The world’s largest Christmas Card is a great way for your Youth Group to show the rest of the congregation how much they appreciate them.
Take two pieces of dry wall and then duct tape them together. Use ideas from old Christmas Cards to paint, decoupage or decorate however the teens desire. Write a Christmas message inside and have all the teens sign it. Then as a surprise to the congregation a week or two before Christmas put the “Card” in the back of the church or in the lobby.
Read moreGo to the nearest Sycamore tree. Several grow around my house, so this was easy. Collect the amount of leaves you need. Take a single leaf, and put it in between two squares of wax paper. Take an Iron, on a numer 1 or 2 setting, and a very small amount of steam. Press the leaf in between the wax paper. After you steam it just a little bit, then take the steam off, and use the iron dry to finish pressing it. The wax paper seals itself around the leaf. When you are finished, and the paper has cooled, you can write the child’s name on the outside of the wax paper. You need to leave it in a square (not cut around the leaf). If you cut around the edge of the leaf, then you will have nothing to seal the wax paper together, therefore, deafeating the purpose of pressing it. this craft relates to the Story of Zaccheus and Sycamore tree. Luke 19
Read moreIf your church has a coffee hour before or after worship, and uses styrofoam cups, then try this out. Have your youth group members use coloured markers to write messages on the cups. The messages can have phrases such as “Jesus Loves You,” or “You’re Special”, or you can advertise upcoming church or youth activities. Just be careful not to get any marker on the rim or the inside of the cups. Also good for church fellowships get-togethers and picnics, etc.
Read moreThis is fun, easy and very inexpensive! you can purchase your normal glass christmas ball, or even use old worn out balls from your past.
You just dip them into a solution of salt, water and vinegar (don’t forget to put the solution inside also). This will remove all the paint and you will be left with a clear ball. Rinse, let dry completely, then simply put a teespoon of unpopped popcorn kernels inside the ball. Place the ball in a paper lunch sack and put it in the microwave.
Pop about 1 minute on the high setting. I have had a few I had to pop just a few seconds longer to get the popcorn to pop well. (By the way, be sure to leave the metal top off while microwaving.) When corn is popped replace metal hanger and add a bow or whatever decor you please.
This is a variation on the Hand Print Fun idea. Every year in May we celebrate Graduation Sunday for our graduating high school seniors. We present them with bibles during morning morning worship and then during Sunday School they put their handprints on a wall in our youth room. Each senior signs their name, the school they graduated from and the year. Each year all seniors each have the same color handprint.
It’s turned into a 7 year tradition at our church and the new kids love to compare everyones handprints and what schools everyone went to and they still love finding my handprint on the wall. Some kids have already got me to promise to save a particular color for them. We even remodeled out youth room but that was the one wall we left untouched.
Read moreGather old broken crayons for this art project. Before the meeting, separate the crayons by colour. Use a knife to make shavings out of them. You also will need scissors, wax paper, newspapers, newsprint, markers and an iron. Place several newspapers in the table to protect it. Start the meeting by discussing Christian symbols. On the newsprint, have the kids draw as many Christian symbols as they can think of (cross, fish, chalice, etc). Ask why they think these symbols are used by Christians and why they are important. Ask everyone to choose a symbol that has special meaning for him/her. Give each kid two 7″x7″ sheets of wax paper. Then place one piece of wax paper wax side up in the for of your chosen symbol. Be sure you leave a 1″ border. The final step is to place the other sheet of wax paper, wax side down, in top and seal it with a warm iron. The crayons will melt and create a stained glass symbol.
Read moreInexpensive way to make Christmas cards and Scripture bookmarkers for the elderly of your parish. This is a great service project as well as craft.
Start collecting old Christmas cards from your parisioners or family. You’ll need colored construction paper or foam paper, whichever you prefer. Start cutting out all the old cards (pictures, words, anything you see that is worth salvaging). Then using the construction paper or foam paper cut each in the size of a small card or bookmarker. Using what you cut from the old Christmas cards, start creating your own creations. Use use glitter pens or bright colors to write scripture quotes as well. Also glue small parts of the picture (for example if you have a tree, glue the tips of the branches and sprinkle glitter, making the picture come to life.)
You can give them out at a neighboring nursing home or to the older members of your congregation who you know are living alone. Also we had so many Christmas cards made, we sent a group to the armed forces to be sent to people overseas for the holiday with no one to write to them.
We have a local pottery store where you can get 4″ x 4″ tiles ready to paint. I plan to have the Sr. High Youth each “paint” a tile and then have them fired (the store will charge us $5 per tile for this). Then we will put the tiles together to make a cross on one of the walls in our youth room (and do so in a way that we may add more tiles each year). Another less expensive way to do this is to make tiles out of colorful paper with smaller white squares on them. The youth can then decorate their “square”. Use all of the decorated squares to make a cross.
Read moreOur youth group was asked to prepare something to add into the gift bags that are given to “Shut-ins” in our parish. We bought the cheap plastic, glossy (or matte) Christmas tree balls and decorated them. We used the metallic gold and silver pens (the “gel” pens do not work very well) and the pen-like glitter glue. The kids had a great time and the receivers had a wonderful Christmas decoration to brighten their day!
HINT – use egg cartons to hold the finished balls until they dry!!
Decorate the Teen/Youth room by putting each of their handprints on the walls. Include their name and year graduating from high school next to each set of hands. Use different colors of paint. It will be neat for the younger teens to come in and see who has been there. Include the new teens each year.
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