Mardi Gras is a fun and unique holiday that started in Europe in the 17^th century. We celebrate this holiday with the colors purple, green and gold, which were chosen by the King of Carnival to represent justice, faith, and power. It can be hard to find Mardi Gras themed ideas that are suitable for kids, so we’ve put together some fun activities, crafts, and costumes so they can enjoy the day!

Mardi Gras Activities 

Parade Float

One of the best parts of this holiday is the parade. Have kids make their own mini parade by creating a “float” out of shoe boxes, as a Makerspace project. Each team will choose a theme and design their own parade float. We’ve found some great ideas on Pinterest to help get them inspired.

Suggested Materials:

• Feathers
• Mardi Gras Party Kit
• Masks
• Construction Paper
• Beads
• Gems

Coin Toss

Kids can use gold coins for a game of coin toss. Choose a starting location and mark it with tape. Then have each member of each team stand behind the starting line and try to toss the coins into the bucket, or you can use any household item for a target. The object is to get the most coins inside the bucket.

Pom Pom Mardi Gras Craft

What’s a holiday without a pom pom craft? Use purple, green, and gold pom poms, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, and shapes to create these adorable little critters in under 10 minutes! Switch up the colors for each one so they represent each holiday color!

Materials:

• Pom poms
• Pipe cleaners
• Wiggly eyes
• Foam shapes or felt sheets

Mardi Gras Accessories

DIY Mask

If you want to encourage creativity, have your kids make their own masks! With just cardboard, paper, glue, and fun ways to decorate like with adhesive gems, each kid can create their own. Check out this tutorial from DLTK Crafts for Kids.

You can also choose from our selection of masks! Here are a few of our favorites:

Color-Me™ Cardstock Half Masks

Assorted Feather Masks

Party Beads

Hand out party costume beads, just like they do at the parade! Kids love these as costume jewelry. They can wear them and use them to decorate their parade float!

Mardi Gras Cookies

Make colorful cookies with food coloring! You can use single colors to make green, purple, and gold (yellow) cookies  – see this tutorial on wikiHow– or mix the colors for a very cool design like Katrina’s Kitchen did!

Share your ideas for celebrating Mardi Gras by leaving us a comment!