Treasure Hunt for Christmas

At our Journey Church Staff Christmas Party we all went around the table and answered the question, “What’s your family’s Christmas tradition?”  I got the best idea from this conversation (All creative credit goes to the Deal Family).

Now that I have teenagers, some of the “present opening mystic” associated with Christmas morning has begun wane.  In hopes to spice things up a bit Tarah and I put together a Treasure Hunt for Browning Christmas 2014.

Once the kids went to bed, we cleared out all the presents from under the tree, leaving an absolutely bare tree-base.  Then we took all of the kids’ gifts and hid them in discrete places in and around our house (Piper’s in the trunk of a car, Jedidiah in a closet, and Ethan in our neighbors house).   Then we made riddles that led the kids to their presents.  We placed the riddles in envelopes and hung them from the tree.

On Christmas morning, Ethan was the first down the stairs.  He made his way alone to a giftless tree and said, “They gave our gifts to needy kids; this is going to be a sad Christmas.”  Ethan told us later, “I went back downstairs three times to confirm what I saw.”

When Piper awoke she noticed the envelopes and hope remained.  Tarah and I were retrieved once Jedidah woke up and the treasure hunt began!  Piper quickly solved her riddle, Ethan solved Jed’s for him, and they were all stumped for a minute with Ethan’s riddle.


It was all pretty fun and made for a memorable Christmas.  We finished the day with some of our more established traditions: eating pancakes & bacon, seeing a movie, and having Chinese Food for dinner.

Here’s to Christmas 2014!

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