Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

4 Fun Christmas Party Ideas for Your Youth Ministry Volunteers

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 268

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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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SPEAKER_01:

One of our favorite youth ministry traditions is to throw a volunteer-only Christmas party. And today I'm going to give you four ideas of how to do your own.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach podcast, where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry.

SPEAKER_01:

My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kristen Lascola, and it's almost Christmas time. Hey, and we're gonna talk about four party items. Anything's a Christmas song if you want it to be a Christmas song, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00:

True. Just put some jingle bells behind it and you'll be good.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, like, hey, you know. Um take two. I can't think of one Christmas song that goes, hey.

SPEAKER_00:

They should all do it, really.

SPEAKER_01:

Um today we are warming up for the Christmas season. We are going to do four ideas for your volunteer Christmas party. So this is not like your student youth group Christmas night with the kids. This is a separate thing with adult where you can actually have some fun. True. Um yeah, just like you and your leaders, your adult volunteers. I think it's really fun to have your own separate Christmas party. I just got back oh three hours ago from my leader retreat. We always call it winter camp without students. And um, there's just something so magical about being with just your leaders and just building those relationships. We just went to a cabin up at a lake in a cute little mountain town. We went to tea, very nice, uh, with just a few of us. The other hoodlums went to the knife shop while we were at tea. Um, and then we play murder in the dark for hours and hours. We make dinner together, we eat desserts, galore, we play a ton of games, we do an affirmation circle. It's just kind of me to them affirmations, and it's just so cool to spend like 48 hours just playing. We don't do anything like training time. It's just like, let's just have fun. And it is like I think our seventh 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 you four ideas for just like a night of feasting and sport. And again, I really not that you would at a Christmas party, but just you don't always have to do like an agenda item when you have your leaders together. Just make it fun, right? But like I said, you probably weren't even thinking that for a Christmas party. So the best Christmas party I have ever been to, and I replicated it for my leaders, was a sushi and skating party. So you were at that one. It was full staff. Oh my gosh. So I I replicated it for my staff. So basically what we did our now, if your church doesn't have concrete floors, our church basically the whole thing except for like the office and like the nursery is like well, the children's classrooms is um concrete. What do you call it? Like sealed, polished or yeah, I think polished concrete, something like that. And so there's a lot of smooth surface. And so there is a roller skating place in San Diego where you could just rent the skates. It's not like you're going to the roller rink, you can just rent the skates and take them off to wherever you want to go. So we get everyone's size, we get the roller skates, and then we dress all 70s, and you could kind of turn that into a costume contest. That was so fun. Like people really had adorable outfits, and then we just like where we are, sushi is a really big deal. I understand a lot of people are like gross. I don't think that is our vibe. Fill in whatever awesome, like barbecue. I was gonna say barbecue.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the only other option. Tacos. Oh, then there's that pasta, pizza.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't need pizza. Any food, really. No, pizza's so youth group. Let's expand. Yeah, true, but still, it's kind of like let me guess.

SPEAKER_00:

I could eat pizza every night. Really? Continue.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So everyone dresses up 70s, and then we came up with a really great playlist that was all like 70s vibes. And then what we did at mine is we skated for a while with like the disco ball, and we're all like vibing, you know, doing our thing and our cute outfits. And then we started, like we do, some competition. Yeah, we never don't have a competition because otherwise, like boring. So I set up some cones and we did these relay races, and then here's where it got fun. I brought out the hockey sticks and we played.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I'm saying we didn't do this at the staff party. This is just your party.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so now I'm moving. Your staff party. My staff party. We pulled out the hockey sticks and we played roller hockey.

SPEAKER_00:

On uh roller skates, on roller skates.

SPEAKER_01:

It was death waiting to happen. So many people fell, and it was, but nobody like got hurt. It was just kind of a funny fall. And the thing that will forever stick out in my mind is we were so aggressive. We were trying to score and steal from our own team. And then if someone would fall, nobody would stop to try to help them up. It was almost like get out of the way, get up. Like I just realized we had a lot of pent-up just aggression ready to rip. So it was basically full contact um roller hockey. That was the most fun I've ever had at a Christmas party. And then we obviously did gifts and all of that. And that was my number one idea. Now, if you a lot of churches have carpeted surfaces, and so I know what you're thinking. Oh, we could just roller skate in the parking lot. Well, if they're your own, yes, you can. If you're renting them, a lot of times they won't let you take them outside. But if enough people on your team have rollerblades or roller skates, you could do it outside. Another option is renting a roller skate place out for your team. And then, you know, bringing your own stuff for the relays and, you know, asking them to do a 70s playlist or, you know, making it yourself and asking them to plug in. You know, you could modify it if you had to actually go to the place, but like a Christmas roller skating party, I just underestimated how much fun that would be. It was so hilarious, so fun, and so like out of the box. And everyone still talks about it. Everyone looks back on it like that was the year, you know? So that's number one and favorite. You know, another thing you could add, actually, as I'm looking at my notes, I forgot to say, I think a really fun element to add at any Christmas party is an end-of-the-year recap for your leaders. Just sort of like, not that it's we're getting to work, but the agenda item of like, hey, look what we did in this last year. This is how many kids we had in our youth group last year. This is how many we have this year, 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 baptisms we had. This is how many kids we took to camp. Like just looking back, and then you could even have a sharing time, like, hey, what are some of your favorite memories from this year? And they could be funny, they could be impactful. One thing we kind of started, and I need to get back on it, is we have a leader journal where we write down like just funny things that happen or memories we don't want to forget, like that one time Hannah did this or a kid said that. Right. And that would be a really great time to open up the journal and like look back at the year to kind of spark like people's memories of what you guys did and all of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Could it be cool too if they and they're probably doing this anyway, but if they're if they're texting you the story and you're writing it in, but not everybody gets to hear all the stories, but yeah, at the end of the year, hearing all that could be really, really fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Gather around the fireplace and drink hot cocoa as we read the Christmas stories. Although they're not Christmas stories, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that's usually the night we also like to take a picture for our Christmas card. Uh, we like to send out a youth ministry 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 youth group is called Chaos, so it'll say chaos, and then the year. You could do a custom made ornament for your, you could either make it yourself if you're crafty, or you could order one, a cozy blanket, slippers, something like that have all been probably my top gifts for leaders. I don't know what I'm gonna do this year yet because I feel like I Twim's clicking away. It really is away. I knew what you meant. Clicking, click, click, click, clock, click, clock, click, click.

SPEAKER_00:

Time is clocking away.

SPEAKER_01:

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 the thing where it's like you guys had all the gifts, and like, do I have to keep finding new things or can I start over? So, anyways, okay, that's number one. Number two idea is a Christmas scavenger hunt and dinner. 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, and then we pick teams that way. So, like, usually five to six people fit in a car. So that is the size of the team. They each get in a car and then you hand them a packet of clues. So, what I do is that morning before the party, I drive around our town. Like, you have to think of specific boundaries, like I say from mission road to main street, and you know, yeah, so they know it's not just like, oh, so anywhere in our whole city, but a boundaried area would be ideal. And then you give them the packet of clues, and then the clock starts. And I say, You have one hour to get as many clues as possible for every minute you're late, I'm gonna subtract a point. And a lot of the clues, they it could be like answering a question, like a number of something, 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 the scavenger hunt, I'm getting dinner kind of laid out. We get like Italian food catered, and then I put no pizza. Goodness. Why are you fine? Have pizza, be basic. I don't care, do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00:

Build your own pizza. Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, actually, that was an idea for a different one. Not this part of it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a lot different than ordering dominoes. Who said dominoes? Okay, fine.

SPEAKER_00:

Little Caesars, the sponsor of youth ministries across the nation.

SPEAKER_01:

They don't know how good we've been to them. I've throwing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, they do. That's the only reason they're still in business.

SPEAKER_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 food goes out, then I'm kind of arranging their gifts, you know, with their names on them. So they come back and we figure out who the winner is. I usually give Starbucks gift cards to everybody on the winning team. And then we have dinner, they open 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 not together. Well, I think it's okay them not all being together. Sometimes it's cool because the way we pick the teams, it's like you never know, and you have to work together with like people what if you did shorter rounds where they rotated team players or whatever. It's just so hard with the driving, like they'd have to like come and go. But yeah, I mean, I want to play, 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 them because I've kind of like nailed the type of clues, you know what I mean? So, anyways, number three is a murder mystery party. So, a murder mystery party, it's pretty cool because you can buy the packages online. I have written my own murder mysteries for the students, no matter how easy I make it. These people can't get these clues. Um, so you could write your own. That is challenging, but doable. But you can buy a kit and it comes with everything, and they are so cheap, like so affordable. And you can do it all the way from like four to like 30 people. So there's a very wide span. So the the most affordable ones and the biggest variety I've found are is on mastersofmisty.com. And the cool thing is they have so many different themes. They have like, I think two or three Christmas themed ones. They have like an 80s themed. There's like a bunch of different fun ones in there. So you could have the leaders dress the part. So if you're doing 80s, obviously that'd be like super fun to dress up as. Christmas, you could just go basic with Christmas sweaters or Christmas characters, whatever you want to do. But you might even like want to read the characters first and then assign them so that people kind of know who to dress up as. And so, yeah, it comes with everything. I think it even comes with invitations, costume ideas. It comes with like an audio recording 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 dinner along with that. I think that's always a great element. You could try to make it fit the theme of the murder mystery, which I love doing. We used to do, remember, we used to do our finer things club. We would like pick a movie and then a dinner to go along with it. So if it makes sense, if it's too big of a stretch and you're just eating weird stuff, like don't worry about it. I always think of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving when they ate like popcorn and toast and jelly beans.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought they were Jordan Almonds. Maybe they are jelly beans.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think they're jelly beans. So nostalgic, but I would be really bummed if I showed up and it was toast, popcorn, and jelly beans for dinner. Be like, no, thank you. Okay, and number four idea in this actually could work for your youth group as well if you're looking for like a Christmas game. But this party is Christmas movie scene it. So basically, you just have to go on YouTube if you're not like some master video editor. I've done this before, and you find clips of Christmas movies. My favorite ones like Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, Elf. What else would be a good one?

SPEAKER_00:

Christmas story, Christmas, oh Charlie Brown's um Christmas or whatever they call that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So you find a scene and you watch it. I mean, make sure it's not too long, somewhere in that like 30-second range, and you write down a bunch of questions for it, and then you watch the clip, get them on Teams, ask them the questions most when. And this one can be fun because you can make it like movie theater themed with the food. So, like you could go get the boxes of candy, popcorn, soft pretzels, nachos, um hot dogs, sodas, whatever. Or, you know, obviously you could cater it, you know, to do that as well. But it's just kind of like I feel like watching a movie is so like, okay, we sat there and watched a movie, but when you make it into the scenic game, it becomes this fun, cozy, nostalgic movie thing. Yeah, but it's also competitive, fun game. And I feel like this one is probably best if you have a small team and you're like, I'm not, I mean, writing a whole scavenger hunt for four people, or or if it's just like we're yeah, four of us roller skating around the church. That seems weird. I think this is a good one if you're a smaller team.

SPEAKER_00:

You guys could just Oh, I could still be fun. Four people roller skating around the church.

SPEAKER_01:

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 do it. But I just can imagine this one for like a cozy group in your living room, like with fun snacks, watching Christmas movies, like, and then sharing some memories at the end. I just feel like I see that as being like a 10 and under kind of team. So yeah, I think I think you could not go wrong with any of these. Um, I don't know which one I'm gonna pick. Probably the scavenger hunt, because that seems to be the crowd favorite. And then roller skating is the crowd favorite as well, but we just got the floor waxed, and I think I'll get in trouble if I roller skate on it. So if I get permission, I will do roller skating. Yeah, it's a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

You brought up a good point about sharing the wins throughout the year, you know, how many baptisms, how many rededications, salvations, you know, all those things. And you might be thinking, I haven'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 start keeping track of that stuff because it is good to know. It is good to kind of recap and kind of you know share those wins with your team. It's kind of that like, what are what are we even doing, you know, kind of thing. And that sort of puts a no pun intended, puts a nice bow on the end of the of the year for that. Right. Um, we did a couple other episodes. We did Christmas parties for your youth group. Some of these actually ideas I think kind of overlap, but you guys can check that out. And we also did, I think it's like 17 Christmas party games and icebreakers. Um, go ahead and check that out too. Those will be in the description below. If you want all those games, email us at ministrycoachpodcast at gmail.com and just ask for Christmas games and we can send those over to you. I'm gonna bring back an old tradition. We haven't done a question of the day in a really long time. Wow. But seeing how short this episode is so far, we got a little time to spare. So this I was just thinking of as you were talking. Put in the comment section below if you're watching on YouTube. When it comes to decorating for Christmas, are you a pre-Thanksgiving decorator or post-Thanksgiving decorator? Some people are like Halloween November 1st, Christmas. You know, it's like boom. So put in the comment section below where are you? We I think used to always be post-Thanksgiving, but now sometimes I think we do it right before Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah. That was probably where we land on that. I used to definitely be a post because I was like, Thanksgiving needs to have its due, but I don't know, I've kind of softened my stance on that.

SPEAKER_01:

I have softened my stance on it too, and I've just framed it, I'm thankful for Christmas. Because I'm thankful all year round. Thanksgiving's feelings aren't hurt if I move to Christmas. I'm I do five minutes of gratitude every morning, and I'm like, Thanksgiving knows, Jesus knows.

SPEAKER_00:

It can still sort of be the same decorations for thankfulness.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just kind of fall, but it's like who are we thankful to? Jesus.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, true.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh he knows he's okay if we move to Christmas.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes it feels weird being in Southern California because it'll be like 95 degrees when uh Halloween's done, and you're like, this doesn't feel quite right for Christmas decorations, but anyways, put that in the comment section below. This is going to be our community comment of the day. This comes from Austin Nix, who says, okay, the blooper segment at the end was a good idea. So I don't know if you guys ever watched to the end of our episodes. If you made it this far, thank you for sticking around. But we always put bloopers at the end of every episode, even if it's on the audio version or the 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 you guys laughing at stuff. But thank you, Austin. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Austin.

SPEAKER_00:

We usually have a lot of bloopers to sift through, and so there's never a um lack, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like there was an episode recently. I was so excited to see what you chose for the blooper. And I'm like, cheapskate.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, here's the thing there's a story behind that. We did an episode all about church hurt, and I kind of felt like it was a little more somber of 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 the executive decision to leave the glooper. Hey! Thank you guys for watching and listening, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Christmas is right around the corner, and it is time to celebrate. Christmas is coming, and what better way to celebrate with than you can do? Fine. And what better way to celebrate than having a volunteer only Christmas party? W and then what?