Black Light Games for Kids

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A list of some of the best glow in the dark games for kid's parties!

Below we have a list of 12 fun glow in the dark party games for kids.

Kids absolutely love glow in the dark parties and glowing play dates. The glow in the dark neon colors provide a visually spectacular playground where children can truly explore their creative side and let their imaginations run wild. The best part is that underneath black lights, creating the glow games can often be equally as fun as playing them. Give the kids a few of the ideas below to start with and see where their creative minds take them. I guarantee you it will get them out of your hair for a long time as they build, create and play for hours. 

How to set up glow party games?

The first step is to set up a room or outdoor area for a black light glow party. You can find information here on setting up a room for a black light party. As always we highly recommend our Glowave™ Black Light Glow Party kits as they are the easiest way to set up a glow party in a matter of minutes without any electrical experience. Birthday parties always require a lot of effort taking care of the kids, decorations, food etc so you want the set up to be easy. Trust me, this kit makes it as simple as possible. 

Black Light Party Supplies

Glow Party Art Studio

This black light party idea is pretty straight forward and easy to organize. First, buy a bunch of large white or neon colored poster paper and glow pens or highlighters and let the kids go wild drawing amazing neon designs. 

If you want to spend a little more money you can buy neon glow paints and canvases and let the kids paint as though they are in a real art studio. Another option is to let the kids use each other as the canvases. Using special UV reacting ink pens or regular highlighter pens (yellow, green, pink and orange work best), the kids can draw glowing designs on each other's faces, arm and legs. Or if you want to buy each of the kids a white tshirt they can design their own glowing clothing (best to buy clothing specifically for this in case the ink doesn't wash out). 

UV Color War

Black light glow parties are all about the bright colors. What better way to celebrate with color then by having a massive color war. Party GOAT has developed a range on neon holi color powders that glow under UV light. This makes it perfect for color wars or black light color runs. These activities are usually best suited to outdoor glow parties as the powder will get everywhere.

Secret agents black light game

For this you will need to buy some invisible ink pens. The magic ink in these pens is completely undetectable under normal light but glows in different colors under black lights. The children can use these pens to draw on each other as detailed above or to write secret messages to one another and form their own secret spy club with codes, secret guidelines and club rules. 

Glow in the Dark Twister

Twister has been a children's party favorite for years. Take Twister to an exciting new level by turning it into a glow party game. Get the kids to paint their own twister mat in neon paints. You can either buy a plastic sheet and measure out where to put the dots to replicate a Twister board, or simply get them to paint over the existing dots on their old Twister mat. Once the game mat has been painted in neon paints it will look incredible underneath the black lights. 

Glow in the Dark Dance Party

Remember how fun your old school dances used to be? If you have black lights, music and glowing costumes, you really don't need much else. Let the kids create their own glow party music play list, dress up in their best neon costumes and dance the night away. If you want to make the dance area look extra cool, use some neon tape to make a glowing dance floor. 

Glow in the dark bowling

Glow in the dark bowling is one of the simplest party games to set up and the kids will love it! All you need is 6 water bottles, preferably shaped like bowling pins, (however this doesn't matter), 1 x packet of glow sticks, 1 x small - medium sized rubber ball and of course some black lights.

Note: The "bowling" ball needs to be heavy enough to knock down the water bottle pins as they are filled with water. To make the ball stand out and glow, you can either cover the ball in neon colored tape or paint. Both options would look great!

Place 2 x glow sticks of the same color into each of the filled water bottles. Try to mix up the color scheme with the glow sticks between the 6 different water bottles to make them all stand out. Next, line up the water bottles in this formation - 3 bottles at the back, 2 bottles in the middle and 1 bottle in the front. If you have 10 bottles you could add an extra row of 4 to replicate the same formation as standard bowling. Measure out a good distance from the bowling pins to the start line. You can make this as easy or as challenging as you like. Now you're ready to switch off the lights, turn on the awesome black lights and roll the ball as hard and fast as you can to knock over all of the pins!

Black Light Dodgeball Games

Black light dodgeball is so much fun. Buy some neon colored dodge balls (or any soft neon colored balls will do the trick), have the children dress up or paint themselves in neon war paints and let the games begin. If your glow party is outdoors, a fun alternative is to use color powder balls filled with UV powder. That way when players get hit they also get splashed in color. Check out our color powder guide for more details.

Black light dodgeball is so popular that many churches have a yearly glow in the dark dodgeball tournament for their youth groups. Their are also many sports centers and trampoline parks that host regular black light dodgeball tournaments. Black light dodgeball is also referred to as Nuclear dodgeball as the balls look like they are nuclear reactive. The kids will love trying to hit each other and/or dodge the 'nuclear reactive' dodge balls. For instructions on how to play dodge ball click here.

The below video will give you an example of how exciting Black light dodgeball can be. Please note, we highly recommend you use the Glowave™ Black Light kits to light up your dodgeball court. Unlike the lights shown in this video, the light strips in the Glowave™ kits are not made of glass so there is no chance of a stray dodgeball breaking a light and causing broken glass to spray over the court where the children are playing.

Glow Party Dodgeball

Star Wars Glowing Piñata Game (use the force to break the piñata)!

For this game you will need to either buy or make a neon colored piñata. If you can't find a piñata that will glow under black lights you can buy a regular piñata and paint it with neon colors. You can also make a piñata using a balloon, craft glue and strips of newspaper. Or buy a star wars themed piñata (a glowing Star Wars piñata would be cool but if it doesn't glow it won't really matter). Next buy and stuff the piñata full of neon colored toys and sweets. Wrap a wooden stick all the way around with some neon cardboard and tape it on tight. This will make the stick look like a glowing light saber underneath the black lights. Next, blind fold the first contestant, gently spin them around three times and tell them they have to 'use the force' to break open the piñata. See which child has the will of the Jedi and cracks it open to revealing the glowing prizes and treats inside.

Neon squares black light game

For this game you will need a large dice and several large sheets of neon colored cardboard (6 colors) or 6 different colored rolls of neon tape. The game should be played in a large room with space for kids to run. The game also works really well in a roller skating or ice skating rink.  

Create one large square in each of the six colors using either the pieces of cardboard or the tape and separate the squares around the room so each color has one area designated by a square of that color. 

Neon squares game Verison 1.

The kids are instructed to walk, job, dance, or skate around the room while the music plays. At various times when the rule master/announcer decides they can stop the music and shout out a color. Every player then has to run or skate as fast as they can to the chosen color's square. The last player to reach the square is eliminated. The music restarts and play continues until there is one winner remaining. The good thing about this game is that the announcer can control it. If they know some kids are slower than others, they can call out the colors that happen to be close to the slower kid as they are dancing around the room so they have a better chance of racing to the chosen square.

Version 2 (lucky dice).

In this version of the game you will need a dice. Paint each of the sides of the dice to match the colors of the squares on the floor. The kids are again instructed to walk, jog, dance or skate around the room while the music plays. This time when the music stops all of the children have to freeze where they are. The game organizer then steps into the middle of the room and rolls the dice. Whichever color is rolled is the selected color for that round. Whoever happens to be the furthest away from the chosen color is the unlucky one that is eliminated from the game.

Glow Party Scavenger hunt!

For this game you will need to gather or buy a large number of objects that will glow under black lights. These could be novelty toys like the ones used to fill the piñata in the game above or just objects from your home. Hide these objects around the room. The objects will glow and be pretty easy to locate, so you may need to hide them underneath things, such as pillows or cushions, or blend them in with other party decorations in the room. Give each of the kids a list of items that are hidden in the room (for a cool effect hand write these on paper with glowing ink or neon highlighters) and send them off on a race to collect as many items as they can find within a designated timeframe. You may also indicate how many of each item are hidden in the room. For example if there are 6 kids playing the game, there may be 6 glowing yo-yos hidden in the room. Each child is only instructed to collect one yo-yo, so there is a chance they will all find one. There may only be 2 glowing frisbees though so only 2 kids will be able to tick this item off their scavenger hunt list and they may decide to look for this item first. The winner is the kid who ticks the most items off the list at the end of the allocated timeframe.

Pass the parcel with glow paper and glow novelties

Pass the parcel is a classic children's game that has been played for generations. To play the glow game version of Pass the Parcel you will first need to prepare the parcel. Pick a toy or a prize that the children are trying to win but do not let them see what it is. Choosing a prize that will glow under black lights is a great idea. Next wrap that prize in some neon paper (say pink). Then wrap another layer of neon paper around it (maybe orange). Keep adding layer after layer of wrapping paper in different neon colors. Do not let the children know how many layers are wrapped around the prize. When the parcel is ready have the children sit in a circle and play some music. The kids are instructed to pass the parcel around the circle continuously. When you stop the music the person holding the parcel at that time gets to unwrap a layer of the parcel to see if they have won a prize. If not, a new glowing color will be revealed. The music will restart and they will play again. As the parcel gets smaller and smaller, the kids will get more excited hoping the music stops on them and they are the one that gets to unwrap the final layer and win the prize.

Glow in the dark black light Jenga 

Separate your Jenga blocks into three piles. Paint each pile of blocks in a different neon color (e.g. green, orange and pink).

Paint a dice in the same three colors, with each color have two sides to the die. Play Jenga in the usual way with only one difference. Before each turn players must roll the dice. They are then required to choose a block that matches the color on the dice. Kids will love the colors on the tower and the extra challenge of selecting the blocks based on color rather than simply choosing the easiest block.

Glow in the dark games of charades

Kids love to play charades and glow in the dark charades makes the game even more funny and challenging than the regular version. To play, write a list of actions on a piece of paper and put them in a hat (e.g mowing the lawn, flying a kite). Have one of the children draw out an action. They then have to act out that action without making any sounds. In the dark room they will not be able to rely on facial expressions to get the message across. The other children will watch the funny actions and try their best to guess what the player is doing. The kid that guess correctly is the next person to draw an action form the hat and test their acting skills.

To make the game extra fun you can have the person doing the actions where a funny costume or glowing outfit such as a morph suit. 

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