Church Youth Group Christmas Activity Ideas

Having been the product of youth groups both really good and some not so good and being a former youth pastor and youth leader I've participated in some very popular themes and some not so popular themes for Christmas youth activities.

One of the major ways kids learn is through play. Teens are still kids no matter what they may want you to think. So even though you want to do something that speaks of the Reason For the Season, you also want to keep their attention long enough to get the point delivered to where they live.

Before I was an adult and participating in the youth groups of the various churches we attended there were several Christmas activities that were put on. The only one where the entire youth group was interested in being involved in were the progressive dinners.

A progressive dinner is where several parents volunteer to serve a specific part of the dinner and the kids have to drive from house-to-house to eat each part. The problem though, was except for praying over the parts of the meal there was no other mention for the Reason for Christmas. Another possible drawback for current use of progressive dinners is that today's youth has a lot more freedom than we did back then. Then, driving from home to home was a huge freedom to do with our parents' actual permission. That was the big drawing card.

Other activities were youth choir and Christmas caroling which were very enjoyable to the few who wanted to participate and those who heard them. But most of the youth usually don't want to be involved in the caroling in this way. I've yet to be a part of a youth group where more than a minority ever got involved. But there's a way around that where the majority will participate willingly and enjoy it. In this article are several activities that have worked with the different groups we've had the privilege of being a part of:

Caroling Hayride:

Most of the youth groups I've been involved in have had some sort of hayride, usually more in the fall than at Christmas. Most kids usually want to be involved with a hayride. But in one group, we had the hayride as one of our Christmas activities with those who wanted to sing were lead in singing and those who didn't were allowed to do what they wanted to do such as talking, making jokes and generally just having fun. Afterwards we had a party at the youth pastor's house where he briefly talked about what we did through the neighborhoods we drove through and what Christmas is about.

Christmas Party With a White Elephant Gift:

My foster-mother came up with this one. It's been popular every-time I've seen it done. Participants are instructed to bring a gift that's supposed to be a bit unusual. It doesn't need to be new. It just needs to be something that someone might want. That's very important. It also needs to be in keeping with the Christian Christmas theme. Guests are welcome.

My foster-mother always had extra gifts on hand to account for the unexpected arrivals. The party was held in my foster parent's home and all gifts were placed under the Christmas tree. Other games and activities were participated in and the food was pot-luck from the participating families. The gift exchange was the last activity
in the party.

Straws would be drawn for the order of gift opening, or you can choose a direction to go in for those who're seated in the room. The first person opens a gift then the second to choose a gift is told that after they pick the gift they may prefer to open that gift or exchange it for the gift that's already been opened. If it was exchanged, the first person unwraps the second gift. Then the unwrapping of gifts proceeds until all have been unwrapped and possibly exchanged. Sometimes it gets hilarious because some gifts are so popular that everyone is exchanging for them.

Christmas Volunteer Out-Reach and Party:

Plan a party with a twist. Ask your youth to help you make a list of one friend from each of them whose family is in need, in the area either around the church or in your youth's neighborhoods or schools. Then make up a list of those who'd want to be involved in the invitations. But include all youth in the party whether they bring a friend or not. Then ask them to invite the kid on their list to a special Christmas party where each of your youth provides two gifts, one for their invited guest and one for someone in the youth group.

The gifts could be either gender related or appropriate for either gender. You choose the designation and request that the gifts be appropriately labeled. You can put on fund-raisers before hand to help pay for the gifts, take the kids on an outing to Dollar Tree, Michael's, Target or Walmart to get an inexpensive gift or give them a spending limit and instructions about bringing the wrapped gifts to the party along with their guest. If you take the kids on a shopping outing you could also have a gift wrapping party with pizza and soda, after the shopping trip.

This would also be a good opportunity to do a food donation drive in your group or church to collect food boxes for each of the families represented by the invited youth. The boxes don't need to be elaborate or expensive, just a few canned and boxed basics if your group can't afford very much. At the party have games, food and a gift unwrapping.

Christmas Play:

I've been involved in several Christmas plays. But two really stand out in my memory because of how they were staged and the results. The last one I was involved with was as a youth leader. The person in charge of the play was a drama major and an actor, so he had a lot riding on the production. He ran the show and demanded a lot from the kids, forgetting that it wasn't school where he could require more from the kids. This was youth group which they considered optional. They could just say no. Quite a few did resign.

I ended up being assigned both narrator's jobs which I had to read dramatically because it was given to me last minute and was actually a bit much for even an adult under the time allotment. Certain kids were the stars and were given star treatment. The rest weren't treated as well. Although, the production did end up doing well. Not all of the kids did well through the production and not just because they became flaky. But because they'd been dumped in at the deep end with no shallow preparation.

The play was an updated version of the Christmas story in an urban setting with Mary having her baby outside the hospital in a cab. The play originally had two narrators. It was intended to be a musical with dance. But he realized that was too much and took all of that out. But it was still a bit ambitious for the time alloted. Otherwise the play was good and the production came off well although there were quite a few casualties along the way. The kids invited all of their families and witnessed to them after the play when they were asked to.

The second play we produced while we were youth pastors. I didn't plan it this way. I just did what I heard and asked the kids how they would write the Christmas Story so that it related to them. What we ended up with was a wonderful collaboration with the adults and the kids. The kids were involved in every part of putting on the play. They helped write the play, cast it, costume and produce it. I directed it with their input. This was their production. In fact we didn't lose any kids, we actually had to add parts for more kids from the younger groups in church, because everyone wanted to be involved and we didn't want to leave anyone out. We ended up adding all kinds of angel and shepherd nonspeaking parts to include the little ones.

The play was also an updated version of the Christmas story set in an urban location with Mary and Joseph under an overpass when she had Jesus. It was a play within a play where two brothers were coming to blows with each other because the one had come to Jesus and the other ended up in jail and while he's there he saw his brother and wife as Joseph and Mary under the overpass. He came to his senses, accepted Jesus and
reconciled with his family. The kids wrote this. The adults didn't. The kids based it on their lives. The two brothers in the center of the play were actually brothers with that kind of fractured relationship. On production night they invited all of their families and witnessed to them after the play. Which wasn't a part of the original program.
They spontaneously did so.

Along with working with the youth in the church I've also taught in the classroom for ten years, pre-k, elementary school, and college age. One thing I've learned is that when it's possible to allow the child to participate in their own solution some really awesome things can happen. Especially at the teenage level they need to start learning how to make decisions that will take them toward adulthood, in a safe environment.

The play can't just be about a presentable production for Christmas. It needs to minister to the participants as well as to those it's being presented to.

In the first play there was jealousy and infighting. which slowed down the production and caused bad feelings. In the second play when there were arguments the kids took responsibility in getting them settled because they had a vested interest in seeing the play being presented. They wanted to minister to their families and to present what they had created.

I think the two biggest things that hampered the first play was that we only had a month to prepare for the show and it required more than the kids were ready to give. They were a less mature group than the second group. In the second play, we took almost two months, which minimized the pressure and gave us time to deal with unexpected issues, such as adding more cast members. We also had a more independent group of kids to work with

Christmas Scavenger Hunt:

One of the youth groups we worked with puts on a Christmas scavenger hunt every Christmas. Of course yours doesn't need to be quite as elaborate as theirs. One of the youth pastors makes arrangements with Walmart, Target and Chick-fila to have the kids running through their stores. They also use the pastor's yard. This was also a competition between several churches in the local area.

Each child who participated needed to bring a certain amount of money one half was used to cover costs for the items acquired during the hunt and the other half went toward the expenses of the hunt and was turned in before the competition started. Each church group, or if you're going to use just your own group, was divided up into groups of three or four kids and an adult driver with a vehicle. Everyone met at the designated church and were briefed on where they were to go and were they were to finish and to obey all traffic laws while trying to finish first with all of the items acquired. This is when we had pizza and soda.

Each group was given a disposable camera to photograph all the proof of finished tasks and locations and a printed off list of directions that weren't really directions but a combination of directions and hints that needed to be deciphered. Each team member was to wear some sort of Christmas head gear and the designated leader was to wear something truly silly Christmas head gear. One year they had to wear deely doppers. Another year it was reindeer antlers. They had to wear these the entire time or lose points.

Some of the things we had to do was buy the cheapest toilet paper and outside the store entrance, wrap up one of our team members, take a picture while singing Frosty the Snowman. Then following the directions very carefully we had to retrieve all of the toilet paper and rolls because they were counted in the end. Any missing, we lost points. At another store we had to buy the cheapest Christmas lights, wrap one of our team members
while singing "Oh Christmas Tree". We also had to buy certain themed toys or items which fulfilled certain themes, such as the Holy Family or some other part of the Christmas story. The more creative and cheap the purchase the more points we would get.

At Chik-fila We had to do the Chicken Dance and sing something in front of the cash register to get our free burger(Which was actually paid for through the youth group from some of the fees collected.). We also had to visit Santa outside the restaurant to collect what he gave us as part of the hunt. Some of the destinations had names that lent themselves to the Christmas theme. We had to untangle the hinted directions, find the place and photograph ourselves in front of it. One of the stops usually included a visit to the pastor's house where there was something that had to be done in his yard. One year we had to find the candy canes in his yard, then spell out Jesus on his grass and photograph it.

After everyone arrived back at the final destination, arrival times, remaining money was turned in and counted as points and trophies were all tallied up, then the prizes were awarded. Prizes to the winning teams were tickets for lazer tag, a trip to a special concert, bowling, gift cards, etc.

Note: Some of the suggestions that are made in this article may not work with your teens, the way they're presented. It depends upon the makeup of your group. Just rework them to fit with your youth. Just as we reworked the traditional Christmas play to fit with the group we were working with. There was no way we were going to get a play done where we just told them what to do. We would have lost all of the kids and not just a few as in the first play.