The fall has arrived and its a perfect time of year to plan a Young Life hoedown club!
Location
- Borrow a barn!
- If you can’t find a barn, find a field. It’s better to do the field party earlier in October so it’s not dark as early or as cold. Daylight Savings Time ends on Nov. 6, so it will be darker earlier.
- If you use a field without lights, you could circle up cars and use headlights. Bring jumper cables in case you drain a car battery!
- You’ll also want to make sure a bathroom is close by. You can rent port-a-potties for $150, maybe even get a parent to sponsor it. Who doesn’t want their business logo on a sign taped to a portable bathroom?
- If you can’t find a barn or a field, you can do it anywhere, just make sure to decorate!
Decorations
- Christmas lights are a must.
- Hay bales are great- try and get them donated, but if not, you can probably get 30 for $100 from a local supplier.
- Checkered table cloths
- Tons of ideas on Pinterest
Games/Mixers
Finger Countin
Use your skit characters to do a funny game sell about how their mama taught them to count and add. Stand back to back, each person holding out one hand. On that hand they can hold out no fingers, 1, 2,3,4, or all 5. When they turn around (on the count of 3) they add the fingers together with their opponents. First one to yell the correct sum moves on to the next round.
Seed Spittin‘
Kids race to cut open a pumpkin, pull out the seeds and spit them towards their partners who are holding a plastic jack-o-lantern. The one with the most seeds after 90 seconds (with loud music playing in the background) is the winner.
You can also spit sunflower seeds into a cowboy hat.
Plunger Olympics
If you’re going for more of a red neck theme instead of a barn party, you can make up all kinds of games using plungers.
- Ring toss on the plunger
- Unrolling toilet paper race with the toilet paper roll on the plunger
- Using the plungers as gloves to catch balls being tossed
- Get creative
Cricket Spitting
- Go to PetSmart to get crickets. Buy 30 medium sized. Buy them an hour or so before club so they stay alive. You don’t need a cage, you can keep them in the bag, just make sure they get some air.
- Set the game up by getting 6 brave volunteers, 3 guys and 3 gals. Do a spit-off and see who can spit a cricket the farthest. Mark the spot the cricket lands. Have a gal go, then a guy, then a gal, etc… Take the top 2 and have them do a championship round.
- After you crown a winner, have the skit character hosting the game stick 10 crickets in their mouth and do a ‘machine gun style’ spit!
Pie-Eating Contest
Few things are as redneck as eating contests. You can go many different directions with this one. Just call 3-5 folks up front and pick one of the options below or create your own.
- Fill pie tins with gummy worms and whipped cream and have a race to see who can get all the worms out first without using their hands. Start a rumor in the crowd that real worms are mixed in with the gummy worms.
- Fill pie tins with M&Ms and flour and have a race to get the M&Ms out using no hands. Make sure to have water for them to drink after getting a mouth full of flour. Take pictures!
Turkey Head
If you’re doing it in November, you can do a slight twist on the ol’ surgical glove on the head game, because it does look like a turkey. Get three volunteers to pull the glove over their head, just below their nose. When the music starts, they race to blow it up as big as they can. It can get huge! Take pics.
EXTRAS
- Make a good country music playlist to have going as kids arrive. Ask a kid to help make it (but make sure it’s clean.
- Here’s a Spotify playlist a friend made for a hoe-down club, but it’s 2 years old.
- Use eyeliner to draw freckles on girls, like we do at camp.
- Considering getting 2 skit characters to host the whole night. They can learn some redneck jokes and do a little routine throughout club.
- Get someone to come call a square dance!
Songs
Download PowerPoint Slides for all the songs below here.
- Wagon Wheel
- High FLyin Lord
- Let my light shine bright
- Barefoot Bluejean night
- Chicken Fried
- Banana Song
- Springsteen
- Let there be light
- I could Run Away
- I am Yours
What other Hoedown ideas do you have? Email us here and we’ll add them to the post.
