Monthly column for youth leaders

Christmas is a time for fun, laughter and games. But rather than just let the youth group descend into Yuletide anarchy (just yet!), try these themed games.

Christmas dingbats
Each box contains a phrase or saying associated with Christmas. Some are Christmas carols. The clue is to say what you see.

[It has not been possible to reproduce the diagram for the website.]

(Answers, starting top left: Away in a manger, three wise men, Glory to God in the highest, follow that star, frankincense, silent night, Saviour of the world ('say...four of the world!'), O little town of Bethlehem, the First Nowell, Once in Royal David's City, no room in the inn, peace on earth)

Word games

Can you change the word God in to Man changing one letter at a time? Each step must be a recognisable English word. (Answer: God, pod, pad, pan, man).

How many words of three letters or more can you make out of the word 'CHRISTMAS'?

Singing

Try singing one carol to the tune of another. For example, 'Once in Royal David's City' to the tune of 'Away in a Manger' (you'll need to insert some humming) or 'While Shepherds Watched' to the tune of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'. Alternatively, use the words of a carol but pinch the tune from a nursery rhyme. For example, 'Away in a Manger' goes well to the tune of 'Humpty Dumpty'!
If you've got access to an album of Christmas carols and a decent set of headphones, try taking it in turns to wear the headphones and sing a carol. All that people can hear is the singing, not the backing, so it can produce some hilarious results (and some painful ones too!).

There are lots of classic cheesy songs wheeled out at this time of year. You could get someone with a guitar to come and lead a Christmas sing-along. All the chords and lyrics of hits like Slade's 'It's Christmas' can be found on the internet.

Food games

You could theme an entire evening around games to do with food. There are classics like the chocolate game (take turns to roll a dice, on a six dress in hat, scarf and gloves and try to eat a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork) and the flour game (carving away slices of a 'flour cake' whilst trying not to dislodge the smartie on the top).

There are team games like passing polos on straws along the line or passing oranges held under the chin. There are messy games such as racing to eat a dry cracker or weetabix and then whistling a tune. Perennial favourites include the race to peel an orange using toes not fingers and, of course, chubby bunnies.
Several games can use blindfolds. Blindfolded volunteers race to eat a doughnut suspended on a string. In pairs one blindfolded partner can feed the other with jelly. Whatever you do, make sure you have the camera handy.

'Epilogue factor'

Whilst it's great to attract people along with the lure of silly games and to use our imagination to put together a great youth club evening, sometimes as youth leaders we are guilty of separating the fun bit and the Bible bit. The dreaded 'Epilogue factor' can kill a great evening.

What's the problem? Having spent the evening winding up the children or young people, we then want them to sit still and listen when all they want to do is to carry on with the wild games. The children resent the dryness and boredom of the Bible talk and to the leaders it feels a bit like pushing water uphill. The 'Epilogue factor' also does some dangerous damage in the longer term of portraying the message that the Bible cannot be fun and interesting.

What's the answer? Whilst you could excise the Bible bit, that would not make your youth club stand out from any other Christmas party. So the alternative is to merge the fun and the Bible, arranging the games and activities so that they have a focus. This avoids the split between Bible and fun, and provides a (gospel) purposeful evening.

To give some examples of this, the idea of the dingbats could easily be taken slightly further incorporating a retelling of the Christmas story with the dingbats as illustrations. The word game ('God into man') could be used to illustrate the incarnation. And the memory verse could be learned by repeating the verse after each mouthful of marshmallows during chubby bunnies.

However you approach the Christmas party, do so with an eye for the opportunities to teach rather than inadvertently driving a wedge between your young people and the Bible.

Roger Fawcett

© Evangelicals Now - December 2003
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