Caroling

Last night at youth group we went Christmas Caroling. It was an easy evening to plan as long as your open to the logistical chaos of coordinating the energy level of teenagers, the memory lapses of the elderly, and the weather. Fortunately we had great weather, a really good group of 6-12th graders and a volunteer to call every single person on Sunday morning to remind them we were coming later that night.

So here's what worked well.

1. We guessed the right number of people. There were 69 of us caroling (19 adults, 20 high school, and 30 678 students). That was a perfect number for us. We had 22 pizzas (which were all consumed - 6 of them leftover but eaten when groups returned). We had two extra vehicles, which meant that some groups had extra adults which helps with singing and car conversations. We had enough high school students to make them their own group, which was more fun for them.

2. We all went to nursing homes first. The high school group headed across the river first. They sang in the halls of a nursing home, then visited two shut-ins. and in the meantime, the other three groups (each had middle school kids) all met at one nursing home and sang together for the first 20-30 minutes. The home had a great turnout in their large room and I think singing together gave the kids a lot of confidence!

3. We didn't make it too complicated. Three vehicles per group, a manageable number of kids and adults in each, only 3-4 people to sing to, no silly games - just letting the kids have fun. Kids were singing with others in their age group and were chosen by their friends into 4 packs.

Things to do better next time.
 - we had one HS student insist on driving himself because he had to leave early. That can't happen again.
 - we had barely enough song sheets
 - some of the songs on the song sheets weren't in the Lutheran inclusive or our tradition of words... change that.
 - take pictures of groups before they leave.
 - text pictures to each other... it'll be more fun!