It doesn’t happen often, but every blue moon, you’ll see an adult job and think to yourself, “I did that for free as a kid all day long. Why didn’t anyone tell me I could’ve made money from this?” Need examples? In 1978, Kitty Black Perkins became Barbie’s principal designer and was tasked with creating an outfit for the first-ever Black Barbie. In 2017, Dr. Carlene Fider worked with Designmatters (a design studio course in partnership with Barbie and Mattel, Inc.) “to help the team learn why diversity, social justice, and the psychology of child play could all be influential factors in the Barbie brand.”
Adults grow up physically but still enjoy some of their favorite childhood activities. And sometimes those jobs can make a pretty penny. In another example, professional gamers can make anywhere from $80K to $150K. Meanwhile, the majority of Gen Xers and Millennials were playing Atari, Nintendo and PlayStation for $0.00. So why not make a Christmas scavenger hunt into something you enjoyed as a child and an opportunity for the little ones to learn how to make money at the same time? It’s a gift inside of a gift. Here are seven suggested Christmas scavenger hunts that teach potential jobs.
The Christmas Songwriter Job
If your household is filled with holiday music post-Thanksgiving, dust off a few tangible holiday-themed media (ex. DVDs, CDs) and hide them around the house. Whoever finds the Christmas album first has to not only sing one of the lyrics on the album but also create a new lyric to add on. For aspiring songwriters, this will help them pay attention to more than just dancing and humming along.
The Christmas Doll Designer Job
This Christmas scavenger hunt will require you to have a number of dolls – Barbies or other fashion dolls will do. Undress all the dolls. After putting all of the doll clothing in a box, request that each participant hunt for an outfit that means something to them for Christmas and explain why. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an “ugly Christmas sweater” or an obvious Christmas outfit but something that brings up a personal memory of Christmas. For aspiring clothing designers, this will help them understand there is more to clothes than just material. For children who don’t have a lot of dolls or doll clothing, drawing a person wearing the outfit is just as efficient. Hide the art supplies instead, and let them draw their creation when the hunt is complete.
The Christmas Choreographer Job
Creating a dance to a Christmas song doesn’t really count as a scavenger hunt, although a choreographer definitely has to work hard to find just the right move to the beat of a song. To add more of a hunt to the dance routine, hide specific items around their dance area. Each kid (or group) will have to figure out how to incorporate these hidden items (ex. a hat or scarf) into their dance routine and maybe put it on. (It’s up to you whether you want them to find the items first before they create the routine or create the dance routine and put them in the general vicinity of the items while they dance along.) Just get ready to post the end product on social media. This should be highly entertaining.
The Christmas Chef (Or Baker) Job
That Play Kitchen for Kids always seems so much cooler to play in until real food gets involved, and then dishes have to be washed or floors have to be swept. But some children really enjoy being helpers. This Christmas baking (or cooking) job can go one of two ways. Hide specific ingredients around the house so that your little helper must find them before you can make each dish. Or, hide messages in cleaning supplies. For example, they won’t be able to find a clue for the molasses bottle (to build a gingerbread house) without finding the hidden message underneath the dishwashing liquid. Or, they’ll have to wash off the container of strawberries (to make no-bake Santa hats) to figure out where the icing is. (Note: This game can get tricky if refrigerated items are hidden. Find those first.)
The Christmas Medical Assistant Job
Snow and ice can lead to all kinds of bumps and bruises. Being prepared ahead of time is better than hobbling in from a snow shoveling accident later. Create a scavenger hunt with medical supplies, so your kid can learn what’s supposed to be in a first aid kit. Skip sharp objects like scissors and tweezers for younger children. Stick with bandages, gauze, thermometers, cotton balls and reusable ice packs. The prize? This might be a fun trip to Starbucks for a medicine ball.
The Christmas Photographer Job
Pick any Christmas item you like in variations, even if it’s just a few fake flowers that look like hydrangeas or poinsettias. Instead of physically picking up the items, the way you would in a traditional scavenger hunt, let the kid(s) find these hidden items and take their favorite photograph of those images. Obviously, most of the photographs will look similar if the object is in the same spot. The goal is for them to find all of the objects and click away on their smartphones. (If the camera flash or small rooms make this game too obvious with opponents, give them all separate lists of Christmas items to take photographs of. The first one to take pictures of all of these items wins.)
The Christmas Manicurist Job
What’s a slumber party without somebody doing each other’s hair or painting nails? This time around though, let all the kids color their nails one solid color of their choice. But in order to design their nails (once the paint is dry and to avoid smudging), hide kid-friendly nail art in different places. The first person who has a minimum of five Christmas nail designs wins the nail design scavenger hunt.
While these seven are just the start of the game, feel free to add more career fields into the mix. By making this a scavenger hunt, it’ll be far more exciting than the usual Career Day at school. Even better, this game has a layer of Christmas glee.