How to make a Santa Claus bean bag toss game

This may not be the fanciest or most beautiful homemade game ever made, but it IS very functional, extremely easy, and quick to make when you are frantically trying to rack your brain for a fun game that 12 Girl Scouts of different ages can play together! Last year we did Pin the Nose on Rudolph which was a big hit but I wanted to do some kind of relay this year that wouldn’t be messy or take a lot of set up. Enter the Santa Claus head beanbag toss!

All you need is a piece of foam board from the Dollar tree (mine was 30″ long by 20″ wide), 1 1/2 bags of dried great northern beans, various pieces of different colored felt and thread, 2 stiff cardboard boxes (a vacuum cleaner box works perfectly cut in half), 8 sheets of printer paper, 2 large Stockings, some tape and wrapping paper.

I’m not good at tutorials but here’s a simple explanation: Basically you print out the template, glue it onto the foambaord. Have your daughter color it. Use an exacto knife to cut out the opening. Careful! Cut your long vacuum box in half (each half will be about 15″-16″ tall).

Mark the box sides at an even angle with pen and a contractor’s square or ruler. Be sure to leave a few inches of the back open so you can retrieve the beanbags easily! Bend the sides in at marks, then bend the front back, it will be supported by the bent in sides, use duct tape to securely hold it all together. Trace the cut out circle from your Santa head onto the cardboard. Cut it out with the exacto knife. Careful!

Hot Glue the Foam board to the box after you’ve wrapped it with festive paper and you’re done with the toss!

For the beanbags just cut your felt into approximately 3 – 31/2 ” squares and sew together 1/4 inch from edge leaving a 1/2″ opening to fill with your beans. Sew closed. I originally wanted to make round beanbags that looked like cookies but it was giving me too much trouble so I just got mad and hacked the felt into very uneven squares, sewed and, trimmed them. They look fine for the kids! I made a12 bean bags for each team (plus an extra round one for each to make it a baker’s dozen haha!) Use the Stockings to hold the beanbags and you’ve got a cute game that costs next to nothing for the kids to play with!

What do you think? I hope they like it! I linked up at The “Finished on the 15th” blog hop over at Fave Crafts so go take a peek at all of the awesome things people are making!