Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party & Pancake Games

Many parishes have a tradition of a pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday / Fat Tuesday. The pandemic makes group meals a harmful choice for the whole community–but we still need a party! Solution: The Pancake Games. These were part of the celebrations at Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, when I arrived there. I tweaked them over a couple years and the revisions were a big hit, resulting in more playing, more laughing, and less work for me and volunteers.

I believe they will be a big hit as a pandemic party! At my own parish, Our Redeemer Lexington, we will combine them with the burying of the alleluias and the burning of the palms. 

Low-stress Low-effort Ongoing Games: The Pancake Pass

When I arrived, they had actual games with rules and medals. I didn’t like the competitive aspect, since these children were in intensely and explicitly competitive schools. Competitions also require multiple people, and they have a clear start and an end. Unless you keep winning, they’re not always fun to do over and over again. Instead, a chaotic free-form do-what-you-like approach seemed in order–something where you can do what you want and keep doing it for however long you wanted. And we needed just a little scaffolding in order to make it a true game.

The solution: The Pancake Pass! This requires just a copier and some cheap circle stickers. Kids pick up one of these quartersheets from a leader, and then whenever they complete a task, they tell a leader and get a sticker to stick on it! If they want to do something multiple times, they can get as many stickers as they want. My original pancake pass and my pandemic revision are below. You can sketch your own with a sharpie and run it through the copier!

The other big benefit to this is that you don’t need people to “run the games.” You need only two adults permanently in the space–you and a reliable Safe-Church-tested adult. One of you has the passes, the other has the stickers, both of you have extra pancakes to hand out, and together you can keep things tidy-ish and keep the peace. Parents should come with their kids, but if they’re chatting with each other or need to get a snack, there’s no problem. 

Frozen Pancakes, Or, How to Reduce Carpet Cleaning Costs

I was delighted when the parents informed me that they always used store-bought frozen pancakes for this event. I didn’t know these existed, but they are small and indeed frozen solid, yet still soft. So on the one hand they don’t crumble into pieces (into your hair, into your carpet) very easily, but they are still soft enough not to bruise if you get one chucked in your face. (I speak from experience.) And any packages that aren’t opened can be sent home to be eaten.

This year, since my new parish has a smaller budget, I’m considering making and freezing our own pancakes. We may even do this as two parties—a pancake making-and-freezing party on Sunday, and then the Pancake Games on Shrove Tuesday. I’ll update this page once I know how it goes!

What are the Games?

The games themselves changed, too, so that now one is primarily competing against oneself. They’re pretty simple and silly!

The Pancake Toss: you throw a pancake into a variety of containers of increasing distance and decreasing size

Pancake Multitasking: you balance a pancake on your head and do a bunch of other things (play instruments, dance, walk a line, jump rope)

Pancake Balance Race: balance a pancake on your head and race

Other ideas
Once we did a Pancake Challenge Course where you balanced it on your head and had to sit on the ground, stand, bounce, sit on a chair, twirl in circles, etc at various points along a line. This was fun but requires someone stationed there to explain it to folks who can’t read. 

A Pancake Skillet/Spatula Race through the building and/or around the grounds of the church can be really fun too (example!), but also requires more prep and thought–making sure the grounds are safe, having multiple equitable skillets or spatula (spatulae?), marking the path, communicating rules clearly, and organizing multiple races throughout the evening so that everyone can participate. This might be best as an adult activity.

You can probably think of many more low-key goofy games to do with a frozen pancake! 

An additional benefit to the Pancake Pass approach is that folks with disabilities or particular needs (extra space for sensory needs, extra time or extra chances) they can be easily accommodated. I am still early in my learning about access in general and access for folks with disabilities, so if you have a critique or an additional suggestion that I should share here, I would love to hear it (mtremilygarcia -at- gmail.com).

How Do You Set All this Up?

Above you’ll find color pdfs of (I think) all the signs you need. They are also available below as Canva links that you can copy and make your own. Here’s the materials I used.

Pancake Toss (Canva template)
Some bowls, pans, or tupperware of various sizes. I just grabbed them from the parish kitchen.

Pancake Multitasking (Canva template)
I put out a bunch of our children’s instruments from the nursery–tambourines, bells, clappers, noisemakers. 

Pancake Balance Race (Canva template)
Mark a start and stop on the ground with masking tape, or do a there-and-back situation against a wall. If you’re outside, don’t use string (tripping! tangling!) but just set cones to mark the lines.

Starting Time Sign Canva template
Instructions Canva template

Timing & Location

All you need is a big enough space so that the kids can run around and have fun without bumping into the adults who will be hanging around too. For most of us, this is the Parish Hall or the Undercroft / Crypt. For some of you, it will be warm enough to do outdoors! 

When this was a dinner (sigh) we did it from 5-7PM on Shrove Tuesday. The pancake games could be played on the last Sunday of Epiphany, but if you combined it with a short service and another activity (burying the alleluias? burning the palms?) I think it could still be enough of an event to warrant bringing folks out on Tuesday night.