50 Themed Youth Night Ideas
Todd Jones

1. Sports Night
Wear sports jerseys, dress as favorite athlete, play sports trivia, eat popcorn and hotdogs…
2. Disney Night
Do all disney characters or pick a specific movie. Dress up, disney themed games, tons of options here!
3. Lumber Jack Night
Wear flannels, draw on beards, eat pancakes, do manly things.
4. Hipster Night
Dress as hipster as you can and do things no one has ever done before.
5. Super Hero Night
Take anything and throw “superhero” in front of it and you have tons of options. Superhero dodgeball, superhero capture the flag, superhero pie eating contest…see what I mean?
6. Coffee Shop Night
Open mic, lots of planned hangout time, table games, free coffee!
7. Hawaiian Night
A good ole luau, a great option for dress up as well as games and food! Also, if you live in a cold area this is a fun one to do in the winter months to lift your spirits and make you dream of summer.
8. Redneck Night
Super fun dress up option as well as “out of the box” game options. If a redneck can think of it they will try it!
9. PJ’s Night
Yep, who doesn’t want to wear their pajamas out and have it be socially acceptable? Boom, make a youth event out of it!!
10. Tacky Prom
Thrift store shopping, parents old clothes, some tacky music, decor and maybe some greasy food. Oh wait, that sounds awesome!
11. Decades (and really any decade individually)
Okay, now this really should be like 5 different events because you can do 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and have them all be completely different nights with different looks and different games. We decided to just call it “decades” (but you and I will really know that you are getting 55 event ideas in this article)
12. Black Light / Glow Night
Glow in the dark dodgeball, glow in the dark dance party, glow in the dark anything and it will be awesome! Hand out glow sticks, play games that involve the lights being off, and shoot even talk about light vs. dark, I think that is in the Bible somewhere, right?
13. Hippy Night
Great dress up option and maybe a fun excuse to do some “campfire” style unplugged worship.
14. Black and White Clothes Night
Make it a black and white formal dress up, or just regular clothes, have foods that are black and white, do a black and white photo booth, etc.
15. Formal Night / Red Carpet
It is always fun to see students dress up, maybe even have a formal dinner if the kitchen ladies at your church will allow it.
16. Ugly Sweater
Come on, we all have them, and if you don’t the thrift store does! Oh, and it doesn’t have to just be a Christmas event, sweaters are ugly more days than just December.
17. Cartoon Character
Dress up as your favorite cartoon character. Note: your students might not even know the cartoon character that you chose because let’s be honest cartoons just aren’t as good as they used to be!
18. Trivia Night
This is pretty self explanatory.
19. Mustache Night
Mustache theme everything! Hand out fake mustaches, eat mustache shaped and decorated food, and have a stache-tastic time!
20. SciFi Night
Where are my Scifi fans at? I will be honest, I am not really one of them…but maybe you are and this would be fun.
21. Denim Night
Because who doesn’t want to wear denim pants, shirts, and jackets all at once?
22. Chocolate Night
Have leaders make students do tasks for chocolate, play messy chocolate games, have a chocolate buffet set up for them to enjoy.
23. Star Wars Night
Great dress up options as well as TONS of games that you can play or make up.
24. Lord of the rings night
Same as Star Wars, great dress up options as well as games.
25. Arcade Games Night
Pick a good oldie, or just do all of them.
26. Gameshow Night
Again, pick one like Family Feud Night, Wheel Of Fortune Night, Jeopardy, OR do a few of them.
27. Fiesta Night
Complete with a piñata, lots of amazing food, but you may have to be careful how you announce it or the whole church might show up!
28. Mis-Match Night
Wear things that don’t go together, serve food that doesn’t go together, and play some games that you have merged together.
29. Duct Tape Night
Create things with duct tape, give students opportunities to create things out of duct tape, play games involving duct tape…. yea you get it, duct tape!
30. Neon Night
The brighter the better!
31. Beach Night
Come on, everyone loves the beach, especially if you don’t live in a beach city.
32. Animal Night
Dress up as your favorite animal… or if you are the youth pastor just pick the most random one you can think of.
33. Messy Game Night
Messy games are awesome! Here is a link to a few great messy games.
34. “Drive-in” Movie Night
Project a movie on the side of the building and have students sit outside, or have students bring blankets and pillows and show the movie inside. BUT, have leaders spread out and watch carefully because.. yea you know why.
35. Carnival Night
Set up a bunch of carnival style game booths, have a hotdog eating contest, and eat fried food.
36. Cereal Night
Cereal and PJ’s go well together, but either way just a bunch of cereal is awesome too!
37. Board Game Night
This is pretty self explanatory, I think.
38. Mini Golf Night
Set up mini golf throughout the church, I am sure you can find some great obstacles!
39. Olympics Night
Dress up, play some mock olympic games, do a medals ceremony for your “olympic” games.
40. Masquerade Night
Yep, just like it sounds.
41. Night Light Night
Come on, you know you want to bust out that night light!
42. Scavenger Hunt
A hunt that gets social media involved as well is always a great way to advertise.
43. Color War
Dry or wet paint, they are always a blast! But you probably want to do this in a warmer time of the year.
44. Donut Night
Donuts are cheap, easy to get in bulk, and very bad for you…aka great for youth ministry.
45. Mission Impossible Night
Make everything “challenges” even if they are just normal games hype them up as an impossible challenge.
46. Battle of the sexes Night
Classic boys vs. girls, always a great time! And I don’t know why, but girls always win!
47. Great Gatsby Night
Dress up, sparkling cider, classic games, tons of fun.
48. Christmas in July
Or anytime in the summer, I mean who doesn’t want to do Christmas more than once a year?
49. Pirate Night
Great dress up options, and “steal the treasure” type game options here.
50. Twin Night
When it’s totally acceptable for two people to wear the same exact outfit (ahhh..must be same gender) and no one will get jealous…hopefully.

The above article, “50 Themed Youth Night Ideas” was written by Todd Jones. The article was excerpted from www.stokedonyouthministry.com web site. August 2017.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”