Human Christmas Tree Decorating Contest

Dec 012011

This is an annual tradition at our Young Life Club.

Supplies:

Green Saran Wrap
Lots of Christmas Tree Ornaments
Christmas Lights
Extension Cord
Surge Protector

Bring 3 kids up front and have them choose 2 friends each. Then, give each team 2 minutes to turn their person into a Christmas Tree. The first step is to have the person hold their hands straight out so they can be wrapped in Saran Wrap. Step 2 is to wrap the person in lights (unplugged). Then, the kids should put the ornaments on. The Saran Wrap is what holds the ornament hangers, because they’ll poke right through it. Finally, when the time is up, plug all the trees into the surge protector at the same time.

Have the crowd vote by applause for the best tree.

We usually make the winning tree stay up front for at least 2 songs. It makes for some great pictures.

Head Under The Table Game

Earning The Right, Upfront Games Comments Off

Sep 272011

If done right, this is one of those games kids will talk about forever.

What you’ll need:

A piece of wood (5′ x 3′) with a head sized hole cut about 1.5′ from one end, or we have used 2 card tables and cut a hole in one of them.
A large sheet that can be cut
2 chairs or bar stools (unless you’re using card tables)
4 or 5 sports balls
4 or 5 boxes – at least one needs to be able to cover a head

Take 3 kids out of the room and set up the wood on the backs of the chairs to create a table or set the card tables side by side. Cover the table with the sheet and cut a hole in the spot where the head will be sticking through. Make sure the sheet goes all the way to the ground on all sides.

Put the balls under boxes in a line on the table and put one box over the hole. Have a kid or leader get under the table and put their head through the hole. It’s important to have the face of the person under the table face away from the crowd because that way the person lifting the boxes will be facing the crowd.

Have the kids come in one at a time. Play it up hard that this is a game to test their knowledge of all different kinds of sports. Have the leader who’s leading it wear a referee shirt and whistle. Do a demonstration by having the leader pull a golf ball out of their pocket, “What sport is it!!??” They’ll say golf. Tell them that’s what they have to do for each of the boxes. Finally give them a fake time to beat, so they are sure to go fast & start the video cameras recording.

When the contestant throws the box off the head, the person who is the head screams real loud. There are a couple variations to this. I saw one at camp where the last contestant, took a baseball bat and hit the balls. When they came to the head, the person who was the head had a manican head that they put through the hole. The head got hit into the crowd. If you do that, have the person under the table wear a hat that they’ll put on the manican.

The other variation is to have the last person hold a pie and smack the unsuspecting person under the table when throw that box off. That requires the leader to actually do the throwing of the boxes for that one.

It works best if they throw the boxes into the crowd instead of lifting them straight up, because they’ll be leaning forward to get a good look at the balls. Have fun!

First Kiss Game

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Sep 062011

This is the worlds most simple game, but one of the funniest. We never put it on our Club plans, because it’s the perfect game to just do when you NEED a game.

Here’s all you need.

A piece of paper or paper plate – anything small & flat will do.

Send 3 – 4 kids out of the room. Once they’re gone, put the piece of paper on the floor up front. Then (this is the most important part) you tell the crowd that they have to be completely silent. Its always a struggle to keep those one or two kids from making little noises. We put leaders strategically throughout the room near those kids. Then tell the group that whatever the kid says when they are standing on the paper is the first thing they said after their first kiss. Silence is so important. Can’t stress that enough. It creates the awkward tension for the game to work.

Meanwhile, outside have a leader tell the 4 kids that when they come into the room they need to make sure to follow the instructions they are given exactly.

When the kids come in one at a time, only a leader will speak to them. Everyone else needs to stay silent. All the leader is going to say is “Please come up here and stand on this piece of paper.” That’s all there is to it. It will get extremely awkward as the kid stands in front of the silent room wondering what they are supposed to be doing. Whatever comes out of their mouth will be funny to the crowd, because they’ll be picturing the kid’s first kiss. The laughter makes it even more awkward. We make sure we’re mindful of the sensitivity of the individual kids. Some kids we let sit down pretty quickly, but some (the ones we know can take it) we let stand up there quite a while. It’s a hoot.

Toothpicks & Life Savers Mixer

Earning The Right, Mixers Comments Off

Aug 262011

Come on, you know there’s someone out there who’s never seen this, so I figured I’d include it as one of my mixer posts.

Here’s how it works.

Line the kids up in at least 2 equal lines.
Give everyone a toothpick. We made it more interesting by pretending we didn’t have enough, so we broke them in two. Don’t worry, there’s still enough room to make sure they don’t kiss, but things got dicey.
Have the kids each put their toothpicks in their mouths & put a life saver on the first kids toothpick.
When the music starts (gotta have some good passing music), have them pass the lifesavers from one kid in line to the next.
If it drops on the floor, they have to pick it up and put it back on the person who was passing it’s toothpick.
No hands allowed unless they’re picking it up off the floor.
The first team done wins.

Name That Tune Sing Along Game

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Aug 242011

Here’s a game that can be played a couple different ways. Put headphones on a kid and have them sing songs only they can hear while their teammate attempts to guess the song.

In the past, we played it where they had a certain amount of time to guess as many songs as possible.

The last time we did it, we timed teams to see how long it took each time to correctly guess 10 songs.

Here are some things we learned:

Pick songs nearly every kid will know.
Edit the songs so to take the intro music out. We edited our 10 songs starting in the middle of verses, that way if a kid really knew it they’d get it before it got to the obviousness of the chorus.
Stress how important it is to keep singing or even humming. It gets really dull to just have someone stand up there.
Speaking of just standing there, make sure you have a kid who will go all out or this can really flop.

With the 10 song timed versions of the game, we edited each song to exactly a minute. That way if they didn’t get it within a minute it would automatically go to the next song. In case you’re wondering how long this game could last, cause it seems like it might get long, our winning time was 3 minutes & some seconds. Our losing time was almost 5 minutes. When we do it again, we’ll make sure to do a few less songs.

Here’s one of our best performances.

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Chris Storms