Game: The Great Christmas Cookie Taste Test

Type/Purpose: Event/Activity, Food/Messy, Seasonal—Winter

Note: While this isn’t a fast paced activity, it is definitely a great seasonal activity that you can use as a gathering involving not just your group, but their families as well.

Materials:

• Families
• Tables
• Blindfolds

Set-up:

• Ahead of time, enlist at least 5 people to bake different kinds and types of cookies. Ask them to bake at least 2-5 of each item (depending on group size), but they may want to make more to share with the group.

Play:

• Break the group into 2-5 small groups (or more, depending on group size). Give each group a table and 1 chair, and place 1 player at each chair, and blindfold them.
• Bring out 1 of the cookies, and have participants taste them on “Go.” The players buzz in by shouting their first name, and wait until the leader calls upon them. They then share their guess for what flavor of cookie it is.
• The next player for the team comes forward, and is blindfolded, and play continues.
• For more unique flavors or ethnic cookie names, feel free to have a multiple choice option if players seem stumped.

NOTE:
Check ahead of time and at time of event to see if any of your participants have food allergies (i.e. peanut, etc.), and plan accordingly.

Variations:

• You may turn this into a church-wide cookie party.
• If families bring cookies that are a household specialty or that are relevant to their culture, this may be a great time to share some of those stories and methods.
• Have youth bring an abundance of cookies to take to a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter as a mission project.