Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays From Youth Workin’ It

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Say what?!  A post from Youth Workin’ It on Sunday? I can tell you’re intrigued… read on my friends, read on.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year- a time to spend with family and friends and catching up on your favorite youth work blog… ok maybe I snuck that one in.  I’ll be relaxing by flipping between reading fiction and youth work books.  Don’t judge my bookish nerdiness too much, we’ve got to keep our edge so we can keep bringing you great new content in 2012!!

To countdown to the end of the year we will be posting the top 12 Youth Workin’ It posts from December 19-December 31st. Our blog went live in September, but providing new content six days a week means we still have a lot of great stuff to share from the last few months.

Remember classics like ‘You gave your teens what?!‘ and ‘How to run a Krispy Kreme fundraiser‘ – did they make the top 12?! You’ll just have to check back over the next two weeks to find out.  We think a short break is a good idea for many reasons and we got our inspiration for this from Jon Acuff.

I came across two Christmas-themed blog posts that I thought I’d share – I really enjoyed them, even if I don’t subscribe to some of the views shared.  Whether you’re a parent or a youth worker, a celebrator of Christmas or not, there is a lot of good stuff about the hope, joy, magic and giving that can be associated with the holiday season to share with your youth.

Jen Hatmaker’s post ‘A Christmas Conundrum’ is written in a fun, quirky way that highlights some of the excess that can be associated with the holidays and other holiday thoughts from one Christian’s perspective. The other from Cozi, focuses on The Truth about Santa, his existence and how to keep the magical feelings alive that he can inspire in children and adults alike.

We here at Youth Workin’ It hope you enjoy your holiday season – Christmas Day, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Years Day… Tuesday. However you celebrate – whether it’s with Chinese food, a Kinara, Church or a family meal – enjoy it!  (I would like to start a petition that scraps the traditional Christmas dinner in favor of Chinese food for all – Stephen would not agree to this, he loves roast dinners!)

See you in January with new posts, games, youth work Q & A’s and much more!

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Christmas Scavenger Hunt Clues

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Christmas scavenger hunt clues12 Days of Christmas Youth Photo Scavenger Hunt

Christmas is always a great time to organize fun youth events, so here are some free Christmas scavenger hunt clues for you to use with your youth group.

This Christmas photo scavenger hunt is great fun. It can take up to 2 hours, or more if you also show the pictures afterwards. You split youth into teams and send them out into a public space with a time limit to capture as many photos as they can of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’.

They should use their imaginations and not look for the obvious, like a real partridge in a real pear tree. We had a team that took 2 books with trees on the cover and put an Alan Partridge DVD in the middle of them and snapped a pic – a ‘Partridge’ in a ‘pair of’ trees – brilliant! Give points for creativity.

At the end, the group comes back together with their photos and watches them together. You score the photos and give prizes (optional) to the winners! And really, it’s so much fun, everybody wins!

You can do this 12 Days Of Christmas scavenger hunt as a photo or video scavenger hunt. You can use a digital camera or just cellphones, and since there are 1.8 billion youth cell phone accounts worldwide, chances are you have 1 or 2 in your youth program.

Your youth can earn extra points for creativity, for including a kind passer-by and anything else you want to give bonus points for. You could also make this a mini-media project by having the groups put their pictures into slide shows and caption them.

Resources

  • Cameras
  • List of the 12 Days of Christmas Scavenger Hunt Clues
  • Projector & Screen (if you want to show the pictures after the hunt)
  • Prizes for the Winners (optional)
  • 1 copy of the scorecard per team (this is for you to score them – don’t give the scorecards to the youth)

Instructions

Go to a mall, town center shopping area or high street.

Divide the youth up into teams and send one or two adult youth workers or volunteers with each group. If your youth are old enough they could go by themselves, but we used it as a good time for building relationships with the youth.

Give each team a list of the 12 Days of Christmas scavenger hunt clues. Encourage creativity and humor! In the UK, we had one group doing ‘4 Calling Birds’ as 4 girls talking on their cell phones (Englishism: ‘birds’ are girls or women) and ‘7 Swans-a-swimming’ where they took a photo of 7 ‘Swan matches’ floating in a puddle.

Remind them of any group agreements you have about behavior in public, or come up with a few on the spot. You may also want to establish ground rules about buying things for the photos. Decide ahead of time if groups are allowed to purchase items for the pictures. Consider giving them $5 each for incidentals if buying is OK, so that all teams have a level playing field.

Give them their time limit and meeting location and send them off.

Winners

The team with the most points at the end wins!

Important Note: In many shopping centers, it’s not OK to take photos inside stores or have groups of youth hanging out. One thing you can do is be proactive and contact the mall ahead of time to discuss the particulars of your hunt. This will help foster a good relationship in your community and promote a positive image for youth.

If you want to use the pictures for anything but internal use, you’ll also need to have Photo Release Forms completed.

If you’re looking for other things to do with your youth this holiday season, check out the 12 WAYS of Christmas about youth volunteering and fundraising during the holidays.

If you liked this idea, check out our sister site that has many other Christmas scavenger hunt ideas.

You’ll also love our book – 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas. You can order the paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon or you can get a digital copy directly from us.

Question: What would you add to the Christmas Scavenger Hunt Clues? Create a conversation in the comments below.

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12 Holiday Projects – Youth Work Session Plan Idea

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Youth holiday projects
Don’t be prickly this holiday season – give your time to serve, volunteer and give with your youth

12 Ways (to spread the cheer) of Christmas

Twelve Shoe Boxes

Eleven Toys for Tots

Ten Coats for Kids

Nine Homeless Kittens

Eight Hours of Wrapping

Seven Nights of Soup

Six Oxfam Goats

Five Bags of Groceries

Four Home Cooked Meals

Three Hours of Talking

Two Snow-Free Weeks

And an ornament from the Angel Tree

Now is the time to start planning for how your youth group might give to their community this holiday season. Most of these ideas are easy to organize in your local area.

Some have deadlines, like Operation Christmas Child or are US-based, like Toys for Tots and some might require fundraising or collection drives. However, you can recreate their ideas in your own community. And all of these efforts will make a big difference in the lives of your youth, their communities and communities around the world this holiday season.

Question: What will your youth do this holiday season to spread some cheer? We’d love to hear what you’ll be up to in the comments below.

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