Two Party Plans for Epiphany — A Good and Joyful Thing

Looking for a relatively safe way to have a little church party in the season after Epiphany? Here are two plans for two different intergenerational parties you could throw. If you have good weather, you could do them outside, which would be best! I advertise this sort of thing as “A party for all ages, and designed with children in mind.”

Each plan is presented below, along with the supplies I designed, and the health and safety information. If you have any questions, please do email me at mtremilygarcia -at- gmail; I am not always speedy but I will do my best.

One party we just celebrated at my current parish, Our Redeemer in Lexington MA. The other I helped design as part of my consulting work at Christ Church in Needham MA; this was a collaborative effort with a small group of parishioners and with the Rev. Nick Morris Kliment, and will happen at the end of January.

Both of these were inspired by the Epiphany Party I started at The Redeemer in Chestnut Hill MA. Pre-pandemic, this worked super well as part of a series of “Church Family Dinners” on a Thursday or Friday night–a couple hours of food and lovely intergenerational chaos. Someday I hope to see that again.

1. Mini Party after Church in the Great Hall

at Our Redeemer in Lexington, MA
time: 10:30-11:15ish, right after the end of the 9:30 service
place: in the Great Hall (our parish hall and food pantry space)

What was the plan?

I had just three little activities:

1. Crown-making table, with paper, ribbon, scissors, tape, and markers

2. A visual scavenger hunt: letter-sized sheets on clipboards for kids to fill out, and tabloid-size posters with images hung up around the room

3. A Magi dress-up station with a little mini polaroid camera for taking pictures and whatever Pageant costumes you have that look fancy. (The polaroid idea came from two parishioners, Beth M. and Starr P., at Redeemer Chestnut Hill, and I have found it is always a hit.)

And about 30 minutes into this hour-long party, we paused to pray, chalk the door, and bless the room with holy water.

Setup & Prep

I asked for help that morning setting up the tables; our crackerjack admin Jessica Faggiano had printed and laminated the tabloid-sized images. The main prep is printing everything, gathering the supplies, and setting them out. This includes a bowl of water and one piece of chalk for the prayers!

How did it go?

We had 13 people and it was so much fun! This was the first indoor intergenerational gathering we’d had since the pandemic began. The scavenger hunt was not popular, but the crown table was always occupied. People didn’t want to dress up as much as I thought (perhaps because I hadn’t set out the costumes in an appealing way), but they did enjoy trying out the camera and just running around the room like crazy. Success!

Health & Safety Notes

Our Regathering Committee had determined that the Great Hall has a pandemic capacity for 50 people, and we knew we could expect 25 at most. It also has a MERV filter right below HEPA capacity. Our parish has been very clear on our masking guidelines (masks on all the time inside always!) and everyone follows the rules, so we didn’t even need to communicate this in particular.

Supplies

PDF visual scavenger hunt images on tabloid

PDF scavenger hunt sheet to fill out, letter

PDF crown-making instruction display

PDF chalk and water service halfsheet

2. Sunday Evening Party in the Parish Hall & Sanctuary

at Christ Church in Needham MA
time: 5:00-6:00PM
place: starting in the Parish Hall, and moving to the nave

What have we planned?

There will be four stations set up in the parish hall: making paper luminaries, making paper crowns, learning how to juggle (taught by a church school leader), and a coloring table. They may also have a star-ornament table, to make and hang on their big lighted tree outside the church.

The prayer/service at this party will focus on gift-giving. People are invited to bring donations to one of the church’s partners, and 45 minutes into the event, the group will gather, put on their paper crowns, and process (perhaps with a song) into the nave. They will lay their gifts in the Pageant manger, which will be set out before the altar. Around the altar they will say a quick prayer with the response line, “Sweet Jesus, we bring you our gifts.”

The group will then return to the hall to clean up, set out the luminaries outside if they’d like, perhaps set ornaments on the tree, and pick up a TBD takeaway snack.

Setup & Prep

Again, the main challenge is simply assembling the materials (guessing how many people might show up) and setting out the items at a convenient time.

How did it go?

It hasn’t gone yet–but I hope to update once it happens!

Health & Safety Notes

The Christ Church folks have slightly more open policies than my own parish, and had originally planned to end this with a (distanced) pizza dinner. The dramatic rise in cases and Omicron meant that they changed it to a takeaway snack. They all asked that we communicate the masking policies when we shared about the event, and they plan to open some of the Parish Hall windows to help in ventilation.