How To Make a Homemade Piñata

How To Make a Homemade Piñata! Every year we make a piñata for Mike’s parents Christmas party. You wonder why we don’t just buy one from the store???? The ones at the store are WIMPY! Since we are a family that consists of so many different ages of grandkids, we have to be clever in the construction of the piñata.

Our life has been a little crazy this year with weddings, birth of baby Cooper, and Lisa’s birthday. We had to come up with a plan to make a sturdy piñata in a small time frame. This year, we used a cardboard box and wrapped it in packing tape and then covered it in paper Mache.

I like to spray paint it for the bottom coat and then add decorations for the finishing touches.

How To Make a Homemade Piñata

This is our creation from last year. It looks like a innocent elf but really it is 3 piñatas in one! We took 3 punching balls and place them inside of each other. You can purchase the punching balls at Kmart for about 99 cents for all 3!

My husband is crazy when it comes to his piñata! He wanted the first ball easy to break for the little kids. The second ball for the teenagers and the third ball the grandkids that are young adults.

The first ball is covered only in paper Mache. The second one is covered in cheese cloth, packing tape and paper Mache. The third one became the anchor that would hook the piñata to the rope. He took wire to make a cage around the ball and then covered it in cheese cloth, packing tape and paper Mache. All the balls were different sizes and prepared separately, until they needed to be combined. We would add new layers to the balls each day. The paper Mache needs to be dry before you add another coat.

All you need for your paper Mache is newspaper, flour and water. Mix flour and water to make a soupy mixture (don’t make it too thick). Dip strips of newspaper into the flour mixture. Run your fingers over the paper to squeeze the extra water off the paper. Lay the strips onto the piñata and smooth.

Repeat until all areas are covered. Find a place that you can hang your piñata to dry. We hang it in the furnace room. Depending how strong you want your piñata to be, continue until you achieve your goal, then decorate.

We blindfold the older kids and turn them around three times before they start. My husband has the rope on a pulley, so he can higher and lower the piñata.