Cinco de Mayo Craft: Make a Paper Bag Pinata

My preschooler and I made this fun, easy and fast homemade piñata to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  Homemade piñatas can be messy and a lot of work, but this simple version uses a paper lunch sack!  Keep reading to see how easy it was to make this homemade paper bag pinata.

Paper Bag Pinata Supplies

• paper lunch sack (or large paper grocery bag for a larger pinata)
• tissue paper or crepe paper
• scissors
• glue stick
• rubber band
• candy, toys, stickers etc for inside
• 1 sheet of newspaper

Homemade Paper Bag Pinata Instructions

1. Cut the tissue paper into strips 1-2 inches wide and as long as the width of your paper bag.  Cut fringe on the bottom of the strips.

2. Starting at the bottom of the paper lunch sack, run a stripe of glue across the bag and attach the uncut side of the tissue paper strip.

3. Add stripes of glue and strips of fringed tissue paper as you move up the bag.  Layer the fringe over the tissue paper below so it covers the bag.

4. You don’t need to cover the bag all the way to the top.

5. Repeat for the front and back of the bag, and the sides, if desired.

6.  If you have young children, or if you are using a plastic cricket bat, I highly recommend removing the extra rectangle of paper from the bottom outside of the lunch sack.  This will help the pinata to break more easily by exposing the seal of the bag.

7.  Add candy, stickers, small toys, fruit snacks, airplane peanuts, or whatever you are using to fill your pinata.  Stuff the rest of the bag lightly with crumpled newspaper.

8.  Close your pinata tightly with a rubber band.

9. Hang your completed homemade paper bag pinata and start whacking at it!  It took a long time for us to break our pinata open, but the kids did not get tired of it.

Like I mentioned in step 6, I ended up peeling off part of the bottom of the bag and it finally busted open on the bottom.  Baby boy did not participate in making the pinata, so he was pretty amazed when he hit it and one of his favorite fruit sticks poked out of the bottom.

Linked at For the Kids Fridays, Link & Learn, Workshop Wednesday, and It’s Playtime.