Welcome to week two of our Christmas series, Reindeer Games! Last we I shared the game Rudolph's Wreath Toss. This week, it's Santa Beards!

We played this game last night with our high school ministry students and it was a blast! I'm always wondering how our students will take to games that involve a little bit of a mess, this one went over huge! So here's what I did.

Materials:
Here's what you will need, in some shape or fashion...

• Cans of shaving (one for each team.)
• Santa hats (one for each team.)
• Some kind of covering to protect clothing. (I used inexpensive plastic table covers that could be disposed of when we were finished.
• A prize of reward for the winning team.

I picked up everything I needed for this game at our local dollar store. I played with 2 teams so my total cost for this game, including prizes, came to $8.00.

This is another simple game to play. With two teams, a guy team and a girl team, the object is to create a Santa beard out of the shaving cream. The bigger, longer, fluffier, the better! With the plastic table cloth, the pallet of possibilities is quite large. Students can create as long and as big a beard as they can! You can also have as many teams as your group can handle without taking too many students out of the crowd.

I gave the instructions, set the time limit to 1 minute, and they were off! Watch the video below!

Along with video, you will definitely want to get some still images that you can post and share later! I try to post photos on Instagram as soon as our student gathering is over, so students can see themselves.

I was super excited that our student had fun with this one! The laughter that filled the room was pretty cool! And surprisingly, the aftermath wasn't too bad. The shaving cream stayed in our area and not throughout the church! That's a bonus.

You will want to have a few items on hand to help with the clean up. Paper towels, hand towels, and a bathroom in close proximity are things to think about.

One more thought. This is not a game to play with whipped cream. Most whipped creams are oil based and might stain certain fabrics. And no one wants to send students home with stains on their cloths. Stick to shaving cream because it is a water based product and washing out well, even if you get on the carpet.

There you are, another simple, low cost game to add to your Christmas Game Collection!  Thanks for reading!

​- jay

Jay Higham is a 24 year veteran of student ministry; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently the Youth Director at Hickory Church, located in Western PA. Jay has been married to Amy for 19 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, 4 boys and 1 little girl. Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and caring for the hearts of husbands. You can learn more about their ministry to the family and husband by visiting their family blog at, www.TheHighamFamily.com and www.TheGoodHusbandBlog.com!

Tis the season for colored lights, pine trees, candy canes, and so good fun Christmas-themed ice breakers! That's right, youth worker friends, Christmas is here, and that means we have a chance to bring out some of our favorite Christmas-themed games!

This week I had the time to run out to our local dollar stores and wander through the holiday aisles looking for game ideas. Fortunately I hit gold! I found everything I needed for three of my favorite Christmas Ice Breakers! So over the next couple of weeks, I want to share the ice breakers we are doing as part of our weekly student gatherings!

We're calling them Reindeer Games, with the spin that these are the games Rudolph and his buddies might play way up north! Each week we will unveil another game that we have played, complete with material lists and instructions so you can grab the gear and play it with your students!

So let's kick off our Reindeer Games with our first game, Rudolph's Wreath Toss! We played this game just this week, and it was a huge success! Based on the tradition Ring Toss game we all played as kids at our birthday parties, this is a super easy, super low cost game to play.

Here's what you will need.

I was able to all of these items at our local Dollar Tree. Cost: $7.00 plus tax.

So the game itself is pretty simple. Like the party game, the object is to toss the ring wreaths and land them on the antler or antlers atop the receivers head. Here's what I did.

With the tosser standing behind a chair and a receiver sitting in a chair about 10' away, the team was given 2 minutes to toss the rings. The receive was allowed to move but they could not leave or move the chair. If the wreaths hit the floor instead of their mark, the tosser could run up and grab the rings, return to their hair position and toss again. After the 2 minutes, 1 point was given for each ring that found it's spot around the antler.

Since we have an on-going Girl vs. Guy challenge, I brought up 2 teams of 2; 2 guys and 2 girls. The girls went first and landed 5 out of the 6 wreaths. The Guys followed and also landed five rings. It was totally crazy!

Since both teams landed 5 rings we had an "all or nothing" tie-breaker. Each team was given 3, and only 3, rings which they were to toss one at a time. After they tossed their rings, it was over. No re-do's or second chances. If a ring hit it's mark, a point was given. If all three missed, that meant the end of their game.

Once again the girls went first, and unfortunately missed with all three rings. The guys followed. The first toss was a miss. The second almost landed, but fell off. The third...A RINGER!!!! The guys went nuts!!

​Simple. Easy. Low cost. Yet Rudolph's Wreath Toss was a huge hit!

Be sure to check in next week for our second in the Reindeer Games series.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to share the article with your friends, but please include a link back to this post in your shares.

​Merry Christmas, friends!

​- jay