WAR RIDGE W.Va. (Hinton News) – On Friday, December 19, the War Ridge Free Will Baptist Church held a “Gingerbread Day” for the kids in our Kids Club. Our day started at 10 a.m., and while waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids played one of their favorite Gingerbread Day games, “This or That”, where the kids basically tie themselves up over whether they like one item better than another.
Once everyone had arrived, they started a craft, making a pom-pom Christmas Tree ornament. After that, they played two more games. The first, “Jingle Bell Balance,” required them to balance bells on a small craft stick held in their mouth. The second, “Jingle Bell Toss”, was a team game where the two teams raced to see which team would be the first to throw one bell into each of the 11 cups arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree.
Everyone enjoyed a lunch of walking tacos and then played “Holiday Candy Divide,” where they had to separate red and green M&M’s by color using only a straw. This was followed by the “Reindeer Antler” game, where each team had to blow up 10 balloons and stuff them into the legs of pantyhose. The team whose leader was the first to don the antlers won a prize.
Next came the highlight of the day, building and decorating their gingerbread houses. The picture shows the kids standing around their completed houses. Front row, left to right: Jacob Brogan, Havyn Salmons, and Karsyn Fox; back row: Hailey Matney, Brooke Fox, Sydney Fox, Jayson Little, Maddie Spinelli, Jayden Little, and Brystal Little.
While the adults cleaned up and bagged the houses, the kids went on to play a game of “Who Wrapped This”, where they unwrapped a cling wrap ball filled with candy and small toys while wearing oven mitts. They had 30 seconds to try to unwrap some of the goodies before they had to pass it to the next person. The ball continued around the table until the final prize in the middle was claimed.
Next, a snack of hot chocolate and oven S’Mores (as if they didn’t have enough sugar already); followed by another craft where they made a “Beaded Wreath Ornament”. They then proceeded to more games, “Hungry, Hungry Reindeer,” where kids wore plastic cups on their hands as hooves and had to pick up mini-marshmallows and put them on their plates as reindeer food (see picture).
The rest of the afternoon was occupied with more games, including “Stick Cup Stack,” where they had to use chopsticks to move and stack plastic cups, and the Left/Right game, where the story of the first Christmas was read while kids passed unopened gifts either to the right or to the left, depending on what the story said. When the story was over, they were able to open and keep the gift they ended up with. The kids completed two more crafts and iced and decorated a half dozen sugar cookies. The kids had a good time on their first day of the Christmas break and were picked up at 4:30 by their parents.
A special thank you goes out to game “referees” Charles and Halie Osborne (pictured goofing around after the “Reindeer Antler” game) and our other adult volunteers Bonnie Galford, Crystal Matney, and Penny Matney.
