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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Holiday Scavenger Hunt List

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Holiday scavenger hunt listFor this week’s youth work session plan idea, we’re providing a free holiday scavenger hunt list. This includes clues and ideas based on faith and cultural traditions for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and other non-religious Christmas items.

Last week we gave you some free Christian scavenger hunt clues to use at Christmas, while the week before we gave you free Christmas scavenger hunt clues based on the 12 Days of Christmas. As part of our mission is to equip youth workers and organizations worldwide, we therefore wanted to provide some resources for young people who don’t necessarily celebrate Christmas.

Here’s how to organize a holiday photo scavenger hunt:

Resources

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 Holiday scavenger hunt clues. Encourage creativity and humor! (n.b. you may want to look at different holiday traditions in youth work sessions prior to this holiday scavenger hunt – that way, the youth will know what the answers are).

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!

If you’re going to display the photos anywhere – including on Facebook or your youth group’s website, make sure their parents sign a photo release form.

If you liked this idea, check out all of our other scavenger hunt ideas. We’ve also published a book called 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas that, as the name suggests, has dozens more of these types of activities, complete with lists of items for each hunt. Get your copy here.

Question: What clues would you include on a holiday scavenger hunt list with your youth? Share your ideas in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed