November 20, 2025 • 22 mins
Start the New Year strong and grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to grow with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Ready to host a youth ministry volunteer Christmas party your leaders won’t forget? We break down four super fun party ideas that turn a simple get-together into a tradition! Each idea scales for different teams and venues, and every one is designed to build camaraderie, spark laughter, and show real gratitude to your student ministry team. We also talk about some youth group leader Christmas gift ideas and some ways to remember and share wins from the past year.
Be sure to celebrate the people who make youth ministry possible and give them a night that feels like a thank-you, not an obligation. Don't forget to email us if you'd like to get 17 Christmas games and icebreakers for your party!
Email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com for 17 Christmas Party Games & Icebreakers! Put in the subject line: "Christmas Party Games" and we can send them over!
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You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#023) Christmas Event & Party Ideas for Youth Groups
(#028) Christmas Gift Ideas for Your Youth Ministry Team - 10 Fun Gift Ideas
(#123) Youth Ministry Games for Christmas Parties - My 6 Favorite Games!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
One of our favorite youth ministry traditions is to
(00:02):
throw a volunteer-only Christmasparty.
And today I'm going to give youfour ideas of how to do your
own.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach podcast, where we
give you weekly tips and tacticsto help you fast track the
growth and health of your youthministry.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kristen
Lascola, and it's almostChristmas time.
Hey, and we're gonna talk aboutfour party items.
Anything's a Christmas song ifyou want it to be a Christmas
song, Jeff.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
True.
Just put some jingle bellsbehind it and you'll be good.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
You know, like, hey, you know.
Um take two.
I can't think of one Christmassong that goes, hey.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
They should all do it, really.
SPEAKER_01 (00:58):
Um today we are warming up for the Christmas
season.
We are going to do four ideasfor your volunteer Christmas
party.
So this is not like your studentyouth group Christmas night with
the kids.
This is a separate thing withadult where you can actually
have some fun.
(01:19):
True.
Um yeah, just like you and yourleaders, your adult volunteers.
I think it's really fun to haveyour own separate Christmas
party.
I just got back oh three hoursago from my leader retreat.
We always call it winter campwithout students.
And um, there's just somethingso magical about being with just
(01:42):
your leaders and just buildingthose relationships.
We just went to a cabin up at alake in a cute little mountain
town.
We went to tea, very nice, uh,with just a few of us.
The other hoodlums went to theknife shop while we were at tea.
Um, and then we play murder inthe dark for hours and hours.
(02:04):
We make dinner together, we eatdesserts, galore, we play a ton
of games, we do an affirmationcircle.
It's just kind of me to themaffirmations, and it's just so
cool to spend like 48 hours justplaying.
We don't do anything liketraining time.
It's just like, let's just havefun.
(02:26):
And it is like I think ourseventh year doing it, and it's
just amazing.
So, kind of in that same spirit,then we go to the Christmas
season, and I'm gonna give youfour ideas for just like a night
of feasting and sport.
(02:47):
And again, I really not that youwould at a Christmas party, but
just you don't always have to dolike an agenda item when you
have your leaders together.
Just make it fun, right?
But like I said, you probablyweren't even thinking that for a
Christmas party.
So the best Christmas party Ihave ever been to, and I
replicated it for my leaders,was a sushi and skating party.
(03:12):
So you were at that one.
It was full staff.
Oh my gosh.
So I I replicated it for mystaff.
So basically what we did ournow, if your church doesn't have
concrete floors, our churchbasically the whole thing except
for like the office and like thenursery is like well, the
(03:33):
children's classrooms is umconcrete.
What do you call it?
Like sealed, polished or yeah, Ithink polished concrete,
something like that.
And so there's a lot of smoothsurface.
And so there is a roller skatingplace in San Diego where you
could just rent the skates.
It's not like you're going tothe roller rink, you can just
rent the skates and take themoff to wherever you want to go.
(03:56):
So we get everyone's size, weget the roller skates, and then
we dress all 70s, and you couldkind of turn that into a costume
contest.
That was so fun.
Like people really had adorableoutfits, and then we just like
where we are, sushi is a reallybig deal.
I understand a lot of people arelike gross.
I don't think that is our vibe.
(04:18):
Fill in whatever awesome, likebarbecue.
I was gonna say barbecue.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
That's the only other option.
Tacos.
Oh, then there's that pasta,pizza.
SPEAKER_01 (04:30):
Don't need pizza.
Any food, really.
No, pizza's so youth group.
Let's expand.
Yeah, true, but still, it's kindof like let me guess.
SPEAKER_00 (04:39):
I could eat pizza every night.
Really?
Continue.
SPEAKER_01 (04:41):
Okay.
So everyone dresses up 70s, andthen we came up with a really
great playlist that was all like70s vibes.
And then what we did at mine iswe skated for a while with like
the disco ball, and we're alllike vibing, you know, doing our
thing and our cute outfits.
And then we started, like we do,some competition.
(05:03):
Yeah, we never don't have acompetition because otherwise,
like boring.
So I set up some cones and wedid these relay races, and then
here's where it got fun.
I brought out the hockey sticksand we played.
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Oh, I'm saying we didn't do this at the staff
party.
This is just your party.
SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Yeah, so now I'm moving.
Your staff party.
My staff party.
We pulled out the hockey sticksand we played roller hockey.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
On uh roller skates, on roller skates.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
It was death waiting to happen.
So many people fell, and it was,but nobody like got hurt.
It was just kind of a funnyfall.
And the thing that will foreverstick out in my mind is we were
so aggressive.
We were trying to score andsteal from our own team.
And then if someone would fall,nobody would stop to try to help
(05:53):
them up.
It was almost like get out ofthe way, get up.
Like I just realized we had alot of pent-up just aggression
ready to rip.
So it was basically full contactum roller hockey.
That was the most fun I've everhad at a Christmas party.
(06:13):
And then we obviously did giftsand all of that.
And that was my number one idea.
Now, if you a lot of churcheshave carpeted surfaces, and so I
know what you're thinking.
Oh, we could just roller skatein the parking lot.
Well, if they're your own, yes,you can.
If you're renting them, a lot oftimes they won't let you take
(06:35):
them outside.
But if enough people on yourteam have rollerblades or roller
skates, you could do it outside.
Another option is renting aroller skate place out for your
team.
And then, you know, bringingyour own stuff for the relays
and, you know, asking them to doa 70s playlist or, you know,
(06:55):
making it yourself and askingthem to plug in.
You know, you could modify it ifyou had to actually go to the
place, but like a Christmasroller skating party, I just
underestimated how much fun thatwould be.
It was so hilarious, so fun, andso like out of the box.
And everyone still talks aboutit.
Everyone looks back on it likethat was the year, you know?
(07:18):
So that's number one andfavorite.
You know, another thing youcould add, actually, as I'm
looking at my notes, I forgot tosay, I think a really fun
element to add at any Christmasparty is an end-of-the-year
recap for your leaders.
Just sort of like, not that it'swe're getting to work, but the
agenda item of like, hey, lookwhat we did in this last year.
(07:41):
This is how many kids we had inour youth group last year.
This is how many we have thisyear, this is how much we've
grown.
Here's how many events we did,here's how many weekend services
we did, here's how many baptismswe had.
This is how many kids we took tocamp.
Like just looking back, and thenyou could even have a sharing
time, like, hey, what are someof your favorite memories from
this year?
(08:02):
And they could be funny, theycould be impactful.
One thing we kind of started,and I need to get back on it, is
we have a leader journal wherewe write down like just funny
things that happen or memorieswe don't want to forget, like
that one time Hannah did this ora kid said that.
Right.
And that would be a really greattime to open up the journal and
(08:25):
like look back at the year tokind of spark like people's
memories of what you guys didand all of that.
SPEAKER_00 (08:31):
Could it be cool too if they and they're probably
doing this anyway, but ifthey're if they're texting you
the story and you're writing itin, but not everybody gets to
hear all the stories, but yeah,at the end of the year, hearing
all that could be really, reallyfun.
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:44):
Gather around the fireplace and drink hot cocoa as
we read the Christmas stories.
Although they're not Christmasstories, but you know what I
mean.
SPEAKER_01 (08:53):
Yeah, and that's usually the night we also like
to take a picture for ourChristmas card.
Uh, we like to send out a youthministry Christmas card to all
of our students.
So a few gift ideas for you.
You could make a custom t-shirt,sweatshirt, hat for your
leaders.
It could have like our youthgroup is called Chaos, so it'll
say chaos, and then the year.
(09:14):
You could do a custom madeornament for your, you could
either make it yourself ifyou're crafty, or you could
order one, a cozy blanket,slippers, something like that
have all been probably my topgifts for leaders.
I don't know what I'm gonna dothis year yet because I feel
like I Twim's clicking away.
(09:35):
It really is away.
I knew what you meant.
Clicking, click, click, click,clock, click, clock, click,
click.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
Time is clocking away.
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
Well, I have so many leaders that have been with me
for so long.
Oh, you gotta do new stuff.
I know, and that's like thething where it's like you guys
had all the gifts, and like, doI have to keep finding new
things or can I start over?
So, anyways, okay, that's numberone.
Number two idea is a Christmasscavenger hunt and dinner.
(10:06):
So we have done this, I think,the past two or three years.
I almost didn't do it last year.
And then one of my leaders like,why haven't you scheduled the
leader scavenger hunt?
I'm like, Oh, you want to do it?
He's like, uh, yes.
So we like meet at the church,we put everyone who comes, we
put their name in a bowl, andthen we pick teams that way.
(10:28):
So, like, usually five to sixpeople fit in a car.
So that is the size of the team.
They each get in a car and thenyou hand them a packet of clues.
So, what I do is that morningbefore the party, I drive around
our town.
Like, you have to think ofspecific boundaries, like I say
from mission road to mainstreet, and you know, yeah, so
(10:52):
they know it's not just like,oh, so anywhere in our whole
city, but a boundaried areawould be ideal.
And then you give them thepacket of clues, and then the
clock starts.
And I say, You have one hour toget as many clues as possible
for every minute you're late,I'm gonna subtract a point.
And a lot of the clues, they itcould be like answering a
(11:14):
question, like a number ofsomething, or taking a picture
in front of something, you know,to find that.
And so they go out and do that.
And while they're out doing thescavenger hunt, I'm getting
dinner kind of laid out.
We get like Italian foodcatered, and then I put no
pizza.
Goodness.
Why are you fine?
(11:35):
Have pizza, be basic.
I don't care, do whatever youwant.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Build your own pizza.
Oh.
SPEAKER_01 (11:41):
Oh, actually, that was an idea for a different one.
Not this part of it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:44):
That's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (11:45):
That's a lot different than ordering
dominoes.
Who said dominoes?
Okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00 (11:50):
Little Caesars, the sponsor of youth ministries
across the nation.
SPEAKER_01 (11:55):
They don't know how good we've been to them.
I've throwing it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Oh, they do.
That's the only reason they'restill in business.
SPEAKER_01 (12:01):
I think they should give me like buy 3,000, get one
free or something.
You're there.
Yeah, I know.
Um, so yeah, the Italian foodgoes out, then I'm kind of
arranging their gifts, you know,with their names on them.
So they come back and we figureout who the winner is.
I usually give Starbucks giftcards to everybody on the
(12:22):
winning team.
And then we have dinner, theyopen their gifts.
It's a holly jolly time.
It's very, very fun.
The only bummer with that one,and you're not well, you're not
with them, and they're nottogether.
Well, I think it's okay them notall being together.
Sometimes it's cool because theway we pick the teams, it's like
you never know, and you have towork together with like people
(12:46):
what if you did shorter roundswhere they rotated team players
or whatever.
It's just so hard with thedriving, like they'd have to
like come and go.
But yeah, I mean, I want toplay, but since I've made it,
and then I've thought sometimes,what if I just asked someone
else to make it for us?
But I don't really trust thembecause I've kind of like nailed
(13:07):
the type of clues, you know whatI mean?
So, anyways, number three is amurder mystery party.
So, a murder mystery party, it'spretty cool because you can buy
the packages online.
I have written my own murdermysteries for the students, no
matter how easy I make it.
(13:28):
These people can't get theseclues.
Um, so you could write your own.
That is challenging, but doable.
But you can buy a kit and itcomes with everything, and they
are so cheap, like soaffordable.
And you can do it all the wayfrom like four to like 30
people.
So there's a very wide span.
(13:48):
So the the most affordable onesand the biggest variety I've
found are is onmastersofmisty.com.
And the cool thing is they haveso many different themes.
They have like, I think two orthree Christmas themed ones.
They have like an 80s themed.
There's like a bunch ofdifferent fun ones in there.
So you could have the leadersdress the part.
(14:10):
So if you're doing 80s,obviously that'd be like super
fun to dress up as.
Christmas, you could just gobasic with Christmas sweaters or
Christmas characters, whateveryou want to do.
But you might even like want toread the characters first and
then assign them so that peoplekind of know who to dress up as.
(14:30):
And so, yeah, it comes witheverything.
I think it even comes withinvitations, costume ideas.
It comes with like an audiorecording or a video recording
of like the narrator.
It comes with a packet of clues,and yeah, it could just be a fun
like puzzle to work together.
So, and then obviously dinneralong with that.
(14:51):
I think that's always a greatelement.
You could try to make it fit thetheme of the murder mystery,
which I love doing.
We used to do, remember, we usedto do our finer things club.
We would like pick a movie andthen a dinner to go along with
it.
So if it makes sense, if it'stoo big of a stretch and you're
just eating weird stuff, likedon't worry about it.
I always think of the CharlieBrown Thanksgiving when they ate
(15:13):
like popcorn and toast and jellybeans.
SPEAKER_00 (15:16):
I thought they were Jordan Almonds.
Maybe they are jelly beans.
SPEAKER_01 (15:19):
Yeah, I think they're jelly beans.
So nostalgic, but I would bereally bummed if I showed up and
it was toast, popcorn, and jellybeans for dinner.
Be like, no, thank you.
Okay, and number four idea inthis actually could work for
your youth group as well ifyou're looking for like a
Christmas game.
But this party is Christmasmovie scene it.
(15:42):
So basically, you just have togo on YouTube if you're not like
some master video editor.
I've done this before, and youfind clips of Christmas movies.
My favorite ones like HomeAlone, Christmas Vacation, Elf.
What else would be a good one?
SPEAKER_00 (15:59):
Christmas story, Christmas, oh Charlie Brown's um
Christmas or whatever they callthat one.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yeah.
So you find a scene and youwatch it.
I mean, make sure it's not toolong, somewhere in that like
30-second range, and you writedown a bunch of questions for
it, and then you watch the clip,get them on Teams, ask them the
questions most when.
(16:24):
And this one can be fun becauseyou can make it like movie
theater themed with the food.
So, like you could go get theboxes of candy, popcorn, soft
pretzels, nachos, um hot dogs,sodas, whatever.
Or, you know, obviously youcould cater it, you know, to do
that as well.
But it's just kind of like Ifeel like watching a movie is so
(16:48):
like, okay, we sat there andwatched a movie, but when you
make it into the scenic game, itbecomes this fun, cozy,
nostalgic movie thing.
Yeah, but it's also competitive,fun game.
And I feel like this one isprobably best if you have a
small team and you're like, I'mnot, I mean, writing a whole
scavenger hunt for four people,or or if it's just like we're
(17:11):
yeah, four of us roller skatingaround the church.
That seems weird.
I think this is a good one ifyou're a smaller team.
SPEAKER_00 (17:18):
You guys could just Oh, I could still be fun.
Four people roller skatingaround the church.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
I just feel like the energy would be off, but try it.
Who knows?
Let prove prove me wrong.
Put it in the comments if you doit.
But I just can imagine this onefor like a cozy group in your
living room, like with funsnacks, watching Christmas
movies, like, and then sharingsome memories at the end.
I just feel like I see that asbeing like a 10 and under kind
(17:45):
of team.
So yeah, I think I think youcould not go wrong with any of
these.
Um, I don't know which one I'mgonna pick.
Probably the scavenger hunt,because that seems to be the
crowd favorite.
And then roller skating is thecrowd favorite as well, but we
just got the floor waxed, and Ithink I'll get in trouble if I
(18:06):
roller skate on it.
So if I get permission, I willdo roller skating.
Yeah, it's a good time.
SPEAKER_00 (18:11):
You brought up a good point about sharing the
wins throughout the year, youknow, how many baptisms, how
many rededications, salvations,you know, all those things.
And you might be thinking, Ihaven't kept track of that all
year.
It's just a good reminder,starting in the new year, make
that a new goal that you startkeeping track of that stuff
because it is good to know.
It is good to kind of recap andkind of you know share those
(18:32):
wins with your team.
It's kind of that like, what arewhat are we even doing, you
know, kind of thing.
And that sort of puts a no punintended, puts a nice bow on the
end of the of the year for that.
Right.
Um, we did a couple otherepisodes.
We did Christmas parties foryour youth group.
Some of these actually ideas Ithink kind of overlap, but you
guys can check that out.
And we also did, I think it'slike 17 Christmas party games
(18:54):
and icebreakers.
Um, go ahead and check that outtoo.
Those will be in the descriptionbelow.
If you want all those games,email us at ministrycoachpodcast
at gmail.com and just ask forChristmas games and we can send
those over to you.
I'm gonna bring back an oldtradition.
We haven't done a question ofthe day in a really long time.
Wow.
But seeing how short thisepisode is so far, we got a
(19:16):
little time to spare.
So this I was just thinking ofas you were talking.
Put in the comment section belowif you're watching on YouTube.
When it comes to decorating forChristmas, are you a
pre-Thanksgiving decorator orpost-Thanksgiving decorator?
Some people are like HalloweenNovember 1st, Christmas.
You know, it's like boom.
(19:37):
So put in the comment sectionbelow where are you?
We I think used to always bepost-Thanksgiving, but now
sometimes I think we do it rightbefore Thanksgiving.
Yeah, yeah.
That was probably where we landon that.
I used to definitely be a postbecause I was like, Thanksgiving
needs to have its due, but Idon't know, I've kind of
softened my stance on that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
I have softened my stance on it too, and I've just
framed it, I'm thankful forChristmas.
Because I'm thankful all yearround.
Thanksgiving's feelings aren'thurt if I move to Christmas.
I'm I do five minutes ofgratitude every morning, and I'm
like, Thanksgiving knows, Jesusknows.
SPEAKER_00 (20:20):
It can still sort of be the same decorations for
thankfulness.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
It's just kind of fall, but it's like who are we
thankful to?
Jesus.
SPEAKER_00 (20:31):
Yes, true.
SPEAKER_01 (20:33):
So uh he knows he's okay if we move to Christmas.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Sometimes it feels weird being in Southern
California because it'll be like95 degrees when uh Halloween's
done, and you're like, thisdoesn't feel quite right for
Christmas decorations, butanyways, put that in the comment
section below.
This is going to be ourcommunity comment of the day.
This comes from Austin Nix, whosays, okay, the blooper segment
at the end was a good idea.
(20:57):
So I don't know if you guys everwatched to the end of our
episodes.
If you made it this far, thankyou for sticking around.
But we always put bloopers atthe end of every episode, even
if it's on the audio version orthe YouTube version.
I put it on on both.
So probably the audio version,you're like, I don't even know
what is happening.
I just hear weird noises and youguys laughing at stuff.
(21:18):
But thank you, Austin.
We appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (21:20):
Austin.
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
We usually have a lot of bloopers to sift through,
and so there's never a um lack,I feel like.
SPEAKER_01 (21:26):
I feel like there was an episode recently.
I was so excited to see what youchose for the blooper.
And I'm like, cheapskate.
SPEAKER_00 (21:33):
Well, here's the thing there's a story behind
that.
We did an episode all aboutchurch hurt, and I kind of felt
like it was a little more somberof a topic, and I felt weird
going from like that to like,you know, just like just
clowning around at the end.
So I thought I made theexecutive decision to leave the
(21:53):
glooper.
Hey! Thank you guys for watchingand listening, and we'll see you
next time.
SPEAKER_01 (22:01):
Christmas is right around the corner, and it is
time to celebrate.
Christmas is coming, and whatbetter way to celebrate with
than you can do?
Fine.
And what better way to celebratethan having a volunteer only
Christmas party?
W and then what?
One of our favorite youth ministry traditions is to
(00:02):
throw a volunteer-only Christmasparty.
And today I'm going to give youfour ideas of how to do your
own.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach podcast, where we
give you weekly tips and tacticsto help you fast track the
growth and health of your youthministry.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kristen
Lascola, and it's almostChristmas time.
Hey, and we're gonna talk aboutfour party items.
Anything's a Christmas song ifyou want it to be a Christmas
song, Jeff.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
True.
Just put some jingle bellsbehind it and you'll be good.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
You know, like, hey, you know.
Um take two.
I can't think of one Christmassong that goes, hey.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
They should all do it, really.
SPEAKER_01 (00:58):
Um today we are warming up for the Christmas
season.
We are going to do four ideasfor your volunteer Christmas
party.
So this is not like your studentyouth group Christmas night with
the kids.
This is a separate thing withadult where you can actually
have some fun.
(01:19):
True.
Um yeah, just like you and yourleaders, your adult volunteers.
I think it's really fun to haveyour own separate Christmas
party.
I just got back oh three hoursago from my leader retreat.
We always call it winter campwithout students.
And um, there's just somethingso magical about being with just
(01:42):
your leaders and just buildingthose relationships.
We just went to a cabin up at alake in a cute little mountain
town.
We went to tea, very nice, uh,with just a few of us.
The other hoodlums went to theknife shop while we were at tea.
Um, and then we play murder inthe dark for hours and hours.
(02:04):
We make dinner together, we eatdesserts, galore, we play a ton
of games, we do an affirmationcircle.
It's just kind of me to themaffirmations, and it's just so
cool to spend like 48 hours justplaying.
We don't do anything liketraining time.
It's just like, let's just havefun.
(02:26):
And it is like I think ourseventh year doing it, and it's
just amazing.
So, kind of in that same spirit,then we go to the Christmas
season, and I'm gonna give youfour ideas for just like a night
of feasting and sport.
(02:47):
And again, I really not that youwould at a Christmas party, but
just you don't always have to dolike an agenda item when you
have your leaders together.
Just make it fun, right?
But like I said, you probablyweren't even thinking that for a
Christmas party.
So the best Christmas party Ihave ever been to, and I
replicated it for my leaders,was a sushi and skating party.
(03:12):
So you were at that one.
It was full staff.
Oh my gosh.
So I I replicated it for mystaff.
So basically what we did ournow, if your church doesn't have
concrete floors, our churchbasically the whole thing except
for like the office and like thenursery is like well, the
(03:33):
children's classrooms is umconcrete.
What do you call it?
Like sealed, polished or yeah, Ithink polished concrete,
something like that.
And so there's a lot of smoothsurface.
And so there is a roller skatingplace in San Diego where you
could just rent the skates.
It's not like you're going tothe roller rink, you can just
rent the skates and take themoff to wherever you want to go.
(03:56):
So we get everyone's size, weget the roller skates, and then
we dress all 70s, and you couldkind of turn that into a costume
contest.
That was so fun.
Like people really had adorableoutfits, and then we just like
where we are, sushi is a reallybig deal.
I understand a lot of people arelike gross.
I don't think that is our vibe.
(04:18):
Fill in whatever awesome, likebarbecue.
I was gonna say barbecue.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
That's the only other option.
Tacos.
Oh, then there's that pasta,pizza.
SPEAKER_01 (04:30):
Don't need pizza.
Any food, really.
No, pizza's so youth group.
Let's expand.
Yeah, true, but still, it's kindof like let me guess.
SPEAKER_00 (04:39):
I could eat pizza every night.
Really?
Continue.
SPEAKER_01 (04:41):
Okay.
So everyone dresses up 70s, andthen we came up with a really
great playlist that was all like70s vibes.
And then what we did at mine iswe skated for a while with like
the disco ball, and we're alllike vibing, you know, doing our
thing and our cute outfits.
And then we started, like we do,some competition.
(05:03):
Yeah, we never don't have acompetition because otherwise,
like boring.
So I set up some cones and wedid these relay races, and then
here's where it got fun.
I brought out the hockey sticksand we played.
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Oh, I'm saying we didn't do this at the staff
party.
This is just your party.
SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Yeah, so now I'm moving.
Your staff party.
My staff party.
We pulled out the hockey sticksand we played roller hockey.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
On uh roller skates, on roller skates.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
It was death waiting to happen.
So many people fell, and it was,but nobody like got hurt.
It was just kind of a funnyfall.
And the thing that will foreverstick out in my mind is we were
so aggressive.
We were trying to score andsteal from our own team.
And then if someone would fall,nobody would stop to try to help
(05:53):
them up.
It was almost like get out ofthe way, get up.
Like I just realized we had alot of pent-up just aggression
ready to rip.
So it was basically full contactum roller hockey.
That was the most fun I've everhad at a Christmas party.
(06:13):
And then we obviously did giftsand all of that.
And that was my number one idea.
Now, if you a lot of churcheshave carpeted surfaces, and so I
know what you're thinking.
Oh, we could just roller skatein the parking lot.
Well, if they're your own, yes,you can.
If you're renting them, a lot oftimes they won't let you take
(06:35):
them outside.
But if enough people on yourteam have rollerblades or roller
skates, you could do it outside.
Another option is renting aroller skate place out for your
team.
And then, you know, bringingyour own stuff for the relays
and, you know, asking them to doa 70s playlist or, you know,
(06:55):
making it yourself and askingthem to plug in.
You know, you could modify it ifyou had to actually go to the
place, but like a Christmasroller skating party, I just
underestimated how much fun thatwould be.
It was so hilarious, so fun, andso like out of the box.
And everyone still talks aboutit.
Everyone looks back on it likethat was the year, you know?
(07:18):
So that's number one andfavorite.
You know, another thing youcould add, actually, as I'm
looking at my notes, I forgot tosay, I think a really fun
element to add at any Christmasparty is an end-of-the-year
recap for your leaders.
Just sort of like, not that it'swe're getting to work, but the
agenda item of like, hey, lookwhat we did in this last year.
(07:41):
This is how many kids we had inour youth group last year.
This is how many we have thisyear, this is how much we've
grown.
Here's how many events we did,here's how many weekend services
we did, here's how many baptismswe had.
This is how many kids we took tocamp.
Like just looking back, and thenyou could even have a sharing
time, like, hey, what are someof your favorite memories from
this year?
(08:02):
And they could be funny, theycould be impactful.
One thing we kind of started,and I need to get back on it, is
we have a leader journal wherewe write down like just funny
things that happen or memorieswe don't want to forget, like
that one time Hannah did this ora kid said that.
Right.
And that would be a really greattime to open up the journal and
(08:25):
like look back at the year tokind of spark like people's
memories of what you guys didand all of that.
SPEAKER_00 (08:31):
Could it be cool too if they and they're probably
doing this anyway, but ifthey're if they're texting you
the story and you're writing itin, but not everybody gets to
hear all the stories, but yeah,at the end of the year, hearing
all that could be really, reallyfun.
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:44):
Gather around the fireplace and drink hot cocoa as
we read the Christmas stories.
Although they're not Christmasstories, but you know what I
mean.
SPEAKER_01 (08:53):
Yeah, and that's usually the night we also like
to take a picture for ourChristmas card.
Uh, we like to send out a youthministry Christmas card to all
of our students.
So a few gift ideas for you.
You could make a custom t-shirt,sweatshirt, hat for your
leaders.
It could have like our youthgroup is called Chaos, so it'll
say chaos, and then the year.
(09:14):
You could do a custom madeornament for your, you could
either make it yourself ifyou're crafty, or you could
order one, a cozy blanket,slippers, something like that
have all been probably my topgifts for leaders.
I don't know what I'm gonna dothis year yet because I feel
like I Twim's clicking away.
(09:35):
It really is away.
I knew what you meant.
Clicking, click, click, click,clock, click, clock, click,
click.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
Time is clocking away.
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
Well, I have so many leaders that have been with me
for so long.
Oh, you gotta do new stuff.
I know, and that's like thething where it's like you guys
had all the gifts, and like, doI have to keep finding new
things or can I start over?
So, anyways, okay, that's numberone.
Number two idea is a Christmasscavenger hunt and dinner.
(10:06):
So we have done this, I think,the past two or three years.
I almost didn't do it last year.
And then one of my leaders like,why haven't you scheduled the
leader scavenger hunt?
I'm like, Oh, you want to do it?
He's like, uh, yes.
So we like meet at the church,we put everyone who comes, we
put their name in a bowl, andthen we pick teams that way.
(10:28):
So, like, usually five to sixpeople fit in a car.
So that is the size of the team.
They each get in a car and thenyou hand them a packet of clues.
So, what I do is that morningbefore the party, I drive around
our town.
Like, you have to think ofspecific boundaries, like I say
from mission road to mainstreet, and you know, yeah, so
(10:52):
they know it's not just like,oh, so anywhere in our whole
city, but a boundaried areawould be ideal.
And then you give them thepacket of clues, and then the
clock starts.
And I say, You have one hour toget as many clues as possible
for every minute you're late,I'm gonna subtract a point.
And a lot of the clues, they itcould be like answering a
(11:14):
question, like a number ofsomething, or taking a picture
in front of something, you know,to find that.
And so they go out and do that.
And while they're out doing thescavenger hunt, I'm getting
dinner kind of laid out.
We get like Italian foodcatered, and then I put no
pizza.
Goodness.
Why are you fine?
(11:35):
Have pizza, be basic.
I don't care, do whatever youwant.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Build your own pizza.
Oh.
SPEAKER_01 (11:41):
Oh, actually, that was an idea for a different one.
Not this part of it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:44):
That's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (11:45):
That's a lot different than ordering
dominoes.
Who said dominoes?
Okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00 (11:50):
Little Caesars, the sponsor of youth ministries
across the nation.
SPEAKER_01 (11:55):
They don't know how good we've been to them.
I've throwing it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Oh, they do.
That's the only reason they'restill in business.
SPEAKER_01 (12:01):
I think they should give me like buy 3,000, get one
free or something.
You're there.
Yeah, I know.
Um, so yeah, the Italian foodgoes out, then I'm kind of
arranging their gifts, you know,with their names on them.
So they come back and we figureout who the winner is.
I usually give Starbucks giftcards to everybody on the
(12:22):
winning team.
And then we have dinner, theyopen their gifts.
It's a holly jolly time.
It's very, very fun.
The only bummer with that one,and you're not well, you're not
with them, and they're nottogether.
Well, I think it's okay them notall being together.
Sometimes it's cool because theway we pick the teams, it's like
you never know, and you have towork together with like people
(12:46):
what if you did shorter roundswhere they rotated team players
or whatever.
It's just so hard with thedriving, like they'd have to
like come and go.
But yeah, I mean, I want toplay, but since I've made it,
and then I've thought sometimes,what if I just asked someone
else to make it for us?
But I don't really trust thembecause I've kind of like nailed
(13:07):
the type of clues, you know whatI mean?
So, anyways, number three is amurder mystery party.
So, a murder mystery party, it'spretty cool because you can buy
the packages online.
I have written my own murdermysteries for the students, no
matter how easy I make it.
(13:28):
These people can't get theseclues.
Um, so you could write your own.
That is challenging, but doable.
But you can buy a kit and itcomes with everything, and they
are so cheap, like soaffordable.
And you can do it all the wayfrom like four to like 30
people.
So there's a very wide span.
(13:48):
So the the most affordable onesand the biggest variety I've
found are is onmastersofmisty.com.
And the cool thing is they haveso many different themes.
They have like, I think two orthree Christmas themed ones.
They have like an 80s themed.
There's like a bunch ofdifferent fun ones in there.
So you could have the leadersdress the part.
(14:10):
So if you're doing 80s,obviously that'd be like super
fun to dress up as.
Christmas, you could just gobasic with Christmas sweaters or
Christmas characters, whateveryou want to do.
But you might even like want toread the characters first and
then assign them so that peoplekind of know who to dress up as.
(14:30):
And so, yeah, it comes witheverything.
I think it even comes withinvitations, costume ideas.
It comes with like an audiorecording or a video recording
of like the narrator.
It comes with a packet of clues,and yeah, it could just be a fun
like puzzle to work together.
So, and then obviously dinneralong with that.
(14:51):
I think that's always a greatelement.
You could try to make it fit thetheme of the murder mystery,
which I love doing.
We used to do, remember, we usedto do our finer things club.
We would like pick a movie andthen a dinner to go along with
it.
So if it makes sense, if it'stoo big of a stretch and you're
just eating weird stuff, likedon't worry about it.
I always think of the CharlieBrown Thanksgiving when they ate
(15:13):
like popcorn and toast and jellybeans.
SPEAKER_00 (15:16):
I thought they were Jordan Almonds.
Maybe they are jelly beans.
SPEAKER_01 (15:19):
Yeah, I think they're jelly beans.
So nostalgic, but I would bereally bummed if I showed up and
it was toast, popcorn, and jellybeans for dinner.
Be like, no, thank you.
Okay, and number four idea inthis actually could work for
your youth group as well ifyou're looking for like a
Christmas game.
But this party is Christmasmovie scene it.
(15:42):
So basically, you just have togo on YouTube if you're not like
some master video editor.
I've done this before, and youfind clips of Christmas movies.
My favorite ones like HomeAlone, Christmas Vacation, Elf.
What else would be a good one?
SPEAKER_00 (15:59):
Christmas story, Christmas, oh Charlie Brown's um
Christmas or whatever they callthat one.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yeah.
So you find a scene and youwatch it.
I mean, make sure it's not toolong, somewhere in that like
30-second range, and you writedown a bunch of questions for
it, and then you watch the clip,get them on Teams, ask them the
questions most when.
(16:24):
And this one can be fun becauseyou can make it like movie
theater themed with the food.
So, like you could go get theboxes of candy, popcorn, soft
pretzels, nachos, um hot dogs,sodas, whatever.
Or, you know, obviously youcould cater it, you know, to do
that as well.
But it's just kind of like Ifeel like watching a movie is so
(16:48):
like, okay, we sat there andwatched a movie, but when you
make it into the scenic game, itbecomes this fun, cozy,
nostalgic movie thing.
Yeah, but it's also competitive,fun game.
And I feel like this one isprobably best if you have a
small team and you're like, I'mnot, I mean, writing a whole
scavenger hunt for four people,or or if it's just like we're
(17:11):
yeah, four of us roller skatingaround the church.
That seems weird.
I think this is a good one ifyou're a smaller team.
SPEAKER_00 (17:18):
You guys could just Oh, I could still be fun.
Four people roller skatingaround the church.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
I just feel like the energy would be off, but try it.
Who knows?
Let prove prove me wrong.
Put it in the comments if you doit.
But I just can imagine this onefor like a cozy group in your
living room, like with funsnacks, watching Christmas
movies, like, and then sharingsome memories at the end.
I just feel like I see that asbeing like a 10 and under kind
(17:45):
of team.
So yeah, I think I think youcould not go wrong with any of
these.
Um, I don't know which one I'mgonna pick.
Probably the scavenger hunt,because that seems to be the
crowd favorite.
And then roller skating is thecrowd favorite as well, but we
just got the floor waxed, and Ithink I'll get in trouble if I
(18:06):
roller skate on it.
So if I get permission, I willdo roller skating.
Yeah, it's a good time.
SPEAKER_00 (18:11):
You brought up a good point about sharing the
wins throughout the year, youknow, how many baptisms, how
many rededications, salvations,you know, all those things.
And you might be thinking, Ihaven't kept track of that all
year.
It's just a good reminder,starting in the new year, make
that a new goal that you startkeeping track of that stuff
because it is good to know.
It is good to kind of recap andkind of you know share those
(18:32):
wins with your team.
It's kind of that like, what arewhat are we even doing, you
know, kind of thing.
And that sort of puts a no punintended, puts a nice bow on the
end of the of the year for that.
Right.
Um, we did a couple otherepisodes.
We did Christmas parties foryour youth group.
Some of these actually ideas Ithink kind of overlap, but you
guys can check that out.
And we also did, I think it'slike 17 Christmas party games
(18:54):
and icebreakers.
Um, go ahead and check that outtoo.
Those will be in the descriptionbelow.
If you want all those games,email us at ministrycoachpodcast
at gmail.com and just ask forChristmas games and we can send
those over to you.
I'm gonna bring back an oldtradition.
We haven't done a question ofthe day in a really long time.
Wow.
But seeing how short thisepisode is so far, we got a
(19:16):
little time to spare.
So this I was just thinking ofas you were talking.
Put in the comment section belowif you're watching on YouTube.
When it comes to decorating forChristmas, are you a
pre-Thanksgiving decorator orpost-Thanksgiving decorator?
Some people are like HalloweenNovember 1st, Christmas.
You know, it's like boom.
(19:37):
So put in the comment sectionbelow where are you?
We I think used to always bepost-Thanksgiving, but now
sometimes I think we do it rightbefore Thanksgiving.
Yeah, yeah.
That was probably where we landon that.
I used to definitely be a postbecause I was like, Thanksgiving
needs to have its due, but Idon't know, I've kind of
softened my stance on that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
I have softened my stance on it too, and I've just
framed it, I'm thankful forChristmas.
Because I'm thankful all yearround.
Thanksgiving's feelings aren'thurt if I move to Christmas.
I'm I do five minutes ofgratitude every morning, and I'm
like, Thanksgiving knows, Jesusknows.
SPEAKER_00 (20:20):
It can still sort of be the same decorations for
thankfulness.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
It's just kind of fall, but it's like who are we
thankful to?
Jesus.
SPEAKER_00 (20:31):
Yes, true.
SPEAKER_01 (20:33):
So uh he knows he's okay if we move to Christmas.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Sometimes it feels weird being in Southern
California because it'll be like95 degrees when uh Halloween's
done, and you're like, thisdoesn't feel quite right for
Christmas decorations, butanyways, put that in the comment
section below.
This is going to be ourcommunity comment of the day.
This comes from Austin Nix, whosays, okay, the blooper segment
at the end was a good idea.
(20:57):
So I don't know if you guys everwatched to the end of our
episodes.
If you made it this far, thankyou for sticking around.
But we always put bloopers atthe end of every episode, even
if it's on the audio version orthe YouTube version.
I put it on on both.
So probably the audio version,you're like, I don't even know
what is happening.
I just hear weird noises and youguys laughing at stuff.
(21:18):
But thank you, Austin.
We appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (21:20):
Austin.
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
We usually have a lot of bloopers to sift through,
and so there's never a um lack,I feel like.
SPEAKER_01 (21:26):
I feel like there was an episode recently.
I was so excited to see what youchose for the blooper.
And I'm like, cheapskate.
SPEAKER_00 (21:33):
Well, here's the thing there's a story behind
that.
We did an episode all aboutchurch hurt, and I kind of felt
like it was a little more somberof a topic, and I felt weird
going from like that to like,you know, just like just
clowning around at the end.
So I thought I made theexecutive decision to leave the
(21:53):
glooper.
Hey! Thank you guys for watchingand listening, and we'll see you
next time.
SPEAKER_01 (22:01):
Christmas is right around the corner, and it is
time to celebrate.
Christmas is coming, and whatbetter way to celebrate with
than you can do?
Fine.
And what better way to celebratethan having a volunteer only
Christmas party?
W and then what?
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