Eight Tips for a Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt

If you are planning a Valentine's Day party for a teen, a mall scavenger hunt can be a fun way to get everyone involved in the festivities. Here are 10 tips for a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt.

1. Pick an appropriate Valentine's Day scavenger hunt list. Include free items to be brought back by scavenger hunt teams. In addition, take advantage of the prevalence of camera phones (which many if not most of the teens at the party are likely to have) and include some items on the list that should be photographed.

2. Be creative in planning a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt list. You may want to visit the mall ahead of time to be sure that teams will be able to find all the items on the list and to get ideas for fun additions to the list.

3. Some suggestions to get you started on a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt list are:

A red bow.

Red, pink and white ribbon

A red shopping bag

A red rubber band or red paper clip

Samples of chocolates (the winner is the team with the most different kinds of chocolates)

A wedding registry printout

Red, pink and white tissue paper

A sample of Valentine's Day wrapping paper (must have hearts, flowers and/or the word love on it)

A sample of men's or women's cologne

A red or red and white striped straw

A red plastic cup

A photo of something (not a book or movie) that says Romeo and Juliet on it

A photo of a pair of pajamas with hearts on them

A photo of a red robe with white trim or white robe with red trim

A photo of a Valentine's Day card with a bulldog on it

A photo of a copy of one or more of the books, Love Story, The Bridges of Madison County, or the Notebook (extra credit goes to those who find two or three of these books rather than just one)

A photo of a red teddy bear

4. Divide the party goers evenly into teams of two to four teens.

5. Set a time frame for the scavenger hunt. Require the teams to return at a set time and deduct points from teams that return late.

6. Take steps to ensure everyone's safety. Require teams to stay together at all times, rather than scouting for items individually. Have cell phone numbers for each team so that you can contact them if necessary, and be sure each team has the number for your cell phone. Also, be clear up front that discourtesy to mall personnel, running and roughhousing that disturbs other patrons will not be tolerated. When searching for free items like ribbon or tissue paper, ask teams not to interrupt store employees who are helping customers.

7. Give prizes to the team that finds the most items, the team that completes the scavenger hunt the most quickly, the team that was the most creative in completing the hunt and so on.

8. Finish the evening with pizza, sodas, cake and ice cream at the food court.