Youth Group Christmas

We did several of these when I was in youth group...

For food: I don't know many kids that like Caesar salad... a sandwich bar with all of the basic fixings, snack pack chips, bottles of juice/soda. I like to keep things single serve. Set it up buffet style. Have the kids bring desserts. Either bought or handmade - cookies, little debbie snacks, chocolates, etc. single servings so that knives and serving spoons aren't needed and an adult doesn't have to stnad there and serve.

We had the adult sunday school classes donate the stuff. Each class picked something. One did the drinks and ice, one did the lunch meats, one did the condiments/paper products.

For decorations: mini lights, mini stockings, $1 store ornaments, etc.

For party favors: have someone write or paint 2010 on the ornaments or bells and give them to the kids.

Lots to your question. I may forget something. Sorry if so.

Food - I like the pasta bar idea. What about all the leftovers though?? If all the kids get marinara, you'll have a couple gallons of alfredo left over. Maybe just pick a theme like "Italian" or "Mexican" or "Soup night" or "Chili Cookoff" -- if 10 parents agree to bring a crock pot with their family's signature chili dish, then you have little dixie cups and spoons for the kids to walk around and taste. Have a voting booth..... I don't know. Just a thought.

I know you said you're not a fan of pot-luck. But get parents involved. I bet there are some out there that are willing to help out and cook something.

As for party favors - NO. Don't buy any.

But if you don't do the 'unwrapped gift' you could tell kids to bring a white elephant 'no more than $2' or "best you can do at the dollar store" gift. That can be your game and your party 'favor.'

I usually plan an adult Christmas party at our church each year. We do a sit down dinner because it is just simpler and easier to clean up after. It is less stressful than everyone getting up and having to stand in line to get food and having to look and look to see everything that is offered so they can make their choices.

Dinner's we have made do tend to more of an adult nature, like stuffed pork loin with orange glazed carrots and spinach salad. Sweet and Sour Meatballs with steamed rice, steamed mixed Fall veggies (squash and Zucchini like stuff), 5 onion soup. Chicken Parmesan with pasta, garlic green beans, garlic bread, side salad, etc...

But with youth I would do something like Spaghetti with meat sauce or a very rich and tasty Marinara sauce. Put Mozz. cheese and Parm. cheese on the individual tables, garlic bread can go out on the tables too. if you add a side salad, 2-3 oz. you can buy from a school or college food service and the lettuce will go a long way. You can do a veggie that would contrast the red and white main dish like green beans with some garlic and butter in them. That would be a simple meal and it could be made fairly inexpensive.

Where I buy my groceries:

If you have a local grocery store, one that has a meat market in it that still actually cuts the meat up then packages it, you may be able to talk to the meat manager about getting the meat at cost. I often got ours at a minimal cost. I got 104 chicken breasts for $40.00 for the Chicken Parmesan meal. I made the Marinara Sauce from scratch and then bought the slices of Mozz. cheese from the same stores Deli at cost.

I would go to Wal-Mart, and any other grocery stores in your area, NOW!!! Today, and ask for a donation application. They usually take 90 days to process it and get a gift card to you. They can sometimes do $50 but in this economy it may be less.

We always had a budget to cover the cost of the meal and I usually spent about $200.00 and fed anywhere from 100 to 125 on it. Buying in bulk at a local school can help too. Talking to the food departments at the food service kitchen at a local college can really help. The one local Jr. College always gave me everything at their cost because they ordered it especially for us, not for their food preparation, so no profit was expected. We had Lasagna and the college had frozen Lasagna noodles that were already cooked, I only had to take them out of the box and lay them in the pan, put the sauce and cheeses, add more frozen noodles, layers again, and repeat. And it only had to be thoroughly heated not cooked, talk about time saving...look around and see what you can find. talk to people who do this on a daily basis, the school cooks or head chef, etc...the food service department head, etc...

Have fun!

NO to the pasta bar....it's a mess! Adults appreciate it more.

YES to the sub sandwich idea. Kids love it! The donated cookies are perfect with it.....as are chips, vegies, & dip.

As for the donation fee + an unwrapped gift......that's a lot of $$$ for parents at a critically short-on-cash time of the year. One of the other posters suggested a "white elephant".....which is an excellent idea.

Another idea would be a fundraiser to pay for the food.....leaving the cost of the gift for the parents. Raking leaves, vacuuming floors for the elderly in your congregation, etc are all easy ideas for fundraisers for the kids. Have fun!

I like both ideas, though pasta will be really messy.

I agree with a poster below, finger FOODS, not finger sandwiches.

Have you thought about Mexican food, fajitas and such?

Agree with you on "finger sandwiches." Can you see the teenage eyes rolling already?
Like the Pasta Bar or large sub idea.

Going to say no party favors. In a youth group setting, perhaps the kids should be doing something for others. Making cards for troops, making small gifts or ornaments for a local children's home or nursing home....

My kids aren't at this age yet but some gals in my women's group do cooking for our Middle School Group and a few things that they say have been popular are "Breakfast for Dinner" (a bunch of egg casseroles, potatoes, etc.), sloppy joes (could have several parents do crockpots of beans), burrito bar (have warming trays with rice, beans, etc.)... will post more if I think of anything else

I am Santa Ken Cleys if interested e-mail ____@____.com

I have worked with a youth group and I agree finger foods is the way to go. Pasta would be a little messy. The kids don't want to stop and eat, they want to eat and run.

Pizza was always a great hit. (I think we had pizza at every youth event and the kids never got sick of it lol!) Mozzarella sticks, small sub sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, chips, veggies and dressing, cheese cubes/sticks, wings etc.

You can make a ton of wings for cheap!

We used to have a DJ (if you can't afford a professional you could always get a parent who is into music and has an ipod/computer set up handle it for you! after all DJ's use computers to do everything now anyway.) We had a limbo contest, a dance contest, taught some line dances and had a great time. We didn't do any party favors, but you could just do some goody bags with some party trinkets and candy. You can get a lot of that stuff at a discount party supply as well as decorations, table cloths etc.

Sounds like fun I'm sure it will turn our great!

I see finger foods, not finger sandwiches. Nachos, chili dogs, sub sandwiches, it was my experience; it didn't so much matter what it was, but that there is plenty of it!! Sloppy joes, nachos, taco stacks, those things were always a big hit.

We have asked the adult SS classes to volunteer to donate food, for example all of the ground beef, chips and cheese for nachos, and then the kids bring the desserts. I've had coke floats, smore's nachos, ice cream sundaes for desserts and had alot of success with those ideas

I definitely say skip the party favors. I always think its a great idea to ask the kids to think outside of themselves, you might consider a food drive for a local soup kitchen or food bank ministry, rather than an unwrapped gift. Parents of Jr/Sr high students are typically cash strapped, especially at the holidays.

Most kids are easy to please, hope you have fun.

Our church, in the past, for Christmas parties has split the youth into middle school and High school, and then had a 'progressive dinner' style party... it took several parents in each group to host it.... appetizers at one house, main meal at another house, and dessert at the final house. They also did a gift exchange.... that isn't necessary, though.

Different families all pitched in for the different things, or the host house coordinated the food.

Another idea is what our youth group did for Super Bowl parties... again, they split it into middle school and high school.... A-M brought appetizers/drinks, N-Z brought sandwiches/sub sandwiches/meal stuff, or the youth group bought sub sandwich platters.

As far as activities, mostly it was sitting around, playing games, movies, or Wii stuff.... different families brought their things over. If you wanted to do a speaker, keep it short...