Make Your Own Gift Card Holders

Is the teen on your list requesting more than one gift card? Create a gift card holder. Creative Memories offers a product called the Photo Sharing Card that is perfect with a few embellishments. Or create your own custom design with card stock, some plastic photo sleeves, colored paper, and stickers.

Crazy Dinner-by-the-Numbers Party

Loi Palmer
Here’s a fun way to host a dinner party for teens

or adults. First choose your menu and number each item to be served. Keep this list in the kitchen to use later–do not show guests this list or tell them what is on the menu.

You will be serving three courses with four items each time. At the dinner table have a dinner order form (see below for printable forms) and pen waiting for each guest. Ask them to write their names on the paper. Have guests to write in number 1-12 on each blank line, any order they would prefer.

Now the fun, take their number list and prepare their plates of  food accordingly. Serve courses on paper plates and at the end of each course completely clear the table. This includes the silverware. Do have plenty of napkins on the table because at some point in the meal they will be eating with their hands.

Guests will have a blast. It is fun to bring out all the plates at once, everyone enjoys seeing what combination each person has selected. You will need at least two helpers int he kitchen to pull this off.

Happy Birthday, Jesus Party

Carolyn Mayo

Since the boys were little, we have had a Happy Birthday, Jesus party with neighborhood children. The party and games change as the kids get older. This party can also be taken to schools–even public school–because it is our family tradition. It is a great way to share your faith in a light-hearted and fun way.

Just like any birthday party, the main attractions are games and food. For the food, I make baby Jesus cupcakes. To create, make a batch of white cupcakes with white icing. To make the baby Jesus in the manger, use graham crackers, white tub icing, Kix cereal, and shredded wheat. Cut a quarter of a graham cracker with a point so that you can easily insert it into the cupcake. Two of these quarters make the manger. Crumble some shredded wheat for the hay. Squirt a long baby-shaped blob of white icing for the baby. Use a Kix cereal for the head. The baby should look swaddled. That’s it.  Baby Jesus cupcakes!

For a game, play Put Baby Jesus in the Manger–fashioned after Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

For a craft project , make construction paper crowns and decorate them like crowns the wise men would have worn.

Tell the Christmas story using a kid-friendly nativity scene. As the kids get older, let them act out the story. Use robes and towels for costumes. The skit can be written on index cards for the kids to read aloud. Kids love skits. Remember to video their performance.

Send the kids off with an age-appropriate reminder that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Include an invitation to the Christmas Eve service at your church.

Celebrating Jesus’ Birthday

Kari Decker

For our Happy Birthday, Jesus party each of my kids invited three friends. The invitation explained everything we would be doing. I said in the invitation this would be a party for Jesus and mentioned what we can do for Jesus:

We can give Him our time. We all helped a handicapped woman decorate her home for Christmas. She is very laid-back and did not care that the kids’ decorations were not perfect.

We can give Him our money. I asked that everyone bring a gift that matched their age and gender. I took a picture of each child holding his or her wrapped gift and attached it to the present. The gifts were shipped to South Africa to a friend there who gave the gifts to needy children. She told the children they were from Jesus. She said the kids were amazed that Jesus cared about them so much!

We can give Jesus our love. We delivered plates of goodies to people who had lost loved ones over the past year. We made cards up previously that said we were thinking of them during their first holiday season without their loved one and were praying for them. All the kids signed the cards. I also asked the children for suggestions of people who needed the cards. Many of the recipients were non-Christians. It was a wonderful witnessing tool. One neighbor called in tears to thank me for such a thoughtful gift.

We ended the party with pizza, birthday cake, and a movie. The kids all had a ball. And, I think it made an impression on my children about what Christmas means.

Mall Scavenger Hunt

Loi Palmer
A fun party for teens is a mall scavenger hunt. To avoid any problems, contact mall security one week in advance to clear your activity. Some malls will not allow pictures to be taken inside the mall unless it has been put on the security schedule. Plan for the scavenger hunt to take about an hour.

When we did this party, we mixed the groups of boys and girls with approximately six in each group. Each group was given a digital camera and a cell phone along with a scavenger hunt list. We stressed to them that there was to be absolutely no running in the mall. Teens were also instructed to explain to a clerk upon entering each store what they were doing. Most clerks loved the scavenger hunt and were more than willing to assist in taking pictures and participating.

Before heading to the mall, everyone enjoyed a spaghetti dinner at our home. This kept cost low as feeding twelve teenagers at the mall could become costly. When we returned home, while eating cake and opening presents, everyone enjoyed viewing the pictures. Prizes were given out to the team with the most points.