I have filled one a good 90%, at least. Just wondering if it’s too full. Would you say that there needs to be enough air inside for the piñata to be breakable?
Answer from Piñata Boy
The Jaguar piñata that we made for a high school graduation party was all the way full. I mean we couldn’t fit one more piece of candy into it. Fully loaded it weighed about 50 lbs, and we had to use a pulley system in order to be able to move it up and down (this still meant pulling on the rope with 25 lbs of force).
Filling a piñata all the way is possible, but there are three notable drawbacks, especially for large piñatas:
- The weight can create hanging problems. Remember that the hanging hook has to be able to support not only the weight of the filled piñata, but also the additional force of the blows from the piñata stick. So if your piñata is very full, make sure the hanging hook is industrial strength and won’t tear through when the going gets rough. A heavy piñata is also a lot harder to raise and lower during the whacking (if you plan to do that), and the raising and lowering adds additional stress to the hanging hook. A sudden jerk of the rope or a sudden stop after lowering can tear the hanging hook right off the top of a heavy piñata.
- A completely full piñata feels SOLID when it is hit with a piñata stick. A less-full piñata has a little bit of give to it that cushions the blow for the player, but if you’ve ever hit something like a telephone pole with a baseball bat you know how it feels to hit something solid. Of course a piñata will move more than a telephone pole will, but when kids are used to hitting ordinary piñatas and then they hit one that is packed full, they definitely notice the difference. This really wasn’t a problem for the high school kids with the Jaguar piñata, but it might be a problem for younger kids.
- A completely full piñata can be more difficult to break than a partly-filled one because the packed-in candy helps support the piñata walls from the inside.
As long as you can adjust for the extra weight, there’s no reason you can’t fill a piñata all the way. Just be aware that it might take longer for the kids to go through it, and the first few whacks are going to feel like thuds for those kids. Once the piñata starts to tear, though, it loosens up and whacking it feels more like attacking a regular piñata.
Good luck!