50 Ideas to Try this Advent

Look no further for ideas to spice up your Christmas party or use as a game during youth group. Here are 50 ideas (most of them I have personally done!) to try out this holiday season.

7 THEMES FOR EVENTS OR PARTIES:

Candy Cane Olympics: Create a bunch of games for students to play, and for every win they get a candy cane! At the end of the night, award the winner of the Candy Cane Olympics with an extra-special prize.

Reindeer Games: Divide the group into reindeer teams and host an evening of games with a grand prize.

Reindeer Hunting: Have a small group pile into a car, grab hot-chocolate from the gas station / Starbucks, and go around neighborhoods with Christmas lights. Together, count the amount of reindeer you see. Each year I try to break the record from the year before!

Salvation Army Red Kettle: Volunteer as a small group together to ring the kettle together and sing Christmas carols.

Progressive Dinner Party: Identify three host homes, and take students around for each piece of the meal: Appetizer, Main Course, and Dessert.

Angel Tree: As a youth group, host a family for Angel Tree. Encourage teens to donate money and buy gifts together or divvy up gifts among the group.

Christmas Pajama Party: Host a movie night where students can wear footie pajamas and binge-watch some holiday classics. Invite students to bring Christmas cookies or other snacks!

43 GAMES AND ACTIVITIES TO TRY DURING YOUR CHRISTMAS PARTY OR YOUTH GROUP:

Ugly Sweater Station: Take the classic ugly sweater party to the next level by having a station where students can make their own! Include: fabric markers, ribbon, stick-on bows, bells, felt Christmas shapes, and lots of hot glue.

Saran Wrap Ball Game: Wrap candy and small prizes in layers of Saran Wrap. Form a circle and go around the circle, rolling dice. When a player rolls a double, they unwrap the Saran Wrap and get the next prize. You could also try this out “hot potato” style,” where you play music, and where the ball stops, they unwrap one layer

Reindeer Antlers: Place two to three minutes on the clock. Teams must blow up and tie balloons, then stuff them into a pair of panty hose, and then put the pantyhose on one player’s head. Team with the best-looking antlers wins.

Wrap Battles: Place five minutes on the clock. Give each team one roll of wrapping paper, tape, Christmas bows, and ribbon. Each team wraps one player, and the best-wrapped player’s team wins!

White Elephant: To keep your gift exchange cheap for families, consider having students bring random things from around their house, their best gag gifts, or regift something from last year.

The Dice Game: I grew up playing this game at my grandma’s! Purchase a bunch of small presents, ranging from chapstick to gloves to $5 gift cards. Wrap everything up. In small groups, place the gifts in the middle of the table and have each person roll. If someone gets doubles, they get to take a present (or steal one from someone else). They then get to roll again. If a person doesn’t get doubles, they pass the dice. You can also do with a coin – heads is open a present, tails is steal.

Gingerbread Houses: Make a station where students can create their own gingerbread house, or have a contest! Include items such as frosting, graham crackers, lots of candy, and pipe icing. We often just give small groups a pre-made Gingerbread house kit and some extra candy/frosting.

Christmas Cookie Decorating: You can use the same items as with the Gingerbread houses, except students can eat their art! You can also decide to do this with cupcakes.

Pancake: Place different colors of pancake mix in squeeze bottles, and encourage the students to make Christmas shapes on the griddle! You could even play Christmas Pictionary this way.

Sled Races: Give students a bunch of different items to make sleds! You can go micro and have them make sleds out of candy, or you can go macro and give them cardboard and other supplies. Then, have them race them across a track (micro) or across the room!

Sleigh All Day: Split students into groups. Give each group a cheap sled (they might break). Have the group get from one point of the room to the other without touching the ground using two sleds. If the touch the ground, they have to restart.

Ornament decorating: Get clear ornaments from Dollar Tree and a bunch of stuff to decorate (ribbons, pipe cleaners, stickers, jingle bells, etc.). Allow students to make ornaments to decorate the youth tree or take home!

DIY Christmas Stockings: Get a bunch of stockings and supplies from the Dollar Tree, and allow students to make their own!

Gift-wrapping: Encourage students to bring gifts to wrap, or have a bunch of boxes to teach students new gift-wrapping techniques.

Christmas themed water color painting: Find some Christmas coloring pages, and cheap water color kits. Allow students to color the pages with water colors for a relaxing activity!

Santa’s Beard: In this game, rub Vaseline all over the chin and cheeks of the willing participants. Give them a minute to place as many cotton balls on their face as possible. Person with most cotton balls wins!

Christmas movie trivia: Create a Christmas movie trivia, find one online, or grab a public one from Kahoot!

12 days of Christmas Relay or Scavenger Hunt: have 12 pieces of paper or 12 items that represent the 12 days of Christmas. Then, call out “8^th day” or “7^th day” and they must grab it. Alternatively: they have to find the pictures/symbols around the church and then order them correctly’ the first to do so wins.

Hot Cocoa Bar: Set up a station of hot water with cocoa and apple cider packets. Include cinnamon sticks, peppermints/candy canes, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, marshmallows in fun shapes, whipped cream, pirouettes, and sprinkles!

Christmas Photo Booth: This is your easiest photo booth you’ll ever create: collect Christmas hats, garland, ornaments, and anything else you might have on-hand to use in the booth. Students can take selfies or you can have a volunteer take Polaroids! You can also give points for “worst family photo”

Christmas Cards: Have students create cards for all of your church staff, small group leaders, volunteers, or whoever they might be able to make an impact on. They can make their own, or you can supply the cards!

Elf on the Shelf: For each week of Advent, hide the elf around your youth ministry space. Award a prize for the person who finds it first each week.

Marshmallow Man: In this up-front game, give students a bag of mini marshmallows and one minute. Person who can stack the most three-marshmallow snowmen in a minute wins!

Oh Christmas Tree: Give each player 36 Red or Green Solo Cups. First player to stack the 36 cups into a pyramid (Christmas tree) and put them back into a single stack wins.

All Through the House: Hide cut-outs of Santa throughout your building or space. In teams, players relay to find a Santa, then come back to tag the next person their team. The team with the most or fastest time wins.

Fill the Stockings: Get teams of two, and give one person a Christmas stocking and the other ping pong balls. Have the players toss the ping pong balls into the stockings. Team with the most in their stocking in a minute wins! If the teams run out of ping pong balls, they can run around and grab them off the ground.

Bow Roll: Take a bunch of bows and take the stickers off the back. Scatter the bows on the ground. Have no more than two or three participants put their arms at their side (I recommend taping the arms down) and give them one minute to roll around on the ground, collecting bows. Person with the most bows stuck to them in a minute wins!

Name that Tune / Finish the Lyrics / Gargle that Tune: Place some lyrics on the screen, and have students finish the lyrics or name the tune. You can also give them a song privately, have them gargle the tune with water, and have the audience guess! There are some versions of these games on DYM.

Christmas Pictionary / Charades / Etc.: a classic, allow students to write down ideas or choose from preselected ideas and act them out!

Trim the Tree: Give each player a bag of shatterproof Christmas Ornaments. Players race to get their ornaments on the tree by tossing them at the Christmas tree.

Bamboozled: Buy a bunch of weird-tasting candy canes from Amazon, and see if your students can guess the flavor!

Christmas Scavenger Hunt: Find one online or make your own: see if students can find certain Christmas items around the church!

Christmas Kareoke: Purchase a pass from Karafun, turn on parental controls, and have students sing Christmas (or other) songs!

Snowball Dodgeball: Host a dodgeball match, but with balled up paper!

Marshmallow toss: Toss marshmallows into wreaths for a classic “minute to win it” game.

Two truths and a lie: Christmas gift edition (choose two of their worst presents ever given, then a third that’s a lie)

Antler ring toss: One student wears antlers, the other throws rings made out of glowsticks or a hula hoop around them. There are also inflatable versions on Amazon!

Christmas Bingo: Our students love bingo. For prizes, include gift cards or small gifts that students would want (or can regift!)

Pin the nose on the reindeer: Make your own or find one from Amazon!

Candy Cane hook’em: Place a pile of candy canes on one end of a table, with a bowl on the other end. Give students a candy cane; they have to hook as many candy canes and transfer them as they can in one minute.

Santa Limbo: Spray paint a bar red and wrap white tape around it for a “candy cane” look and invite students to limbo!

Ornament Relay: Place an ornament on a spoon, and have students race them across the room relay-style!

Mitten Wrapping: Unwrap presents with oven mitts! You can choose to do this up-front style, where a few people compete to unwrap the same thing, but with different mitts.

FREEBIE: “iScream for Meme-o-Ween”

Events, games

Each year a team of youth staff and volunteers gets together and plans out our youth calendar together. For Halloween, we had two amazing ideas for youth events: “i-Scream” and “Meme-O-Ween.” We decided, why not combine them?

We usually have a fall party for our middles on our campus, with a hayride, pumpkin chunking, pumpkin painting, Scary-oke, and other fall components. This year, we decided to dial it back and have a few really simple elements.

Overview of the event

At our events, we typically do stations. For a three- hour event, we do 30 minutes of “up-front” games, almost 2 hours of stations, and 45 minutes for worship, an outreach-focused message, and door prizes.

Here is an overview of our stations for this event:

Activity	Location
Ice Cream Bar	Brandt Lounge
Scary-oke	Confirmation Room
What do you Meme? Games	Balcony
Game Room	Game Room
Laser Tag	Outside

Meme-O-Ween Ideas

Up-front Meme Games:

From DYM: “Church Meme Showdown” – we had students move from one side of the room to the other. To be perfectly honest, this game flopped and I scurried to the next game.
“Name that meme” – I created this game – students would move from one side to another to decide which name matched the meme. I threw out fistfuls of candy to the winning team! CANVA LINK
From DYM: “Meme Me.” I called four people up on stage, and gave each of them a clipboard and paper and a pen (if you have whiteboards you could use those). I gave them 20 seconds to meme each image. The first person to 3 wins won!

COSTUME CONTEST:

Of course, we had a costume contest for the best meme-themed costume!

“What do you Meme?”

Having a “What do you Meme?” station was a very easy way to incorporate the meme. Note that you must get the FAMILY versions of “What do you Meme”, as the normal ones are safe for 14+ and can get very dirty.

MESSAGE: “It’s Fine”

I chose my favorite meme — the “It’s Fine” meme – to talk about how God gave us feelings, and it’s good to feel them.

i-Scream Bar

Of course, you have to start with the i-Scream Bar! We did a simple bar with vanilla, chocolate, and cookie dough bases. My favorite volunteer shopper did our shopping for toppings, and came up with:

chocolate sauce
caramel sauce
strawberry sauce
whipped cream
chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
heath chips
reeses peanut butter chips
mini marshmallows
andes chips

Other Fun Fall Party Ideas

Scary-oke: Purchase a subscription with Karafun, hook up to a TV, turn on the parental control settings, and allow students to pick songs and sing them!
Laser Tag: We rented an inflatable corn maze from our local inflatables company, and played laser tag inside of it with laser tag blasters we had on-hand.
Pumpkin Painting: In the past we’ve done pumpkin-painting as a more creative activity. The only downfall: It takes time to dry.
Hayride: In the past we’ve rented a Uhaul truck and open trailer, placed hay on it, and did our own “hay ride” on campus. This year we took a break and some of our kids were really bummed!

FREEBIE: The Amazing Race Youth Event!

games

Each year we do a “Mission Impossible” type-event, but this year I wanted to go a little different — “The Amazing Race!” I am a HUGE fan of game shows and competitive reality TV. The Amazing Race is something I can’t wait to tune in to each week. And making your own “The Amazing Race” isn’t very difficult to do!

I did this with both middle schoolers and high schoolers this month. The middle schoolers blasted through the event, as I think station leaders went a little easier on them than intended. The high schoolers took more time and the leaders gave less hints. For both events, I gave about an hour and a half — and both groups needed less than an hour. You live and you learn!

EXPLANATION OF AMAZING RACE:

Students will be in groups of 2-3 for “The Amazing Race”
Each group will be given an envelope that has the first Road Block on it (they will be mixed up so they all go to different stations first)
They will get to their Road Block where they will be met with a challenge. It is important to get to your Road Block quickly, as most Road Blocks can only have 1-2 teams complete the challenge at a time.
Only one person from the team can complete the challenge, and they must take turns.
When the challenge is completed, they will get a ticket to the next Road Block.
Once they’ve finished all of the Road Blocks, they will come back to the Lodge (Pit Stop).
First-place team will receive a prize!
As teams finish, have an area for snacks & hangout.

GAME SET-UP

STATION CARDS
- Print out Station Cards – CANVA LINK
- We printed these on a poster printer on 24×36 inch paper, and cut out each station card to size.
  - Cut posterboard in half (hamburger style)
  - Each paper will be glued onto the posterboard
  - Outside – we taped posterboard to cones so they wouldn’t fly away. Inside, we taped onto walls.
- But you can adapt to 8×11 or 11×18 as needed.
CHALLENGE CARDS
- Print out Challenge Cards – CANVA LINK
  - Print on cardstock, full color. Print enough for each team.
  - Cut tightly.
- ENVELOPES:
  - We purchased these Amazing Race Envelopes for the first round, because we wanted the classic “rip” moment.
  - However, to save money, we didn’t use envelopes for all of the stations.
  - We randomized the first round, and placed one of each station (or however many groups you have) into the envelopes to start.

When setting up stations, each staton should have all the items for that station, as well as the cards to the NEXT station and some PIT STOP cards.
Instruction Slides: CANVA LINK

EXPLANATION OF AMAZING RACE:

Students will be in groups of 2-3 for “The Amazing Race”
Each group will be given an envelope that has the first Detour/Road Block on it (they will be mixed up)
They will get to their Detour/Road Block where they will be met with a challenge.
- Detour – they can choose from 2 challenges
When the challenge is completed, they will get a ticket to the next Detour/Road Block.
Once they’ve finished all of the Detour/Road Blocks, they will come back to the Lodge (Pit Stop).
First-place team will receive a prize!

General Instructions for Leaders:

When people get to your zone, have them make a line if you have more teams than can play at once.
Even though they have the piece of paper that explains it, go over the rules with them before they start playing the challenge.
If you are managing TWO stations, please have people pause so that you can address each station individually.
(INCLUDE CLEANUP INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS!)

STATIONS

The following are the stations that we used. Feel free to use and adapt to your liking! We tried to use things that we already had on hand, and purchase minimal supplies. You can see pictures from this event by clicking here.

STATION ONE: Tangram

SUPPLIES: Tangram puzzles (there are 6)
LOCATION: Upstairs Round Tables
INSTRUCTIONS: A tangram (Chinese for “seven”) is a dissection puzzle which consists of seven flat polygons, called tans, which are put together to form a shape. The objective is to to get all the puzzle pieces in the puzzle. Choose one player to accomplish this.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: There are 6 puzzles, so up to 6 people can work on this at once.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION TWO: STACK IT HIGH OR STACK IT LOW

Supplies: 45 solo cups, 45 playing cards
LOCATION: Upstairs Café/Confirmation Room
INSTRUCTIONS – STACK IT HIGH OR STACK IT LOW
- HIGH: Take 15 cups and stack on top of each other (end-to-end & opening-to-opening) to create a tower.
- LOW: Take 15 cards and make a pyramid out of them.
ADDITIONAL INSTUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: There are enough items for 3 teams to do each task at a time. They can do these tasks as teams
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION THREE: FIND THE KEY

SUPPLIES: Master Locks, Ring of Keys (we purchased a bulk amount from Amazon)
LOCATION: Upstairs Round Tables
INSTRUCTIONS: You’ll have a ring of keys, but only one fits the lock! Choose one player from your team to accomplish this task.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION FOUR: MEMORY GAME:

SUPPLIES: Memory Card Game
LOCATION: Lounge
PREP INSTRUCTIONS: Break down the memory card game into four different games with 12 countries each.
INSTRUCTIONS: You will receive a deck of cards. Place on the ground, face-up, then flip over. Match up the countries with each other. You get three strikes before you have to surrender the cards, move to the back of the line, and start over!
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION FIVE: EXERCISE OR EAT

SUPPLIES: Saltine Crackers
LOCATION: Lodge Lobby
INSTRUCTIONS:
- EXERCISE: Choose one teammate to go up and down the stairs of the Lodge (up one and and down the other end) 5 times
- EAT: Choose one teammate to eat 10 saltine crackers without water
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: Have students go up one flight of stairs and then down the other flight. Remind them not to run down the stairs. If a student uses a wheelchair or needs to, they can use the elevator and go up/down it 5 times. Additionally, you may have one person go up the stairs at a time so they aren’t pushing.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION SIX: DEAR LIZA

SUPPLIES: Kiddie Pool, 3 5-gallon buckets, 3 cups with large hole
LOCATION: Basketball Court
INSTRUCTIONS: Transfer the water from the kiddie bowl into the bucket. Here’s the catch: there’s a hole in your cup! You can choose to take turns or have one player accomplish this task.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: Instruct teams to dump the water back into the kiddie pool before they go or use the spicket to get more water.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION SEVEN: SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

SUPPLIES: “Spot the Difference” Puzzle book, pens
LOCATION: Lounge
INSTRUCTIONS: At your station you’ll be handed a “Spot the Differences” Puzzle. Spot all the differences and turn it in! If you don’t find them all, you’ll have to start over with a new puzzle. Only one person can complete this.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: When someone comes to your station, hand them a puzzle from the book. Check the answers in the back of the book. If they fail, give them a new puzzle.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION EIGHT: HOOP OR ROLL

SUPPLIES: Dice, basketball
LOCATION: Basketball Court
INSTRUCTIONS:
- HOOP: Shoot 25 points at the basketball hoop (choose a spot for the “3-point line”)
- ROLL: Roll 5 dice until they have “5” on them (they can roll them one at a time, 5 at a time, however they’d like)
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: You only have a certain number of dice, so some people can only a certain number of students can play that game.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION NINE: BULLSEYE!

SUPPLIES: Lawn Dart Kit
LOCATION: Lawn behind Lodge
INSTRUCTIONS: Get a bullseye using the Lawn Darts. Choose one member of your team to complete this. If you fail, you have to go to the back of the line.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: Have them make a line, each person can get 1 chance or use all of the darts, your decision. To save your back, have STUDENTS pick up the darts and hand off to the next person.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION TEN: Pop-It!

SUPPLIES: Balloons, plastic bag for trash
LOCATION: Lawn behind Lodge
INSTRUCTIONS: Blow up ten balloons, then pop them with your butt. Only one team member can complete this.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: Have them pick up their popped balloons — there is a bag to throw away trash in. Make sure they blow their balloons up BIG.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION ELEVEN: RUN OR ROLL

SUPPLIES: 3 ropes or bandanas
LOCATION: Playground
INSTRUCTIONS:
- RUN – Tie two legs together and three-legged walk across the playground
- ROLL – Create a wheelbarrow by one person grabbing the feet of another, and walk across the playground
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: You may decide how long they have to go and where the starting line is.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

STATION TWELVE: LOSING OUR MARBLES

SUPPLIES: Kiddie Pool, Marbles
LOCATION: Basketball Court
INSTRUCTIONS: In a kiddie pool are a bunch of marbles. Choose one member of your team, and have them transfer 10 marbles out, one at a time, using just their feet!
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEADERS: You may decide how many teams can do this at once.
WHEN THEY ARE FINISHED: Give them a card to the next Roadblock/Detour!
WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THEY ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED – check to make sure that all 12 challenges are in their hands. Then, hand them the “Pit Stop” Card.

FREEBIE: Medieval Carnival

Events, games

This year we had to cancel our Fall Retreat due to low sign-up (story of student ministry post-COVID, amirite?). In ten days, we created THIS event, and boy — am I proud of it. We went with the Medieval theme because that was the theme of our fall retreat and we wanted to keep momentum so that students didn’t feel like something was “cancelled;” rather this was the new option.

We typically do stations at our events, so Carnival Games fit right into that theme!

Up-Front Games

We always start with some up-front games to get students warmed up. This month we played:

War: We divided students into two groups, and placed a deck of cards on a table in the front. Each player would turn over a card, and the top card (Ace) wins! The winner goes to the back of the line, the loser drops out
“How Long Would you Survive the Midieval Times?” I took a Buzzfeed Quiz and made it into a game. We played this “Four Corners” style, meaning students would go to one of 4 corners. If they chose the right corner they moved on. If they did not, they “died.” CANVA LINK
“Fact or Cap – Mideval Edition” – We called 10 people up on stage. If they got it correct, they got a small prize. If not, they lost. CANVA LINK

Carnival Games

STATION	LOCATION	SET UP INSTRUCTIONS	GAME INSTRUCTIONS
Jousting Game	Outside (inflatable)	We rented a jousting inflatable. You could also do this with pool noodles and small platforms.	1 ticket if you play 3 tickets if you win!
Axe Throwing	Outside (inflatable)	We rented an axe throwing inflatable. You can also purchase a kit on Amazon.	Hit the target – 1 ticket Inside middle black ring – 3 tickets Inside inner black ring – 5 tickets Fully-covered Bullseye – 10 tickets
Skee ball	Outside	We rented this game from our Inflatables guy, but you can make one or purchase one from Amazon.	1 ticket for bottom hole, 3 tickets for middle hole, 5 tickets for top hole
Fishbowl Pong “Fishbowl Feud”	Outside	We rented this game from our Inflatables guy, but you can make one or purchase one from Amazon. Scatter assorted amounts of tickets (1-5) in the fish bowls	Toss a ping pong ball into the fish bowl & earn the tickets in that bowl!
Fish Pool “Go Fish”	Outside	Set up kiddie pool, magnetic fish, and fishing poles (purchased from Amazon, we already had this on hand).	Place one minute on the clock. Get tickets based on: 1 ticket – 1-3 fish 3 tickets – 4-7 fish 5 tickets – 8-10 fish 10 tickets – 11+ fish
Ring Toss (with traffic cones) “Lord of the Rings”	Outside	Set up 10 traffic cones and 3 hula hoops	Given 3 rings. Get 1 ring = 1 ticket. 2 rings = 3 tickets. All 3 rings = 5 tickets
Duck Shooting Game “Duck Hunt”		We purchased this from Amazon. Place ducks on the ledge, and fill up water blasters with water. We had a cooler of water for fill-ups.	1 minute on the clock! Shoot the ducks until they flip over. 1 ticket – 1-3 ducks 3 tickets – 4-7 ducks 5 tickets – 8-10 ducks 10 tickets – 11+ ducks
Mini-Golf “squire’s golf”		Cut a few holes in a box like this but with 1, 3, & 5 increments. Use a golf putter and golf balls (I borrowed from my husband!)	Putt the ball into the holes, and get tickets for each hole you get!
Memory Game “medieval memories”		Use a deck of cards – lay face down on the table.	Get 1 ticket for each match you can make! You have three strikes before you’re done.
Corn Hole “bean bag baron”		Use a corn hole set	3 chances to get a bean bag in the hole!

Prize Redemption Station

Games were played for tickets, which meant we had a prize redemption station. Here were the prizes we did:

1 Ticket: stickers, pins
3 Tickets: jolky rancher, laffy taffy, sour punch twists
5 Tickets: slap bracelets, squishies, fidgets, slime
10 tickets: nerds ropes, ring pops, blow pops
30 tickets: full-sized candy (from dollar tree), caffeine-free pop

Snack Bar

Here are some ideas for potential medieval carnival foods!

Cotton Candy
Popcorn
Street Corn Bar
Turkey Legs

Message Idea

For this event, we have an outreach-focused message, meaning something that a visitor who has never been to church might be able to listen to without feeling uncomfortable. For this event, I talked about God’s “kin-dom” — that Jesus is a king unlike any other. Leaning on mujerista theology, I talked about how Jesus as a king teaches us that our faith is more about the community, not the king. This message was for middles, and they loved it!

FREEBIE: Poverty Simulation (that you can even use with middle schoolers!)

games, lessons, Resources

Poverty Simulations are a popular way to teach students what it looks like not only to live in poverty, but also how much it takes to pay for different things that they might take for granted.

I struggled finding a way to teach our middle schoolers specifically about poverty, especially since most poverty simulations are created with adults in mind, and adaptable enough for high schoolers. So, I created my own! You can adapt this simulation for any size group, with or without volunteers.

We played this for the first time this summer at our day camp for 5th though 8th graders, and we learned a lot! This can be a frustrating experience at first for middles — ours were ready to quit 5 minutes in because they ran out of money. But, it’s helpful to keep the game moving and just let them start over. After the second round, they will begin to get a hang of it! We also learned you need to print a TON of income sheets…. like more than I estimated.

HOW TO PLAY / INSTRUCTIONS:

how-to-poverty-simulation Download

PRINT TO PLAY:

immigration-questions Download

leader-roles-editable Download

table-labels Download

life-cards Download

leader-roles Download

income-sheets Download

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AFTERWARDS:

questions-for-discussion Download

FREEBIE: Halloween-Themed Escape Room / Unlock the Box

games, Resources, Uncategorized

Each year for Halloween, we have an event called the Halloween Heist. Each year the Heist looks a little different — one year it was a Scavenger Hunt, another year a murder mystery party.

This year I decided to take inspiration from Escape Rooms and do an Unlock the Box-style event. There would be 4 “safes” that students would try to unlock. They would complete a series of puzzles to do so.

We did this with our high schoolers, and had them play the games as a small group. I think you could do this with any size group, and just adjust the prizes for your group’s culture. Our students had a blast, and I think we will do this type of event again!

Here are the details/script for the host:

Welcome to the Halloween Heist
The objective this evening is to solve all your puzzles first and crack the code to the safe
The first four teams to do so will win a fabulous prize. All four safes have the same code, but if you’re first place you will want to go for the largest prize, second place the second largest, etc.
The puzzles are in each room of the Lodge. You can do 1 through 5 in any order, and there is no limit of how many can work on a puzzle in the same room. (YOU COULD ALSO PLAY THIS THAT THEY COMPLETE EACH PUZZLE IN THAT ROOM, 1 THROUGH 5)
Do not cheat. Do not use google or a calculator.
When you are finished with each puzzle, a puzzle master may check it for you.
- (LEADER) is the Puzzle Master upstairs, (LEADER) the Puzzle Master downstairs.
- If you’re not correct, you’ll need to correct your puzzle.
- We will have extra puzzles in case you have to start over.
- If you’re stumped, the puzzle master may give you one clue.
Play to the strengths of your team, and work on it together.
When done with all 5, you will come get the final puzzle from me right here. When you have the final answer, it will be the combination to the lock. Come up and try your combination to win!

DOWNLOADS THE HEIST HERE:

heist-2021-2 Download

These are the puzzles and answer keys.

ABOUT THE SAFES:

I chose to place locks on toolboxes and fill the toolboxes with prizes. We had small groups play together, so I placed in a treasure trove of snacks and Halloween candy that they could enjoy over time.

We also did gift cards to Dominoes and Starbucks that groups could use to enjoy together. We did this with our high schoolers, who often meet off-site or meet during an eating time. They were very excited about this!

For our largest safe, I used this rolling safe from Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/HART-24in-Rolling-Tool-Box-Resin-Tool-Storage-Black-with-Blue/735517326
For the other safes, I bought this cheap pack off of Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BG2NS2K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For the locks, I purchased these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075DFPR2W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bob Ross Painting Night!

games, Resources, Uncategorized, youth ministry

Hi friends!

It has been a LONG TIME since I have posted, HOWEVER I did something really cool with students at our Overnighter last month, and I wanted to share it with you here!

First of all — I LOVE Overnighters, and I realize I’m overdue with an “official” post on why they are so great, and what we do at them! But the basic trick to them is this: scheduling something every hourish to keep students engaged. This year, we added “Bob Ross” hour at 2am! That’s right, 100 middle schoolers were invited to paint along to a Bob Ross Video at TWO A.M. And you know what? It was a SUCCESS!

HERE’S HOW I PREPPED:

The most important part was choosing the right video. I wanted it to be simple enough we could follow along — especially since “real” painters use a variety of brushes and paint colors. Here is the video I chose:

HERE’S WHAT I PURCHASED:

Paint Tray Palettes. You could also, of course, use paper plates — but this was a really easy way for us to issue paint to students!
Spatulas. We also used plastic knives too — which worked just fine.
Fan Brushes. This is a variety pack — the size differences did not seem to matter.
Acrylic paint. Bob uses oil paint, but that was not realistic when painting with students. I purchased 3 cases for around 65 paintings. We only used one, and maybe an additional white.
One-inch brushes. Bob uses 2-inch brushes, but since we use a very tiny canvas, this worked better for us!
8×10 Canvas – This was the best bang for our buck, and worked just fine for our paintings. Each size item we purchased accompanied this size canvas perfectly.
Flat Brushes – I don’t think Bob actually uses anything like this, but it’s nice to have a “normal” paint brush.

HERE’S WHAT WE DID:

On each table, we set up cups of water, paper towels, and extra plates so that students could use them to blend colors
We learned the hard way: You should also put down plastic tablecloths or butcher paper.
On the Palettes, we put white in the center. Then we used the rest of the colors for the other holes. The only colors you don’t need are pink and orange. We also had adults do this — it was easier to create an assembly line than have students do theirs themselves.
We passed out canvas and permanent markers first and told students to sign their names on the back. The canvases we used give space for students to even name their paintings!
I led this activity, and painted along. I would tell students to listen to Bob fully, then I’d pause it after he did something and allow students to catch up.
We let students “skip” painting the parts that they didn’t love. As it gets to the end and Bob starts doing the bushes and the path, it doesn’t make sense at first. This would be an awesome thing to preach on, if you have a message that evening! Sometimes you can’t see what God is doing, but if you go along with it you might get something beautiful and unexpected.

Here is a look at my painting (the best art I’ve ever done!) and a few other pictures of our activity!

I would 10/10 do again! We finished around 3am, and they were dried and ready by 7am. We had several kids get frustrated (our boys, let’s be honest) and trashed so they could play foosball or “reinterpreted” their paintings, as you can see. But overall, everyone loved the activity.

7 Quick Christmas Games

christmas, games

REINDEER GAMES
MATERIALS:Panty hose, balloons.
INSTRUCTIONS: Divide group into teams. Each team gets one pair of pantyhose, and a set number of balloons. Give 2-3 minutes for each team to blow up their balloons, put in the pantyhose, and get the pantyhose on someone’s head (like reindeer antlers). Judge to see who has the best-looking reindeer antlers!

WRAP BATTLES
MATERIALS: Rolls of wrapping paper, tape, and bows for each team
INSTRUCTIONS: Each team must wrap one of their members up like a gift. The best wrap job in a 5-minute period wins!

SANTA BEARD
MATERIALS: Cotton balls, vaseline
INSTRUCTIONS: Play up-front or in groups. One willing participant will put vaseline on their chin, and their partners will place cotton balls on their face to make a “beard”. There are SO MANY variations to this — make it relay-style, throw the cotton balls, or whatever makes it fun for your group!

STOCK EXCHANGE
MATERIALS: Stockings, bells or gift bows
INSTRUCTIONS: This is another game that you can use variants to make it relay style or an up-front game. One person holds a stocking, and the other tries to throw jingle bells or gift bows into it. Most in a minute wins!

SNOWBALL FIGHT
MATERIALS: Balled-up pieces of paper
INSTRUCTIONS: Dodgeball-style, divide the team into two, and have them use paper instead of dodgeballs, getting each other out!

CHRISTMAS ME
MATERIALS: Items to decorate a Christmas tree — garland, bows, ornaments, ribbon, etc.
INSTRUCTIONS: You can play this relay-style, in groups, or up-front. One person gets decorated by a friend or a group into the best Christmas tree!

TREE TOSS
MATERIALS: A Christmas tree, a tape circle around the tree, two colors of ornaments
INSTRUCTIONS: Divide groups into teams, and put them against one another to see who can throw the most ornaments on the tree in a one-minute period. They must stay outside of the circle surrounding the tree. Ornaments that bounce off the tree and outside the circle are fair game.

Some Fall Games I’ve been playing!

games, Ministry, youth ministry

I haven’t posted in a while; I got married last month! I’ll post some pictures soon (and I’m excited to tell you our love story).

I just wanted to pop in to share a few of the games that we have been playing in our middle school ministry this fall. They’re a little random, but a total blast. Feel free to use any of this material, including the graphics, which I created quickly in Canva.

The “Gobble Hobble” is the name I gave this game in a frenzy this last Sunday morning, when everything was going wrong and I needed to come up with a quick game. I remembered playing a version of this a few years ago and wanted to give it a quick funny name. Best part: It takes 3 minutes to prep.

Choose one person (we chose 4 — one from each grade) to go out into the hall and be blindfolded by a leader. Tell the group to, together, hid a “turkey.” The “turkey” can be anything, as long as you can decipher it with a blindfold on. In a pinch, we used a basketball. Invite the blindfolded person in, and lead them to the “turkey” only using “gobbles.” The same way you’d play hot-or-cold, the closer they get to the “turkey,” the more the crowd gobbles. First person to get to the “turkey” wins. It was complicated playing with four people, because no one knew if they were correct when we were gobbling. It worked out for us, though, and we were able to play two rounds (with instructions) in less than 7 minutes. Not a bad way to start off a Sunday morning!

Dice Wars is another great game — otherwise known as “1 to 100.” Since we are in a multi-purpose space, sometimes we find out last-minute that we have to switch to round tables for an event right after our youth group. That’s how I came up with this game. Here are a few games — that I, truthfully, copied and pasted from the internet. There are tons more games, too!

What you need: Each player needs a piece of paper to write on. You also need one die and one pen.

How to play: Everyone sits in a circle, either around a table or on the floor. One person starts out with the pen, and the person to their left starts out with the die.

Let’s say Paul has the pen, Tasha is to his left with the die, and Adam is sitting to Tasha’s left. When the game starts, Paul starts writing legible numbers, starting with 1 and going up to 100, as fast as he can on his paper, while Tasha starts rolling the die as fast as she can, trying to roll a six. As soon as she does roll a six, she gets to grab the pen from Paul and start writing numbers on her paper, while Adam grabs the die and tries to roll a six. As soon as he does, he grabs the pen, and the person to his left starts rolling. Play proceeds around the circle like this. The next time Paul gets the pen, he starts writing where he left off. The first person to write to 100 on their paper wins.

I love puns, and I was inspired by a Buzzfeed post to create this game. I used some from Buzzfeed, some from elsewhere.

Click here to access my link from Canva, and edit or download for yourself!

This was a game I used at the beginning of the school year, in order for students to make some new connections. It was a blast, and a traditional youth ministry favorite!

Click here to download and edit from Canva.

Mission Impossible Night

games

One of the timeless games that is played in youth ministry is a variation of what we call “Mission Impossible.” I remember playing this game each year at camp, running around in the dark trying to find a secret “chip” and avoiding flour bombs.

In four years of camp, I don’t think I EVER found that secret chip.

Here’s the way we are playing the game THIS Friday night!

Supplies: glow sticks, flashlights, super-soakers

Set-up:

1 Volunteer at the Lodge with glow sticks (enough for each student, plus extras)
Heather: Horn/Whistle/Megaphone. Located in the general area outside.
4 color of bandanas and face paint for each team. We also got fake mustaches for “secret spy disguises”
4 hidden buckets throughout the campus with labels on them for each color.
Volunteers scattered throughout campus with flashlight lasers (4 people) or super-soakers (4 people)
1 Volunteer at each bucket (to make sure that no one steals those glow sticks). They are given a noodle that they can hit students with.
PJ is hidden with his secret costume — if a student finds him, they get a SPECIAL item in a secret envelope (immunity for one capture, ten extra points, etc.)

Object of game:

This is MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE. Students are faced with the impossible mission of getting their Glow Sticks to their team’s bucket, which is hidden around the dark parking lot. The team with the most Glow Sticks wins.
But it’s not that easy: Throughout the parking lot are leaders with flashlights and water guns. If a student gets “tagged” by either, they must stop, drop their glow stick, and go back to home base (The Lodge) and begin again.
There are four leaders by the buckets with pool noodles to “watch” the buckets and make sure no one steals from another’s bucket. They may tag students with noodles.
There are more leaders scattered with flashlights/laser pointers and water guns to tag students.
A student may grab a fallen glowstick and attempt to make it to their bucket with it.
Leaders MAY choose to instead torture/humiliate the student by making them do a challenge: Sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or do 10 pushups or propose to the next person who gets caught. Then students can go on and do the challenge.
Once students have dropped their Glow Sticks in the bucket, they will run back to Home Base and begin the challenge all over again.
The challenge will end at 8:30 sharp (so, about an hour and a half to carry out the mission). Buckets will be collected, and the winning team gets a prize!

If you play the game, research the SEVERAL ways to play it! Last year we played with Skittles, and if caught the students would eat their Skittle. The issue was that everyone’s hands were covered with dye!!!