Purim Carnival Booth Ideas

If you’re looking for Purim carnival booth ideas, you’re in the right place! I put together this fun list of Purim-themed games and activities that are fabulous for your school or shul’s Purim Carnival. This post contains affiliate links.

Some readers requested ideas for larger scale activities and carnival booths, and while – full disclosure – I’ve never run a Purim carnival, I decided to spring for it! It would be fairly impossible for me to create tutorials for each of these, although I did assemble a few on-the-fly to show you.

As a creative who was once a kid (hard to believe, I know!) I thought I was qualified enough to take some classic carnival games (and maybe some less-classic ones) and give them a Purim spin. Some are just tied in with the signage, others are designed and decorated to fit the theme, and others are themed in their very nature.

So many of these are inspired by the Purim carnivals of my childhood, the ones we attended in the neighborhood, and the ones we threw at school. I hope you’ll get some good Purim carnival ideas from here – whether it’s the specific booth, or just a lead towards further inspiration.

Purim Carnival Games & Tabletop Booths

The classic carnival games are placed on a tabletop and can be presented at any scale. You can fill a room with a hundred booths like this, or you can just have a few as part of a larger Purim party. These are the most doable, affordable, and most kid-friendly (on the coordination end) of these Purim carnival ideas. Many of them use household items, too.

Pick the Shushan Castle Door – I have done a lot of pick-the-door games at my kids’ birthday parties and they are always a hit. Since you usually start with a cardboard box, why not decorate it as Achashverosh’s castle, or in Shushan style? You can make one blank, one an instant prize, and one candy, or make one with loads of doors. You can also make there only be one winner – pick the door with Esther! Just make sure you switch around the position of the prizes each time so that kids can play again and again.
Guess how many – The best I can think of for a “guess how many” type of game is graggers or hamantaschen. Got any better ideas? Just fill a large jar with as many as you can and the person who guesses closest wins. At the end, you can distribute them and award a separate prize to the winner.
Knock Down Haman – Make a tower of cups with Haman’s face on them… and toss a lightweight ball at it to knock it down!
Ring toss – The classic bottle ring toss game can be played where you toss a crown or tiara over bottles.
OR Haman’s Hat toss – A similar game can be played trying to toss a Haman’s hat (make it yourself out of felt if you’re really crafty or use a costume accessory) onto a wig head decorated with his face.
Spin the Gragger – Craft a jumbo prize wheel out of foam board where the spinner is a gragger shape. Prizes can include a Mishloach Manot goodie bag, prize tickets, hamantaschen, extra spins, etc.
Costume races – Fill two boxes with costumes and accessories (I recommend collecting these from assorted places for the funny factor), and have races who can get dressed up faster – over their clothing, of course! The funnier and more mixed up the better. The rule is, they need to be wearing it enough so that it stays on if they do a little dance – it will make for some fun silly dancing. That way they can just put it around their neck and it doesn’t really need to fit.

Pin the crown on Esther – can you be the one who coronates Esther? Grab a blindfold and give it a try!
Shushan castle building – Play a classic cup stacking race – only decorate cups like portions of a castle.
Guess the gragger sound – Make graggers by filling a cup with something and taping another cup rim-to-rim with it. Sandwich a stick between cups as a “handle”. Seal well around edges. Have players guess what filling is in each gragger. Examples can be beads, beans, pasta, rice, etc. You can let people know which options to choose from first or make it a total mystery. (Tutorial for this is coming soon)

Guess the hamantaschen flavor – Blindly give each participant a hamantasch and have them guess the filling flavor!
Gragger Table Goal – Use a gragger to swing a beach ball or golf ball towards a goal. You can offer different materials of gragger for different difficulty levels – for example, a solid wood gragger has less give, but a very easy-to-spin plastic one will be harder to use. If you’d like, make a “lane” that they have to stay inside of using masking tape.

Purim Character Penny Toss – Float sponges in water with different Purim characters written on them. Good guys are green or blue, bad guys are red or pink sponges. Land a “good guy” to win.
Roll up the Megillah race – Use pretend megillahs (make one here) and have a race who can roll it up faster!
Hamantaschen Flip – Use a turner to race who can flip the most hamantaschen into a Mishloach Manot wicker basket. I would recommend making them from felt, but you can also use beanbags to make it harder. If you can’t sew Hamantaschen beanbags, you can Cricut or draw with paint markers on regular bean bags.
Hat Stacking Race – Have kids stack a variety of hats on their heads, one on top of the other. Who can make a higher stack without knocking it off)? Collect an assortment of costume and regular hats and caps from carnival participants, or get a big pack of novelty hats for a different challenge.

Guess how many Haman’s Hats – This is the classic chocolate chips in marshmallow fluff game. An unknown amount of chocolate chips are hidden in a spoon of marshmallow fluff and the kid playing has to guess how many as they eat it. Chocolate chips are kind of in the shape of Haman’s hats…
Lucky Lollipops Carnival Game (rewrite) – A popular carnival game, this one fits right into the Mishloach Manot angle of Purim! Get a big foam block, paint it, and pop in some Dum Dums. But color a black dot on the bottom of some sticks and leave some alone. Poke all the lollies into the foam. If a kid picks one with a black dot they keep it and/or get a prize ticket. You can have backup dotted lollies to refill with so you don’t run dry (but also not everyone wins). You can also do some black (keep the lolly) and some red (get a prize ticket) for variety. And finally, make it even more Purim themed by turning them into hamantaschen!
Mirror Mazes – Kids hold a mirror behind a maze placed on a table and try to do the maze while looking in the mirror. Make it Purim themed by using Purim mazes – coming soon 🙂
Cup shuffle game with Purim characters underneath. You can do three cups with one blank, one Haman, and one Esther. Esther wins. Haman gets a penalty. Blank is nothing. Or do “good guys/bad guys” of Purim with good guys winning and bad losing. I used my Purim puppets in full color and cut out the heads to fit under party sized cups.

Purim Carnival Larger Booths, Activities, and Races

A good carnival has a mix of some larger and smaller activities. Depending on the space you need to fill, you may just want a few tabletop booths (above) but you may also want to fill a large auditorium or park with things many kids can do at once. If you’re making a larger event, here are some larger activities to try.

Haman Bowling – Decorate toy bowling pins with Haman’s face and swing the bowling ball to see how many Hamans (or Haman and his ten evil sons) you can knock down.
Queen Esther’s Crown Bean Bag Toss – Make a Cornhole style game but use different sized tiaras to frame the holes, so that kids are scoring inside Queen Esther’s Crown.
Castle bounce house – A fun way to incorporate something like a bouncy house into a Purim carnival is with a sign that says… welcome to Achashverosh’s palace!
Obstacle Course – This is another tie-in if you want large inflatable rides at your carnival: help the messengers cancel the decree! Race each other as Achashverosh’s messengers on an obstacle course.
Scepter Limbo – Play classic limbo but with a broomstick decorated as Achashveirosh’s scepter.
Scepter balancing race – Use costume scepters and have a race while balancing it in your hand!
Clown Walk Race – Get some huge costume clown shoes and have players race in them!
Haman Sponge Throwing – While usually played with clowns, why not play a in a “throw the garbage on Haman” theme? Or stick with clowns.
Clown Face Cornhole – Make a clown to go over your cornhole game and have kids throw them through the mouth.
Potato sack race – Decorate the sacks with Haman leading a horse – so players are Mordechai on the horse.
Fishing game – The classic fishing game ties right into Adar as the symbol of Adar is fish! You can also add Purim megillah themed “wins” to the fish. For example, they can say things like “Achashverosh agreed to kill all the Jews – you lose!” or “Mordechai saves the king’s life – you win!” There are enough ups and downs in the megillah to fill a LOT of fish.

Open Ended Crafts and Activities to do at a Purim Carnival

There’s no reason not to have quick crafts and activities at your carnival too! This helps offer some more diverse entertainment, and give an outlet for the kids who aren’t heavy into competition and winning-type games.

Sensory bin – I have one coming up, but this is an extra win with the toddler and preschool crowd, and great at family events with multiple age groups.
Face painting – It’s always a win, and whether kids chose Purim-themed paintings or not, it’s a costume so it’s spot on! Just choose the artist of the group and get a simple kit – or hire someone to do the job.
Mask decorating – we’ve done it at Purim parties, and it’s an easy thing to set up for Purim carnivals too. Just start with blank masks, markers, and lots of glue-on craft supplies (use largish glue dots if you need it to dry instantly – or just stick with self adhesive foam stickers).

Crown decorating – Alternatively, put out some ready-to-go crown decorating kits.
Scratch art masks – I bumped into these when looking for DIY mask ideas and I think they’re perfect for Purim carnivals! Scratch art is always a win in our house, and there’s no dry time, making it a fabulous Purim carnival booth idea.
Photo Prop Booth – Set up a photo booth with costume accessories like crowns and glasses, and/or photo props. You can do it with the Purim characters, or in a generic dress-up theme. Either hire a photo booth company, or do it yourself using Instax cameras (the easiest way) or a phone and an instant printer.

Balloon animals – this carnival classis can be done in a Purim theme, with Graggers (kind of like a flag?), scepters, horses, masks, and crowns.
Mishloach Manot Assembly Station – This is great for teachers, synagogues, etc. who want to hand out Mishloach Manot to the kids but would be happy to save the time on assembling it. Kids can decorate paper goody bags with markers and/or stickers (optional). Put out a small variety of snacks and have someone supervise and make sure kids take only one of each.
Mishloach Manot CandyGrams – Print a picture of a Mishloach Manot basket as your base for your Candy Grams and kids can color them in, write a note, attach a candy, and send them to a buddy!
Matanot Le’evyonim – Why not have a booth dedicated to one of the most important mitzvot of the day – giving to the poor? Have some charity boxes set up for reputable organizations. Anyone who gives – any amount or set a minimum – gets a ticket or five!

Purim Carnival Prize Ideas

Want your prizes to be themed too? Here are some ideas! These are great for ticket exchanges, and you can also use them as prizes for individual booths – like pick the door – that may have instant prizes too.

Mishloach Manot goody bags with some treats inside
Purim themed lollipops if you have a Cricut

Purim stickers
Tiaras, crowns, clown noses, bow ties, “disguises“, bling, fake mustaches, and other costume accessories
Purim craft kits (assemble yourself or buy)
Funny masks
Any clown themed party favors and small carnival prizes (some of them make great purim carnival ideas too)
Purim coloring books – print yourself from coloring pages or buy them. You can pair it with crayons for larger prizes.
Graggers and all sorts of noisemakers
Hamantaschen headbands
Purim books
Kid-friendly Megillahs (this is fabulous especially in a Chabad-type setting)
Grand prizes for 1-2 big games (like the “guess how many” can be full costumes