Glow in the Dark Christmas Presents

It’s Christmas Week on the Blog!

These glow in the dark presents are magical and Christmassy.  They are simple (and cheap) to make and my kids thought they were the coolest things I’ve done.  I played an indoor game using the presents and they are great for outdoor play too. Below is how I put them together.

Materials

Plastic takeaway (or other clear plastic) containers

Glow Sticks (3 per container)

Mostly white wrapping paper (cheap paper works best because it’s thin)

Sticky tape

What to do

1.  Activate glow sticks by bending them, and then place three inside each container.

2. Wrap the containers with paper. Avoid overlapping as this will dim the light in the areas where there is two layers of paper.  Don’t worry if you can’t see the light through the paper as you’re doing it in the light.  Look at the picture below and you can see the same presents in the light and then in the dark (they do glow!).

The Game

I can think of many ways to use these cute things.  For example, place a heap under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, use them as decoration outside or for an outdoor present hunt.  There could be a hot potato game in the dark, a follow the glow present path or the kids could simply take them outside in the dark and watch them shine. The glow lasts for a couple of hours.

The game I played with the kids went like this:  I gave each of the children a glow stick to hold (the little bit of light is a good thing) and they went to a designated room together in the house (and shut the door).  I hid the presents in different places around the house and then turned off all the lights (with the expectation of one so I didn’t fall).   I called the kids out and they hunted for the presents. So much fun! They wanted to do it again, and again! All my children enjoyed the game, so from my 5-year-old right up to my 11-year-old. Win.

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