Rom 14:4-6
4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master
he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to
make him stand. 5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another
esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and
he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that
eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth
not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
If you are one who does not like to have
a Harvest Party, then I honor and respect your decision. If you are
one who wants to have an alternative to Halloween at your church, then
the following is a list of Ideas for you to use.
I like to have a Harvest Party on Halloween
night. I know many people will say that they don't want to have anything
to do with Halloween, and therefore they don't do anything.
I half way agree, I don't want to have anything to do with Halloween either,
and therefore I like to do something.
I have found in the past 15 years of working
with kids, that if we do not have something fun for the kids on Halloween
night, then many if not most of the parents are going to take their kids
trick or treating. I know it's ultimately the parent's responsibility,
but it is also our responsibility as the church to help the parents, and
to give them a viable option. The world has been wise, they have
come up with alternate things like Santa and the Easter Bunny to take away
from the meaning of our most beloved religious holidays. We should
be just as wise, but harmless as doves.
Besides being a halloween alternative for
the church kids, it is an outstanding evangelistic tool. One year,
the city I lived in had a blizzard on Halloween night, and we had over
300 kids show up (the church ran 50). It was such a success, the local
newspaper wrote an article about it the next week. Another church
I worked at was in a bad part of the city, and the non-Christian parents
who lived nearby, trusted us and chose to have their kids go to the safety
of church, rather than walk around at night in that neighborhood.
Non-Christian parents, sending their kids to church, wow, what a blessing.
Harvest
Party Ideas
Carnival
Games
What we like to do is have a carnival type
atmosphere. We set up anywhere from 10 to 20 booths with different carnival
games (see game page). I like
to pull out those old Christmas lights and put them up on the walls and
to separate the booths. The gaudier the decorations, the more carnival
like the atmosphere, the better the kids like it. When the child
comes up to play the game, whether they win, or whether they loose,
they get a prize. If they win we usually give them two pieces
of candy, or one bigger prize.
Some years, we have the kids go to whatever
game they like. Some of the games will have lines, others will have
no one. Other years, we give the kids 40 tickets when they come in.
Each ticket has the name of a game they can play. When they have
played all the games, they can go to the front or snack bar and get more
tickets.
.
.
Candy
There are two reasons kids like Halloween.
The first reason is candy, kids love to get candy. I like to have
the kids leave with as much candy as they would get if they went out trick
or treating. If they get the same amount of candy, and have more
fun doing it, then it takes away all reasons for kids to want to go trick-or-treating.
Some parents do not like all of the candy, and for those parents we have
alternatives. We buy sugarless candy and small cheep toys.
A great place to get small toys is from The Oriental
Trading Co. Something else I like to do is get a bunch of nickels from
the bank. Kids love money.
.
.
Theme
Costume Contest:
The second reason is they like to dress
up. Kids love to dress up anytime, and they love to pretend. (Truth
be told, so do most adults.) But if dressing up is not something
your church wants to do, then bypass this part and have the Harvest Party
with no costumes, just the games. I have done both in the past and
have found both very successful.
If you do decide to go with costumes, we
like to tell the kids that we will have a costume contest, but the only
way to win is dress according to theme.
I tell the kids, that we will give every child who dresses according to
theme a special prize (usually a large sized candy bar.) I have worked
at some churches that absolutely will not allow any other costume than
what is planned. If the child does not want to where the planned
theme costume, then they are still welcome to come and participate in the
games, but they cannot wear any costume at all. Other churches have
been more liberal, telling the kids that they can wear whatever, but will
not be in the contest and will not get a prize, they are just not allowed
to where anything considered scary or demonic. (Some kids will dress
as a ballerina or football player.) We will have a theme for each
year. Some of the different themes we have done are: Bible theme,
circus theme, western theme, and Americana (or patriotic) theme.
.
Other
FUN Activities
Some other activities we have are a dunking
booth outside (if you live in a warm part of the country), cake
walk (always a big success), a jail, face
painting, door prizes, wanted posters, a
maze, space jump, hay ride, Jelly Bean count, and other fun activities.
We also like to have hot dogs and chips. This helps the parents so
that they don't have to make dinner before they come.
If your church has a large room, this works
best. But we have also rented the local Armory or school gymnasium.
.
.
1.
CAKE WALK
Besides the Carnival games, one of the
more popular things to do is a CAKE WALK.
It is easy to do. All you need is a lot
of cakes, a tape player, and a circle of chairs. About every ten
to fifteen minutes (determined on how many cakes you have) we make an announcement
for the cake walk. When the circle of chairs is filled, we begin.
2.
JAIL
Another fun thing to do is the JAIL.
We like to make a jail out of 2x4s and
chicken wire. Then have someone play sheriff and arrest people and
throw them into jail. You can either pay to have someone arrested
and thrown into jail, or just have it be a fun part of the party. (Teenagers
make really good sheriffs and deputies.)
3.
FACE
PAINTING
Every church has those secret artists.
You can purchase face paints down at the store, and have those artists
paint on the kids' faces. I have the painters to come up with a poster
board of ideas for the kids to look at, but then leave them free to paint
whatever the kids want. Its amazing how creative the kids are.
4.
WANTED POSTERS
If you really want to get fancy, WANTED
POSTERS are the thing to do. (click
here for Wanted Poster Examples)
This one is a little complicated.
You will need a digital camera, pre made wanted posters, a computer and
printer. We take a picture of the child with the digital camera,
then with the computer, put the child's picture onto the wanted poster
and make a print out to give to the kids. If you have a computer
nerd in your church, explain to them what you want to do, and they will
set it all up for you.
5.
MAZE
And last but not least (because it is the
thing they will look most forward to the next year) is the MAZE.
The maze is simple. We just get a bunch of refrigerator boxes from
the store, and in one of the Sunday School classes, using lots of duct
tape, we tape all the boxes together to make a maze for the kids to crawl
around in. With the lights out, and a bunch of dead ends, this is
a really fun end to the party.
One of my favorite
stores in the
whole world is "The
Oriental Trading Co."
They have tons of
stuff to use for
Children's Church
or Sunday School.
Prizes, props, costumes
and more.
Simply click on
the button.
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If you have any suggestions that you would
like to share with others, please email me at clunky@fishersofkids.com
and I will gladly pass them on to others. |