Traditional Spanish Party Games

Make your party a success by following two simple rules: First, have games that fit the theme of your party. For your Spanish-themed party, plan games that not only incorporate the Spanish language where appropriate, but that have been enjoyed by Spanish-language players over the years. Second, keep the age of your guests in mind and make sure your games are not too simple or too complicated for them.

Breaking the piñata is a big part of many Spanish parties for both adults and children. The piñata is a colorful papier-mâché container filled with candies and small toys. These can be purchased many places, or one can easily be made with a balloon, papier-mâché, and brightly colored crepe paper or paint.

As part of the celebration, guests are blindfolded one at a time, given a stick, and then take turns trying to hit the piñata. When the piñata breaks, everyone scrambles in and grabs a share of the goodies that tumble out. This game is traditional at many types of traditional Mexican celebrations, such as Christmas and birthdays.

La Araña means "the spider." The game is played by a group of children ages 5 and up. The "spider" is confined between two parallel lines on the ground, drawn about 20 feet apart. The other children all stand along one of the lines. When la araña calls out "Araña!" all of the children must cross the spider's territory and cross the other line. Anyone the spider touches must join hands with him, becoming part of the spider. This step is repeated until all of the players have been tagged. Only the players on either end of the spider can tag others as they cross. This is a good game to use up excess energy and keep everyone busy.

One player is chosen to be "It," either by the toss of a coin or general consensus of all the players. That player then calls out "Color, colorcito," (color, little color) and adds the name of a color, such as red (rojo), at the end. The other players must all run to touch an object of that color. If a player reaches that color, she is safe. If the person who is "it" is able to touch a player before she reaches a safe object, that player becomes "it." This lively party game is played in large yards or parks, but can be played in the house with very young children. Kids of all ages enjoy playing color, colorcito.