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* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE POST.* 
Welcome to the second installment of our Christmas series, Reindeer Games! In the first post, I shared the game Rudolph's Wreath Toss. Today it's Santa Beards!
I've played this game with both high school and middle school student. When I originally post the idea, I had just played Santa Beards with my high school 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! Let me share Santa Beards with you. Here's what you need...
Let's Play the game...
This is another simple game to play. With two teams, a guy team and a girl team (or whatever you want to set for teams), the object is to create a Santa beard out of the shaving cream. The bigger, longer, fuller, fluffier; the better! With the plastic table cloth, the possibilities are quite large. Students can create as long and as big a beard as they can! Set your time limit and go!
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 or even irritate skin. And no one wants to send students home with stains on their cloths or rashes on their faces. Stick to shaving cream because it is a water based product and washes 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! Merry Christmas! - jay
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* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE POST.* 
Tis the season for colored lights, pine trees, candy canes, and so good fun Christmas-themed ice breakers! That's right, youth worker, Christmas is here, and that means we have a chance to bring out some of our favorite Christmas-themed games!
This week I am reposting a few of my most favorite Christmas-themed games for students. So if you're looking for some last minute holiday game ideas, here you go!
During the holiday season, one of my favorite places to shop in my local dollar stores. I visit these stores and wander through the holiday aisles looking for ideas, particularly game ideas. A couple of years ago, while shopping, I found everything I needed for three of my favorite Christmas Ice Breakers! So let me refresh these old posts and let's share with you a few Christmas Games.
I call them my Reindeer Games, and I spin as a games Rudolph and his buddies might play way up north! I'll share the game and the directions, and provide a materials list along with any other tips or tricks to make the game successful. Let's kick off our Reindeer Games with our first game, Rudolph's Wreath Toss! I love Rudolph's Wreath Toss. I've played this game a number of times and it is always a huge success! Based on the tradition Ring Toss game we've all played as kids at our birthday parties. This is a super easy, super low cost game to play. Here's what you'll need...
Materials List:
Let's play the game...
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.
The night we played this came we ended up with a tie. In our challenge, the girls were ahead in the points. So 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.
The girl's went first. Three rings. Three tosses. Three misses.
Then it was the guys turn. 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. And, Rudolph's Wreath Toss was a huge hit!
Be sure to check in again later this week for our second installment of 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
* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE POST.* 
A couple of years ago, when decorating our youth room for Christmas, I wanted to create something special as a backdrop for what we used as our "stage". We don't have a lot of space in our youth room for a large set up, but we did pretty well with a make-shift stage. The area includes speakers, TV monitors for media, some simple lighting, and a table or music stand which I teach from.
As a student ministry, we decided that we would decorate our youth room with an Elf theme. Students cut out snowflakes from white paper, constructed a huge paper chain, and set out to recreate the apartment and store scene. As the centerpiece, I thought it would look cool to have a couple triangular Christmas trees on our stage area.
Not long ago I watched a DIY video by Paul Turner, a fellow youth worker and creator of TheDiscipleProject.net. Paul posted a video that showed how he created some styrofoam letters for the stage/background. It was easy, inexpensive and a great way to add to the atmosphere.
You can see Paul's video, How to Make Styrofoam Letters, by clicking here. Paul's video, along with a pin I saw on Pinterest.com, became the inspiration to my colored trees! 
Materials list...
Here's what you need for the styrofoam Christmas Trees...
Resource of the month...
I chose the colors red, green, and blue because I already had colored lightbulbs in red, green and blue. The up lights I already had because it's what we use as part of our simple stage lighting. The colored bulbs help to accent the colored styrofoam.
We decided to wrap the larger, center tree with a string of Christmas lights. It was an idea of one of my students and I love how it came out. I did go and pick up two more lights to light the trees missing lights in the picture.
Constructing the trees was super easy. Total, it took me about 6 hours to construct seven trees. Our students decorated the youth room for Christmas as another student and I set up the trees and all the wiring to create our stage area. Watch the video below to see how I created my styrofoam trees!
Thanks so much for check in for today's blog and DIY video! I hope that you have found the video to helpful and inspiring. I'd love to hear about your Christmas staging ideas and construction tips and tricks! Feel free to leave a comment below. If you have any questions about what I created, hit me up below.
Merry Christmas! - jay
 This past Sunday evening, our High School Ministry gathered for our year end Christmas Party. We host our annual Christmas party on our last Sunday before going on Christmas break. It's relaxed, laid back, and fun! Our primary goal for the Christmas party is social and relational. We want our students to hang out with each other while our leaders mingle and build relationships with our students. I try to not over program our Christmas party. In our church, December is a busy month with various activities and programed events that keep folks jumping. Outside of the church families, students, and our staff are very busy with school, jobs, Christmas shopping, sports, and seasonal concerts. So to counteract the busyness of the season, I purposely leave our Christmas party as something that is as un-programed as possible.
3 Big Daddy pizzas. These large rectangular pizzas offer a larger quantity of slices than regular round pizzas. To keep everyone happy, we ordered one plain cheese, one pepperoni, and one sausage. Pizza, carbonated beverages and bottled water, along with chips and snacks, a cookie cake, and a few Christmas cookies, filled our table and the first 15 to 20 minutes of our time together. We set up round tables in our student space for the students to gather around while they ate and socialize. T-SHIRTS FOR YOUTH WORKERSAfter some pizza and drinks, it was time to get rolling with our party activities. Like I said, I don't program a lot of games or activities so for this years party I decided to use a downloadable resource from Download Youth Ministry. It was the perfect crowd breaker game to prime our students for the parties main event, The Great Gift Exchange!
your activity, purchase, download, then load it into your presentation software and you're ready to go! I've already downloaded and used four different games for the month of December, including Dollar Store Or So Much More? Christmas Edition, which we played as our ice breaker at the party. It was perfect! Be sure to check out tomorrows blog for a list of all the games we've played this month.
little surprised and amazed by the gifts that are opened and by what gifts become the hot items that are stolen over and over again. Bags of various candies are always a favorite. But the top gifts for our students include a grow-it yourself Bonsai Tree Kit, a box of Utz Chocolate Covered Pretzels, and a Christmas box full of candy. Some gifts are "stolen" multiple times leaving the final winner a mystery until the end of the game.It was a great night of relaxing fun, food, and friends. We laughed a lot. Got some great gifts. And we enjoyed time with our students. Now we're ready for a little break and some time with our families! What do you do at your ministry Christmas party? Share your activities and program ideas in the comment section below! - jay
God So Loved...
Listen to the Message...
Lead Me To The Cross, Part 1
God So Loved..., Jay Higham Recorded on Sunday, April 09th, 2017 At Hickory United E.P. Church
Here are two books that are super helpful. They are available as a free download on Kindle.
Each is a short, easy to read book that helps explain the topic of being Born Again. Can I Be Sure I'm Saved? & What Does It Mean to Be Born Again? Both are by written by R.C. Sproul. Simply click, download and start reading!
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AuthorJay Higham is a veteran youth worker of over 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the director of family ministry at a church, located in West Virginia. Jay has been married to Amy for over 25 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and training youth workers to love and serve their students with passion and excellence. 
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