Family Night
Occasional Friday evenings, three or four times a year. About one hour of songs and games, plus refreshments.

Purpose
To provide a time when families can get acquainted with other families and when adults and children can play together. To build church community and memories.

Resources and People
A committee of at least three to gather supplies, write publicity, plan and oversee the event; a Game Leader, wearing something colorful; a Song Leader. See Hymn numbers 211, 346, 361 and 401 in "Singing the Living Tradition." Nametags are a must! You may need a nursery worker for small babies and toddlers. Several books of non-competitive games. Individually competitive games are to be avoided when you have a wide variety of ages. They result in "winners" and "losers" and can spoil the evening for smaller children. Use games that involve teams or in which everybody wins. See New Games volumes I and II.

Games that Work
Encourage adults to participate along with children.

• Eggtoss: Outdoors, form two lines facing each other, with the shortest person at one end and the tallest at the other. Each facing pair is given an egg and told, "Some are hard-boiled and some are not!" Partners throw the egg back and forth carefully. After each successful toss they each step backwards one step. The last team with an unbroken egg wins.
• Balloon Sit: Every person receives a balloon, blows it up, and sits on it until it breaks. For some reason, this is very funny to children.
• Relay Races: Two or three teams of partners. Each adult is paired with a child. At the far end of the room there are several paper sacks, each containing two scarves, two pairs of gloves, two hats, and two bead necklaces or Hawaiian leis. The teams run to the sacks, put on the clothes any which way, return together, and tag the next team.
• Skits: Count off to form groups of eight, with adults and children in each group. Give each group a bag with three objects inside. Any objects -- be creative! Ask them to go in another room and create a story using the three objects but not limited to the three objects. One person is the narrator. The others act out the story. It should begin with "Once upon a time..." and end with "The moral of the story is...". Allow twenty minutes for creating the story.

Serve refreshments before going home
Gather around tables for conversation and simple foods like cookies, fruit, cheese/crackers, and juice.

Closing Circle Song
Perhaps Hymn 400, "Shalom."