end up with prizes they selected themselves.

While kids are playing, parents are schmoozing and helping referree the inevitable arguments over whose turn it next. There usually is plenty of hamentaschen and coffee to keep the adults happy and satiated while the kids feast on cotton candy, pizza, and other carnival-type foods.

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Purim Carnivals this weekend

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