Hosting harvest festivals at your church can be a fun and strategic way to provide a safe place for kids of all ages to come and have fun. It is also a great alternative to celebrating Halloween for those churches who would rather steer away from any Halloween party. Another great aspect of hosting a harvest festival is the opportunity for outreach within the community.
As we delve deeper into the fall season, we wanted to provide you with some fun ideas for your upcoming church harvest festival.
Life Size Outdoor Games
Everybody loves playing games, especially ones that are life size! Have a game section or disperse them throughout your event location. These games could include giant versions of Jenga or Connect Four. Cornhole is a fun outdoor game as well. Use orange bean bags or cover them with fall-inspired fabric to tie it into your theme.
Biblical Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are always engaging and entertaining. Turn this one into a Bible-themed version. You could use a list similar to this one and have people use the Bible verses to help them complete the action. Make it even more fun by having them take pictures as proof of completion.
Craft Stations
Kids (and kids at heart) love doing crafts. Set up a booth or tent with various craft activities. This could include coloring pages, painting leaves, and creating jewelry. A unique way to tie in the gospel is to have the kids make salvation bead bracelets, with each color representing a part of the gospel story (e.g. red = Christ’s blood, black = sin, and white = forgiveness, etc.).
Face Painting
You’ll need some volunteers for this one. But grab some face paint, stencils, and glitter and have fun! Use autumn designs like colored leaves or paint a cross or another biblical drawing. Of course, you can always let the kids request what they want painted on their face, but it might be a good idea to offer a few paintings they can choose from.
Lawn Bowling
Take the bowling outside and add pumpkins! You can set up plastic bowling pins the original way or paint some empty cans and stack them up like a pyramid. Then, find some round pumpkins and let the kids (and grownups) take turns rolling the pumpkin to knock down the pins.
Hay Maze
This might take some planning, but ask around for some hay bales. Someone might even be willing to donate them. Set them out with paths and dead ends. If you can’t get enough bales to make an entire maze, stack some for the kids to jump and play on.
Photo Booth
Let families take home special memories by providing a photo booth. You could rent out a photo booth from a company, or set up a cute, festive backdrop and let people take photos with their phones. Have a table with props too, like funny glasses, thought balloons, or small chalkboards.
Pumpkin Decorating
Rather than dealing with the mess and danger of carving pumpkins, you can set up a pumpkin decorating station. Include all the goodies like paint, markers, stickers, glue, and glitter. Okay, so this can be a little messy, but at least you won’t have to clean up pumpkin goop.
Eating Contest
A fun (and funny) challenge to incorporate is an eating contest of some kind. Whether it’s how many hot dogs a person can eat or who can gobble the most gummy worms. Or have contestants tie their hands behind their back and see who can eat a pumpkin pie the fastest.
Cake Walk
What’s a harvest festival without some dessert? You can have store bought cakes and cupcakes or ask church members to bring in homemade cakes to save on money. Do multiple rounds so more people have a chance to win. Turn on the tunes, have people walk in the circle, and win the cakes!
Promote Your Event
Now that you have some harvest festival activities to set up, don’t forget to promote your church event so people can join in the fun. Contact Clover Sites today to get your church website updated. Then you can add all of the event info to your site so the church and community can enjoy the harvest festival.