Have you ever been walking in the snow, minding your own business, when all of a sudden you feel pain?  You’ve been hit in the back of the head by a snowball?  You know snowballs hurt, but snowball fights are part of the fun of having snow.  Along with building snowmen, snowball fights are a common childhood activity.  To avoid being hurt, however, you may want to suggest your children have snowball fights with cotton balls.

Your children may not like the idea of having snowball fights with cotton balls, but there are several benefits of having snowball fights this way.

1.  Children of any age can have this type of snowball fight.  You won’t have to worry about older children bombarding younger children with tons of snowballs.  Even toddlers can have cotton ball snowball fights.

2.  This type of snowball fight can be played indoors.  There’s no need to be concerned about the snowball melting in your hands.

3.  You don’t need gloves to play with them.  You also don’t need to bundle them up to play.  There’s no chance of developing frost bite while playing, so you and your children can have snowball fights with cotton balls for as long as you like.

4.  Since the snowball is made from cotton balls, you know no one will be hurt by the snowball being too hard.

Set up your living room or a bedroom for the snowball fight.  Stand cushions up to act like a fort or leave space behind the couch for people to be somewhat protected.  If you have several children, or children from the neighborhood come to play, you may want to choose sides rather than letting the children do it themselves.  This way the older children won’t be “against” the younger ones.

You can have your children put six or eight cotton balls into a zip top bag that has been turned inside out; this will keep the corners from being too sharp.  You can also make cotton ball snowballs by tying the cotton balls in squares of fabric.  Make sure there are enough of them for everyone to have several.  If there are only a few, it’ll be a mighty short snowball fight.

Consider giving your opposing sides some rules to follow, just as you would if they were having their snowball fight outside.  Obviously you want the children to refrain from hitting one another in the head and face.  The cotton ball snowballs may not cause injury, but it’s a good idea to always keep children from trying to hit one another in the head.

Even though the snowball fight with cotton balls will be occurring indoors, you may still want to plan on having hot chocolate for the weary armies.  They may not be frozen and wet, but they’ll still appreciate the warmth of the hot chocolate.  Just don’t forget the marshmallows!