Our Christmas Party

Our Children's Church Christmas party was Sunday, December 17. Our theme was "Birthday Party for Jesus." Hopefully you'll be able to glean something useful for next year from our itinerary:

The Food

• cheap lunchmeat or pbj sandwiches on bread cut-outs (use Christmas cookie cutters to really impress them!)
• hot dog slices simmered in barbeque sauce (you can use little smokies, but remember we're talking cheap here!)
• pigs in a blanket = hot dogs halves wrapped in canned biscuits halves (again, could be smokies, but the cheap factor...)
• pizza pockets (I was fortunate to find $7 boxes of them in the frozen food section clearanced for $1.50! I bought them out! If you are not so fortunate, it is possible to do homemade; but you can save yourself the trouble and omit this one.)
• devilled eggs
• chips (we have found from experience that our kids don't give a care about dip)
• chocolate covered pretzels (I also found strawberry almond bark clearanced for 88 cents)
• homemade cookies, brownies, and cupcakes...decorated Christmasy
• "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake -- there is a teen girl in our church who has recently taken up Wilton cake decorating, and she has graciously donated her services to our children's church ministry

The Fun

• Angel Tree -- Particularly if your church has a lot of bus kids, prepare a Christmas tree with angel cut-outs containing the age and gender of each of your kids. Ask church members to select an angel and sponsor a kid by providing a small gift appropriate for the child.
• Gift Exchange -- Instruct all kids to bring a $1-$3 gift to exchange. Be sure to buy extras for those who forget or are truly needy. Number the gifts, and let each child draw a number and claim the corresponding gift.
• Hot Potato -- Put the kids in a circle, hand one of them a gift, and turn on some fast-paced Christmas music. Send the present into circulation until the music stops. Whoever is holding the gift can open it and then step out of the circle. Continue until all gifts are used and everyone has one.

Here are the games we played...

• Christmas Tree Rip -- Have players attempt to rip a piece of green construction paper into the shape of a Christmas tree... behind their backs! Players are not allowed to look at their creations until they are finished. Give prizes for the best-looking trees.

• Box Game -- Wrap up a small gift (CD, cassette, or candy). Then wrap this box in a succession of larger boxes. Use DUCT tape for the wrapping. Don't tell anyone about the layers of boxes. Get a pair of dice and a 9" x 13" baking pan to roll them in. We actually have some huge foam dice that I ordered from Oriental Trading. Get a coat, a pair of oven mitts, a scarf and a hat. Get everyone in a circle and put the box in the middle. Choose a number to roll for a person to get a chance at opening the box -- it is best to start with a rare number (like four) and move to a common number (like seven). Begin rolling the dice. Each person gets one roll then passes the dice. When someone rolls the number of choice, they have to put on all the clothes (coat, hat, scarf, mitts) and try to open the box. They only get to try until a new person rolls the same number; then they stop and pass the snow clothes to the next player, and the dice continues on around the circle.

• Christmas Card Toss -- Get about five Christmas cards of various sizes. Place a laundry basket about six feet away from the participants. Have each participant stand at a specific place and throw the cards at the basket. The person who gets the most cards in the basket wins the game. Trust me, this is extremely difficult to do! The cards seem to have a will of their own! Use ten cards for a longer version.

• Draw on Your Head Game -- Players place a book on their heads with pieces of blank paper on top. They each have a pen. Give a series of instructions. The players are to draw onto their page according to your instructions.Here are the instructions:

  1. Draw a line for a floor. 2. Draw a Christmas tree. 3. Draw a star on top of your tree. 4. Draw a fireplace with a mantel next to the tree. 5. Draw a stocking hanging from the mantel of your fireplace. 6. Draw a present below the tree.

  Have players remove their pictures from their heads. It can be pretty funny to see the drawings! Now offer points for random hits:

  1. Two points if the tree touches the floor. 2. Two points if your stocking is touching your mantel. 3. One point if your star touches your tree. 4. One point if your star is above your tree 5. One point for every Christmas ornament ball that is ON your tree. 6. One point if your fireplace doesn't touch the tree (it's a fire hazard!) 7. One point if you actually drew something decorative on your stocking. 8. Two points if your present is under your tree.

  The winner is then the person with the most points.

• Christmas Name a Song -- Choose any word from a Christmas carol; the other players have to think of a carol that has that word in it. Whoever gets it first takes a turn to choose a word. It's not as easy as you think...your mind actually goes blank. Now if the group never heard the song before, they can say, "I challenge you," and that person has to sing a piece of the carol.

• Christmas Tree Wrap -- Group players into teams of four. Each team selects someone to be the tree. Give each team green bulletin board paper, ornaments, tape, scissors, and construction paper. Send a judge out of the room. Each team gets five minutes to decorate their human tree. Then the judge returns and decides who wins.

  Great Christmas Party Games for Kids and Adults -- Party Game Central - Free Christmas Party Game Ideas

  The Faith

  In keeping with our theme "Birthday Party for Jesus," we spent some time deciding what gifts we would like to give Jesus for His birthday. I found a great bulletin board set that comes with birthday tags for Jesus' gifts. It has a place for the kids to write their names (To: Jesus; From: ________), and on the back they wrote what they wanted to give to Jesus. I purchased at our local teachers' store a Christmas poster with blanks on it on which I wrote suggestions for gifts: "I will be helpful to my teacher," "I will be faithful to children's church," "I will obey my parents," etc...

  No ministry is complete if it does not minister to others. It is important to wrap up your party with a brief and interesting gospel presentation. Make it fun by using a Wordless Book, Wordless Book Glove, Gospel Flipper-Flapper, or EvangeCube.