The crowns are decorated, the tea table is set, and a tea party is quiet by design, which is lovely right up until a 4-year-old has finished her sandwich and is looking around for something to do. The planning pack already covers a royal freeze dance and a gentle pass-the-crown round, so I will not repeat those here. These are four more games for the same party, to swap in or add: all of them use things already in your house, each takes five to eight minutes, and they work for ages 3 to 6 with a small tweak for the younger end.

Four Games That Fit a Tea Party

1. Royal Decree (ages 3-6)

You are the queen for the first round. Announce, “Hear ye, hear ye! By royal decree, all subjects must hop like frogs!” Everyone does it until you call the next decree: curtsy to the left, tiptoe in a circle, wave like a queen, sneeze like a dragon. After a few rounds, let a different child be queen. Nobody is ever out, and every kid gets a turn in charge.

A 3-year-old who freezes when it is her turn does fine if you whisper three choices in her ear and let her pick one. Two minutes covers three or four decrees as a finish; eight minutes fills a whole slot. The last decree of the game is the one that moves everyone to the table: “By royal decree, all subjects must walk to the tea party.”

2. Find Your Glass Slipper (ages 4-6)

Every guest takes off one shoe and drops it in a big pile in the middle of the room (use a rug or a hula hoop as the “ballroom floor”). Stir the pile. On “go,” each child finds her own shoe, puts it back on, and sits on a cushion “throne” along the wall. A second round works nicely for the 5 and 6-year-olds: each child grabs someone else’s shoe and delivers it to its owner, which turns a race into a small act of kindness.

Plan on five minutes. If the party is indoors and everyone is in socks, use one sock instead. This one earns its spot at the very end of the party: everyone has shoes on for pickup, which is more useful than it sounds with ten kids and ten sets of parents arriving at once. I would skip it for 3-year-olds, who often cannot get a buckle shoe back on without help and will melt down in the middle of the pile.

3. The Princess and the Pea (ages 3-6)

Tell the two-sentence version of the fairy tale first: a princess so delicate that she could feel one pea hidden under twenty mattresses. Then stack four or five piles of pillows, folded towels, or couch cushions in a row on the floor. While the kids close their eyes (or turn their backs), slip a stuffed animal under one pile. That is your “pea.” Choose something fist-sized or larger, not an actual pea or a marble, since the youngest guests will want to pick it up and examine it.

Kids take turns lifting a pile and guessing. When someone finds it, the whole group shouts “Ouch!” and holds a sore bottom, which is the best part. Re-hide it between turns; with ten kids it runs about eight minutes. For ages 3 and 4, who do not wait well, play it as a team instead: the group votes on a pile together and one child lifts it for everyone.

4. Dragon’s Treasure Hunt (ages 4-6)

Cut two gold circles per child from cardstock or craft foam: 16 to 24 coins for 8 to 12 guests. Put a green stuffed animal on the floor as the “sleeping dragon” with a laundry basket next to it as the treasure chest. Scatter the coins around the room and tell the princesses they have to tiptoe around the dragon and collect treasure without waking it. Whenever you say “the dragon is stirring!” everybody freezes until you say it has gone back to sleep. When the coins are all in the basket, count them together, and the dragon “rewards” every child, ideally with a sheet of stickers.

For 4-year-olds, leave most of the coins in plain sight at kid height. For 5 and 6-year-olds, tuck them behind pillows and under blankets. For anyone under 4, keep out loose small items they could mouth, and use the pack sticker sheet as the reward. Eight minutes is plenty.

Where These Fit in the 90-Minute Agenda

Keep the pack’s clock and swap games into it. Arrivals and the crown craft (0:00 to 0:20) and the royal freeze dance (0:20 to 0:30) stay exactly as they are, since everyone is wiggly after the craft.

  • 0:30 to 0:40, replaces pass-the-crown, for a group that skews 3 and 4: play the team version of The Princess and the Pea from 0:30 to 0:38, then Royal Decree from 0:38 to 0:40, ending on “walk to the tea party.”
  • 0:30 to 0:40, replaces pass-the-crown, for a group that skews 5 and 6: play Dragon’s Treasure Hunt from 0:30 to 0:38, then Royal Decree from 0:38 to 0:40, ending on “walk to the tea party.”
  • 1:20 to 1:30, as the start of favors and farewell: run Find Your Glass Slipper for the first five minutes, then hand out crowns and favor bags. The cake and singing at 1:05 to 1:20 stay untouched, and everyone has shoes on for pickup. Skip it for 3-year-olds and let their parents handle shoes.

The tea (0:40 to 1:05) stays a quiet, seated stretch with no game in it. At a two-hour party, add 30 minutes before tea and play both the treasure hunt and the Pea game.

Picking Games by Age

For 3 and 4-year-olds, stick to Royal Decree and the team version of the Pea game, and skip anything that makes them wait through ten turns. For 5 and 6-year-olds, the treasure hunt and the shoe game fit, and the Pea game can get a harder hiding spot. In a mixed group, pair each older child with a younger one on the treasure hunt: the older one carries the basket, and the younger one is not left behind.

Small Rooms and Rainy Days

All four work in a living room. Royal Decree needs standing room, the Pea game a patch of floor, and the treasure hunt is easier indoors because you control where the coins go. For the glass slipper, push the furniture back, or skip the race and just do the shoe delivery round. Nothing here is loud, which helps in an apartment.

For the invitations, decorations, cake, favors, and the full run-of-show these games slot into, see the Princess Tea Party Planning Pack. For cake, menu, and decor in more depth, read our princess birthday party ideas guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are good princess party games for a 4-year-old?

Royal Decree and a team version of The Princess and the Pea. Both have simple rules, nobody gets eliminated, and nobody waits long for a turn.

How many games do you need at a princess birthday party?

Two or three games on top of the crown craft is right for a 90-minute tea party: the pack’s freeze dance, one main game before tea (with a short Royal Decree to finish), and a quick shoe game at the end if your guests are 4 and up. More than that and you run short on time for the tea and cake.

What princess party games can we play without buying anything?

All four here. Royal Decree needs nothing, the Pea game uses pillows and a stuffed animal, the shoe game uses guests’ own shoes, and the dragon hunt needs paper circles, a stuffed animal, and a laundry basket.

What do you do at a princess tea party besides the crowns and cake?

Add one or two short games between the craft and the tea. A pretend royal decree, a hunt for the dragon’s gold coins, or a hide-the-pea guessing game each fill five to eight minutes without a second craft station.