When we play musical chairs, we make one change. At each step of the game, you do remove a chair, but you do not remove a child.  Each child that is seated gets a star sticker placed on his/her chest.  The child can sit on a chair, a portion of a chair, or a lap.  Instead of a few children having fun while crying kids surround them, you have a dozen giggling children all trying to sit on a single chair. The winner is the one with the most stickers at the end of the game.