How to arrange a New Year quest for children

Christmas and New Year are coming, and you want to organize a quest at home? Then the easiest way is to buy a ready-made home quest script, which will be sent to your email right away. You only need to print it out and arrange the tasks according to the instructions. On average, preparation takes only 30 minutes, and the quest script can be chosen according to the age and number of children. See the options for ready-made New Year quests in this section.

If you want to come up with a New Year quest with the search for clues and riddles and organize it yourself – read our instructions below!

What is a New Year home quest for children?

A home quest is a game that consists of tasks and puzzles hidden in a house or in the street in a certain sequence. The answer to each task indicates the stash where the next one is hidden. The last task will tell you where the gift is located.

New Year is a perfect holiday to organize a gift search and turn it into a real adventure! Do not just leave the gifts under the Christmas tree, have fun! Even if you have never done this, you will be able to arrange a quest yourself; you only need some time to prepare and a little imagination!

Where to arrange the quest

By saying "home quest", we don’t mean that it can only be organized in a house or apartment. In fact, you can do it anywhere: in the yard, in the park, at school, in the kindergarten, in a library or a café. The quest tasks will depend on the place you choose and the age and number of players.

When you have decided on the venue, choose suitable hiding places for future tasks:

if only children are playing, then stashes should not be located above their height, in dangerous and inaccessible places;
limit the play area in the street and in a public place: when playing in the park, you can pull a string along the borders, and when playing indoors – specify which parts of the area are involved;
use festive things and accessories: Christmas tree, garlands, lights, paper snowflakes, etc.;
the names of hiding places should be familiar to children and not be too difficult to spell.

When coming up with a New Year quest for children at home, take into account the features of riddles for children of different age:

how well the children can read and make words out of letters: a New Year quest for a 3-6 year old child should consist of pictures (they can be downloaded on the Internet or simply drawn — so the stash is clear in the picture), puzzles and riddles corresponding the age and not contain letter tasks. Use no more than 8-10 cards so that children do not get tired;
if it is a New Year quest for a 8-9 year old child, you can already include a small crossword puzzle, word puzzles and anagrams (making words from a set of letters). We recommend no more than 10 tasks;
10-12 year old children will do an excellent job with a rebus, a logical puzzle and a complicated mathematical problem. 12 tasks will be enough;
make sure to add electronic tasks using various apps (for example, a QR code reader), audio prompts and Internet search in New Year quests for children aged 12-15. Then the indication may not be direct (an armchair), but "dad's favorite place to read" or "the third book about a boy wizard" instead. Use up to 15 tasks;
create a quest not only for children, but for the whole family: to do this, come up with more difficult tasks. For example, a ready-made New Year MEGAquest has 21 tasks — 7 tasks of three difficulty levels (they are marked with one, two or three snowflakes, which is very convenient)! So, it’s one big quest for everyone: kids solve puzzles with one snowflake, schoolchildren – with two, and parents, grandparents and guests participate in solving tasks with three snowflakes!

How to come up with a New Year quest script for children at home

A quest doesn’t have to be a gift search by notes, it can have any plot! The simplest possible questscript is finding notes from Santa Claus, who has decided to play and left hints about where the gifts are hidden, but this option is not the only one.

For example, in a ready-made script of a New Year quest for children of 7 years and older, naughty little snowmen called Snowguys hide children's gifts. In the process of completing the quest, the children find the snowmen (toy, handmade or printed) and find out why they are so naughty. They prepare a gift for the snowmen and find their own presents in the end of the quest.

In the New Year quest for 10+ year old children, the plot is already more complicated: a dangerous criminal Santa Burglas has been stealing Christmas gifts for many years. The children find the message that he wrote to his accomplice Rudolf. It’s a request to steal the gifts that Santa Burglas could not carry away himself. Following hints and solving tasks, the children collect the digits of Santa Claus’ secret phone number, find gifts and help arrest the thief!

Any character can hide gifts in your quest, a negative (like the Snow Queen, a naughty elf, Grinch, Voldemort, an angry dwarf, basically any bad character of your favorite cartoon or book) or positive one. Elsa and Anna from “Frozen”, Nick and Judy from "Zootopia", cowboy Woody from "Toy Story", Cruella from “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” or puppies from "PAW Patrol" will make the quest amazing and fun, and the children will definitely enjoy the fact that their favorite characters have addressed them personally.

Add another mission besides finding gifts: let the character who hid the gifts ask the children to help them in something or fix what the villain did. For example, the Snow Queen has scattered ice cubes everywhere to freeze the hearts of everyone at the party (transparent jellybeans or marbles can be ice cubes), and all 20 pieces need to be found in the house and hidden in the freezer. Alternatively, hide a piece of a torn map with each task. It could have been lost by Moana, and now she doesn't know how to sail to her island, or by a pirate who can't find his treasure. The map needs to be found piece by piece, assembled and glued together.

Ready-made New Year quests scripts

If you want to save a lot of time, you don't have to invent a quest yourself. Instead, download a ready-made script that can be printed on a home printer (even in black and white) or go to the nearest printing house and do it in color. There are many ready-made scripts on the Internet, and this option has a lot of advantages:

total time saving, as you don’t need to invent and prepare the tasks. Everything has already been done for you;
a large selection of scripts: for any age, number of players, plot, etc.
beautiful card design;
detailed preparation instructions (the preparation of the game itself takes 30-40 minutes);
quest tasks proven "in battle", so there’re no mistakes, and it will be interesting for children to play;
speed, as you pay by card directly on the website and receive the script by mail in a minute.

There are also a few disadvantages:

although a quest costs like a couple of cups of coffee, it still needs to be paid for;
if you want to fit your story or characters into the plot, it will be quite difficult to do this with a ready-made quest.

Examples of ready-made quests

We have prepared a small selection of ready-made New Year quests which you can organize at home.

New Year MEGAquest

A multipurpose home quest, which consists of tasks of 3 levels of difficulty. It’s perfect for a company of different ages, where there are small children (3+), older children (10+) and even adult players. For example, you are going to celebrate Christmas/New Year with a large family or you have invited friends with children. That's exactly the case when MEGAquest will come in handy. You can learn more about it and buy it on this page.

Looking for the Snowguys

If you need to entertain a group of 2-8 children from 5 to 10 years old at a New Year party (4-5 children is the best) – this quest is what you need! It can also be passed by one child, if, for example, you want to present a New Year gift in an unusual way. Instead of putting the gift under the Christmas tree, put an envelope with the first task of the quest and arrange a little adventure for your son or daughter (or maybe both). You can learn more about the plot and buy the quest here.

Santa Burglas

This one is a New Year quest for older children (10+), which consists of 12 tasks. They are not the simplest, but very interesting indeed. It’s a perfect option for finding New Year gifts in the house. A detailed plot is described on this page — you can also buy the quest there.

However, if you have decided to come up with an idea of the quest and carry it out yourself, then read the article further. We’re going to give you some ideas of tasks and a version of the plot for a home adventure.

Tasks for New Year quests

Since it’s a New Year quest, it is better to come up with thematic tasks, using New Year pictures and symbols: snowmen, decorated Christmas tree, Christmas stockings, icicles, skates, skis, snowflakes, sweets, gifts, fireworks and what not. Everything is in your hands if you know how to use Photoshop, but even if not, you can simply download thematic pictures on the Internet and paste them on task sheets in Microsoft Word or any other suitable program. The easiest way is to draw, and this does not require artistic skills, the main thing here is the idea behind the riddle, not its embodiment.

We have collected all the tips and tricks for creating and arranging the quest tasks in a detailed instruction: "How to arrange a quest yourself". Make your own quest using our examples of different tasks!

New Year quest script for 7-year-olds: "Notes from Santa Claus"

It’s suitable for 2-4 people, consists of ten riddles created for the house, and it will take about 1 hour.

New Year's Eve has come, and the children find a big beautiful gift box under the Christmas tree. But there is nothing in it, only a postcard from Santa Claus: "Dear children, this year I decided to hide your presents instead of just putting them under the Christmas tree. I want check how smart and quick-witted you are! I have left you some hints by which you can find gifts!" Then there is a strange description in the postcard: "look for a device that, acting according to the program, performs automated data processing". They guess that it's a computer or a laptop.
There is a screensaver on the computer screen – two identical photos of a decorated Christmas tree. But are they really the same? Here, one ball is missing!

The children run to the Christmas tree and find the same ball that was in one picture, but not in the other. A riddle is tied to the ball: "Look somewhere in the house – the north pole is inside!" It’s in the freezer, of course!
There is a container with real snow in the freezer! After rummaging through it, the children open a plastic egg from "Kinder Surprise", and there are letters written on pieces of paper in it. They should make up the word "snowflakes".
There are beautiful paper snowflakes hanging on the wall. There is a letter on the reverse side of each of them. The word "garland" can be made out of them.
A note with a small crossword puzzle with New Year riddles is attached to the garland’s wire. Having entered the needed words in the boxes, the children read the word "plant" by the highlighted letters.
An envelope is found in the foliage of a houseplant, and in it, there is a picture cut into pieces. They assemble the picture – a snowman is drawn on it, but for some reason he does not have a nose! The nose is a carrot. They need to check the vegetable section in the fridge, where the carrots are.

There's a picture of Grandma in the vegetable drawer! The children run to grandma, but she will give a hint only if the children sing her a cheerful New Year song (something nice and not so obvious!) When the song has been sung, she gives the children a chest with a digital suitcase lock and a note with riddles.
How many reindeer are harnessed to Santa Claus's sleigh? Eight. How many children did Kevin McCallister’s parents have? Five. How many sisters are there in the “Frozen”? Two. The numbers 852 help the children to unlock the lock and read the note: ALPHABET 3 12 15 19 5 20. The letters C, L, O, S, E and T have such numbers in the alphabet. The children find gifts in the closet!

To prepare such a quest, you will need a couple of hours. So it is better not to delay until the day of the holiday, but to prepare tasks in advance. You will have time to arrange them in order and hide the gifts on the day of the event. All riddles can be drawn or printed out. Speaking about the props, you will only need a gift box, a postcard, some plastic containers from Kinders, an envelope for a puzzle and a small amount of real snow from the street (but it's not necessary). Don't forget to download Christmas music for a great mood!

For self–checking, it is most convenient to make a small table where you will record the sequence of tasks – this way you will not confuse anything when arranging the sequence.

New Year quest outdoors

A street quest is different from a house one: tasks should be more active and aimed at search, since it is inconvenient to solve complex text tasks (especially if it is freezing cold) outside.

Basic rules:

Select the territory for the game and inform the children that they shouldn’t go beyond.
Do not leave hints in plain sight so that an outsider cannot accidentally discover them (if you are in a public place: in the yard or in the park).
It is better to protect paper hints from getting wet: cover them with tape or laminate, put them in plastic containers from Kinders or just small bags.
If it's dark, give the players flashlights.
It's better to hide the gifts at home anyway, but the players will only find out where they are when they are outside.

Tasks for an outdoor quest in winter:

Use simple riddles.
Play with associations: where was your secret hideout in the summer? Which of the surrounding objects will help to build muscles? Find a tree with cones!
Use the help of accomplices: let dad or grandpa ask the children to run three times around the carousel to get the hint, then climb into the tunnel and gather at the big tree at the far end of the yard.
Pull a beautiful festive ribbon around various obstacles and objects (do it if you’re playing in a private yard or cottage), attach a key on one end, and tie a locked box on the other. You need to pull the key along the entire length of the ribbon and open the box with the hint.
Active tasks: the children have to form a big "train" and move all together down the hill. Make a small snowman, dress it up and make it happy. Draw a smiling face in the snow with your footprints. For each task, children can be given a letter. When they collect them all, they will read the name of the stash with gifts!

New Year quest at school

Basic rules:

Divide the class into two or three teams, so everyone can solve the tasks and there won't be much noise.
For each team, come up with their own tasks and their own chain of hiding places so that they do not intersect anywhere.

Make sure that parents take part in the preparation.
Be sure to include 1-2 active tasks. Let the children dance or run the race, otherwise the accomplice will not give the next clue.
Include some dressing up: in advance, prepare a basket with Christmas hats, glasses, tinsel and other props. Arrange a contest for the funniest Santa.
It will be more interesting to figure out who hid the gifts and why if you come up with a plot. For example, in the ready-made quest script for grades 5-9 "Dr. Spiralius’ Antivirus", children get into the future, where all people are infected with a dangerous virus, and schoolchildren must find rescue kits for themselves so as not to get infected (these are sweet New Year gifts), and help the doctor come up with the correct antivirus formula! The quest is divided into six stages, each of which is conducted by an adult dressed up as a quest character, and three teams pass them all in their own order.
Use the maximum available space (cloakroom, halls, classroom, gym).
Use your imagination: you can hide not only gifts, but also a small Christmas tree, a cake for a tea party or ... a teacher!

Prizes and gifts for the New Year quest

It is not necessary to hide gifts on New Year's Eve. If a big group of children is playing, it’s hard to get a gift for everyone. The best way out is to stock up on small surprises that will remain as a nice memory of a fun quest:

Christmas toys in the shape of different characters, animals or snowflakes.
Sparklers, firecrackers (but remember about cleaning after, and tell the children that they can only use them under adult supervision).
Beautiful Christmas candy in the shape of canes or other fancy sweets.

Cool stationery – everyone needs them and they will not be thrown away.
Christmas themed books or coloring books with tasks.
Fancy hats, glasses and other paraphernalia – you can immediately dress up and take funny photos!

Conclusion

Creating quests on your own is not easy, but very exciting indeed! The main thing is to start preparing in advance, so as not to rush in the last hours before the festive activities which can spoil your mood.

It is so amazing to see the joy and delight the children get not only from gifts, but also from the game itself! They appreciate your attention and effort. Both you and the participants will not forget this New Year adventure for a long time. Do not forget to take photos and shoot videos!

We know how difficult it is to find some time in the New Year hustle and bustle, so you don't really have to come up with a quest yourself. You can choose and buy any New Year quest script in the ready-made scripts section. Using a ready-made set with detailed instructions, the preparation will only take about an hour and will save you a lot of time. These memories will stay with you forever!