Quickie:
An over the top Christmas themed race
Pro Tips:
- Have a camera ready
- Play Christmas music
- Run through the whole game ahead of time, figure out the logistics
Supplies:
Some supplies are optional. Read through the directions first and decide what you'll need. You can make this game as epic as possible or as simple as possible. It really has hilarious results and could easily be a huge hit.
- One Santa hat per team
- One can of shaving cream per team
- One set of 3-4XL sweats per team (red sweatshirt and red sweat pants)
- One large stocking
- 1 candy cane per team
- 1 list of good girls & boys per team
- One blanket per team
- a couple bags of balloons per team
- 3 cookies per team
- One pair of mittens per team
- One pair of cheap reading glasses per team
- Some towels
How to Play:
If you have a smaller youth group, divide your teams up to into 3 or four people each. One person from each team will be the designated Santa. The others will help dress the santa, help pull santa on his sled (blanket), and help cheer on the santa. If you have a larger group - most people will still be able to participate on each team by helping to blow up balloons and get santa prepped. However, they will have to be a designated cheer team while two "reindeer" teammates pull santa's sled.
Introduce the game as a competition to see which team can make the best Santa. It's not a race but rather tell them they'll be judged to see which santa looks the best. Divide the group up into teams and give each team time to stuff a teammate's sweats with inflated balloons and put a shaving cream beard on them.
Now the fun begins. Have the teams get in groups at the front of the room. It helps to have a gym or large area for some of this game, though with tweaks, you can do some of the game in a more confined space.
Let the teams know that they'll be racing.
First the Santas must eat three cookies. Because true Santas love cookies.
Then the Santas will sit on a blanket while two teammates pull from the two front corners of the blanket. They'll pull their Santa from the other side of the room and back. While Santa is still stuff with balloons, mind you. All the while Santa will be reading out loud his list of good girls and boys (while wearing the reading glasses).
When Santa gets back to his starting location he must grab a candy cane, run to the other side of the room and drop it off in the stocking. The first team to get their candy cane in the stocking wins!
The game gets messy but shaving cream is relatively clean. Bring some towels for students faces though!
Variation:
Another challenge to throw in the race is to have each santa dressed with gloves on and then sometime during the race have them wrap a present.
Can you think of any other epic Santa activities that could be added into this game/event?