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
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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. Archives
December 2023
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