For 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
- Cameras
- Holiday scavenger hunt list
- 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 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.
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