Light The Night Activity Ideas
Light The Night Activity Ideas
Light The Night is about making a difference in your neighborhood on Halloween! Use October 31 as an intentional time to connect with neighbors, building relationships, and demonstrating the Gospel in words and actions. Do not stress out about it or be intimidated by all of the things you could do — just do something!
ENTRY LEVEL (very little preparation)
• Candy or Treat Labels Print labels or poems that help point people to Jesus to stick on candy or treats before giving candy out to neighbors. (Refer to the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) Examples: Stickers on candy could say “Life is sweeter with Jesus” or stickers on glow sticks could say “Jesus is the Light of the World.” • Reverse Trick-‐or-‐Treating Instead of knocking on doors in your neighborhood to GET a treat, knock on doors of your neighborhood to GIVE a treat! (Refer to the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) • Hot Dog/Lemonade/Hot Chocolate Stand Set up a stand in your front yard or driveway and provide free hot dogs and/or lemonade to those who are trick-‐or-‐treating — or if it’s cool, provide hot chocolate! Also, have candy available with some type of message that explains why you’re providing free stuff.
ADVANCED LEVEL (more preparation required) • Photo Booth Make a simple photo booth background and title it “Light the Night 2017.” You could even put the Houston’s First logo or Light The Night logo from the church on it. Allow people visiting your house to use their cell phones to take pictures. (Find background ideas on the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) • Prayer Request Have a prayer request box outside your door with blank cards. When trick-‐or-‐treaters come to your door, give them the candy with the labels (as mentioned above) and say, “We are a praying family and love to pray for others. Is there anything that we can pray for you about?” You could also just have the prayer request box out so that they could write their prayer requests down. Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
Light The Night Activity Ideas
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Service Coupons Choose a few families on your street that you’d like to do a service project for (raking their leaves, bringing their trash cans back to the house, or washing their car). Go to your neighbors and give them a “Light The Night Service Coupon.” Have them choose which service your family could work together to do on a certain date as a family. Decorate Your Yard with Pumpkins Our church’s Pinterest page has quite a few simple pumpkin carving/decorating ideas to have out as you hand out candy. Prayer or Blessing? Write down some of your favorite Scriptures that bless you. When people come to the door (or when you go reverse trick-‐or-‐treating), ask them if they’d like a prayer or a blessing. If they say ‘prayer’, pray for them right there. If they respond ‘blessing’ hand them a Scripture card with the candy. Cupcake Walk Have a cupcake walk on your driveway! Have numbers written on a piece of paper or using sidewalk chalk on your driveway in a circle. Play Christian music and have groups who have come to trick-‐or-‐treat walk around the circle until the music stops. Choose a number. The person standing on the winning number gets a cupcake. You can give everyone a piece of candy afterwards, also. (The goal of this activity is to get the neighbors to stay a little longer so you can talk to them and have conversations with them.)
VETERAN LEVEL (even MORE preparation required) Use some of the ideas above and combine with these ideas that require more preparation. Some of these are best done with other people from your Life Bible Study or other believers in your neighborhood. • Have a Pumpkin Party at Your House Invite your friends and their kids over to your house for a Pumpkin Party! Have games like pumpkin ring toss and pumpkin bowling available, allow kids to decorate their own pumpkin, and serve pumpkin snacks, too. (Find ideas on the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) End the evening by reading or telling “The Pumpkin Patch Parable.” • “Walk-‐Up Theater” Have hot dogs with the fixings prepared and water bottles to hand out. Have a movie such as “Veggie Tales” or any popular kids animated movie or shows projected onto the garage door for kids and parents Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
Light The Night Activity Ideas
to sit and watch. Pass out candy or treats with labels mentioned above under Entry Level, and have a Prayer Request Box out in case someone has something you can pray about for them. • Host a Mini-‐Carnival in Your Front Yard Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for ideas of simple carnival games you could set up in your yard. Provide some family-‐friendly games, and give candy to the attendees and game winners. • Trunk-‐or-‐Treat Park your car out in the driveway, decorate the trunk, and pass out candy from there. Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for some ideas. If you have several people that get together with different cars and different themes, it adds more fun!
• Host a Block Party with your Neighbors Gather with your Christian neighbors to plan a block party. Play Christian music, wear glow sticks, give away candy, and play games. Rent a bouncy house, give away ice cream floats or flavored popcorn, and do face painting. The ideas are endless! Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for more ideas.
Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
Light The Night is about making a difference in your neighborhood on Halloween! Use October 31 as an intentional time to connect with neighbors, building relationships, and demonstrating the Gospel in words and actions. Do not stress out about it or be intimidated by all of the things you could do — just do something!
ENTRY LEVEL (very little preparation)
• Candy or Treat Labels Print labels or poems that help point people to Jesus to stick on candy or treats before giving candy out to neighbors. (Refer to the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) Examples: Stickers on candy could say “Life is sweeter with Jesus” or stickers on glow sticks could say “Jesus is the Light of the World.” • Reverse Trick-‐or-‐Treating Instead of knocking on doors in your neighborhood to GET a treat, knock on doors of your neighborhood to GIVE a treat! (Refer to the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) • Hot Dog/Lemonade/Hot Chocolate Stand Set up a stand in your front yard or driveway and provide free hot dogs and/or lemonade to those who are trick-‐or-‐treating — or if it’s cool, provide hot chocolate! Also, have candy available with some type of message that explains why you’re providing free stuff.
ADVANCED LEVEL (more preparation required) • Photo Booth Make a simple photo booth background and title it “Light the Night 2017.” You could even put the Houston’s First logo or Light The Night logo from the church on it. Allow people visiting your house to use their cell phones to take pictures. (Find background ideas on the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) • Prayer Request Have a prayer request box outside your door with blank cards. When trick-‐or-‐treaters come to your door, give them the candy with the labels (as mentioned above) and say, “We are a praying family and love to pray for others. Is there anything that we can pray for you about?” You could also just have the prayer request box out so that they could write their prayer requests down. Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
Light The Night Activity Ideas
•
•
•
•
Service Coupons Choose a few families on your street that you’d like to do a service project for (raking their leaves, bringing their trash cans back to the house, or washing their car). Go to your neighbors and give them a “Light The Night Service Coupon.” Have them choose which service your family could work together to do on a certain date as a family. Decorate Your Yard with Pumpkins Our church’s Pinterest page has quite a few simple pumpkin carving/decorating ideas to have out as you hand out candy. Prayer or Blessing? Write down some of your favorite Scriptures that bless you. When people come to the door (or when you go reverse trick-‐or-‐treating), ask them if they’d like a prayer or a blessing. If they say ‘prayer’, pray for them right there. If they respond ‘blessing’ hand them a Scripture card with the candy. Cupcake Walk Have a cupcake walk on your driveway! Have numbers written on a piece of paper or using sidewalk chalk on your driveway in a circle. Play Christian music and have groups who have come to trick-‐or-‐treat walk around the circle until the music stops. Choose a number. The person standing on the winning number gets a cupcake. You can give everyone a piece of candy afterwards, also. (The goal of this activity is to get the neighbors to stay a little longer so you can talk to them and have conversations with them.)
VETERAN LEVEL (even MORE preparation required) Use some of the ideas above and combine with these ideas that require more preparation. Some of these are best done with other people from your Life Bible Study or other believers in your neighborhood. • Have a Pumpkin Party at Your House Invite your friends and their kids over to your house for a Pumpkin Party! Have games like pumpkin ring toss and pumpkin bowling available, allow kids to decorate their own pumpkin, and serve pumpkin snacks, too. (Find ideas on the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page.) End the evening by reading or telling “The Pumpkin Patch Parable.” • “Walk-‐Up Theater” Have hot dogs with the fixings prepared and water bottles to hand out. Have a movie such as “Veggie Tales” or any popular kids animated movie or shows projected onto the garage door for kids and parents Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
Light The Night Activity Ideas
to sit and watch. Pass out candy or treats with labels mentioned above under Entry Level, and have a Prayer Request Box out in case someone has something you can pray about for them. • Host a Mini-‐Carnival in Your Front Yard Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for ideas of simple carnival games you could set up in your yard. Provide some family-‐friendly games, and give candy to the attendees and game winners. • Trunk-‐or-‐Treat Park your car out in the driveway, decorate the trunk, and pass out candy from there. Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for some ideas. If you have several people that get together with different cars and different themes, it adds more fun!
• Host a Block Party with your Neighbors Gather with your Christian neighbors to plan a block party. Play Christian music, wear glow sticks, give away candy, and play games. Rent a bouncy house, give away ice cream floats or flavored popcorn, and do face painting. The ideas are endless! Check out the Light The Night board on the Houston’s First Pinterest page for more ideas.
Houston’s First Baptist Church HoustonsFirst.org
Share your Light The Night moments on social media with #HFBCLightTheNight
