Pastor Ron's Deep Thoughts and Shallow Entries: Calvin's Youth Group 2023 Christmas Party !!! Whoot!! : )

Christmas is almost upon us once again.

The final event I usually do this time of year is our youth group Christmas gathering.

At 7 p.m. we started with a get-to-know-you activity.

We paired off and answered the following questions.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

2. Real tree or artificial?

3. When do you put up the tree?

4. When do you take the tree down?

5. Do you like eggnog?

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?

8. Hardest person to buy for?

9. Easiest person to buy for?

10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received?

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? If so, what?

15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas?

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

17. Favorite Christmas song/hymn/carol?

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

23. What is the “silliest” family tradition you do, or miss doing?

24. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented?

25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees?

26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies?

27. Do you like Fruitcake?

We then broke off into three teams for some competitive games. Each group was asked to come up with a name for themselves. Megan's group couldn't seem to find the creative energy to do that, so they were given the name "The Jolly Hollies"

Miranda's group called themselves "The FBJBN" which stands for...well we don't actually know :)

Leanne's group called themselves "The Grinches".

Our first game was "Paper Plate Artwork".

Everyone took a paper plate and placed it over their head. Then they grabbed a pen and waited for me to tell them what to draw.

It looks quite interesting : )

The first drawing was a room with a Christmas Tree in it.

They had to draw the following:

1. Draw a line for a floor.

2. Draw a Christmas Tree. Add decorations if you feel so inclined.

3. Draw a star on top of your tree.

4. Draw a fireplace with a mantel next to the tree.

5. Draw a stocking hanging from the mantel of your fireplace.

6. Draw a present below the tree.

Here are some finished products.

Some weren't actually that bad. : )

Points were awarded for:

2 points if the tree touches the floor.

2 points if your stocking is touching your mantel.

1 point if your star touches your tree.

1 point if your star is above your tree.

1 point for every Christmas ornament ball that is ON your tree, etc.

1 point if your fireplace doesn’t touch the tree (it’s a fire hazard!).

1 point if you actually drew something decorative on your stocking (or something cute, like a tiny kitten peeking out).

2 points if your present is under your tree.

The second drawing was of a snowperson.

1. Draw a line for the ground.

2. On top of the ground, draw a large circle for the bottom of the snowperson.

3. On top of the large circle, draw a medium circle for the body of the snowperson.

4. On top of the medium circle, draw a smaller circle for the snowperson's head.

5. Draw a top hat on top of the small circle.

6. Add three buttons to the middle circle.

7. Add eyes and a coal mouth to the top circle.

8. Draw a carrot nose on the top circle.

9. Add two stick arms to either side of the medium circle.

10. Draw a scarf on the snowpeson.

11. Now, look at your drawing!

These turned out a weeee bit less well : )

Points were awarded for:

2 points if the circles are in order and hat is on top.

2 points if your snowperson is touching the ground.

1 point if your buttons are in the right place

1 point if your face is in the right place.

1 point if the carrot is in the right place.

3 points if your stick arms are in the right place.

4 points if your scarf is in the right place.

Then the points were added up for all team members and applied to that team.

Next came the Christmas IQ test.

I've done this before, but it's been about 6 years so this group wouldn't have done it yet.

You can google it online to find the questions and answers.

Let's just say that we assume things we shouldn't when it comes to Christmas, be that in the carols we sing, or the things we think we remember : )

Some argued about the answer, but the Bible usually gave the right answer : )

The next game was the oven mitt gift unwrapping game.

Each team was given a pair of oven mitts, two dice, and a very well-wrapped gift

When I said go, the person with the oven mitts on started to attempt to unwrap the present. The others roll the dice and when a double is rolled, that person gets the oven mitts and continues the unwrapping.

You go until the gift is unwrapped and the box shows the gift inside.

Emma got a bit tooo aggressive here :)

My poor box : (

It was fun to watch.

You could only use your hands. Not teeth, or feet, etc. Though some did try.

The next game was the Christmas alphabet game.

Each team got a sheet with the alphabet, and they had to come up with one Christmas word for each letter of the alphabet.

The first team finished was awarded points.

And then Scott, our judge for the night, also went over the words to see which ones were in, and which ones were out.

Some were pretty creative and pretty not allowed : )

Our final game was the Christmas Smell test game.

I put different scented items into different bottles and the teams had to come up, close their eyes, and were handed a bottle to sniff, they sniffed it and guessed what they thought it was.

They were allowed to take as long as they wanted to guess.