Our fall festival last year was a complete disaster. Ran out of candy in like forty minutes, cotton candy machine exploded somehow, and two volunteers just vanished. Never figured out where they went. Maybe they're still hiding.
This year trying not to repeat that nightmare.
Start Planning When You're Still Complaining About Heat
Waited until October last time because how hard could fall festival be. Turns out really hard when everyone already took the good stuff.
Started in August this year feeling stupid planning pumpkin things when it's ninety-five degrees. But apparently that's what smart people do.
Called bounce house lady and she basically laughed at me for waiting until September before. "You and every other church," she said. Thanks.
Book everything early or you get whatever broken junk is left.
Guess How Many People Will Show Up
Last year thought maybe three hundred people. Seven hundred showed up. Complete chaos.
Asked other churches what their numbers are. Everyone either lies or has no clue.
Pastor down the street told me they plan for double and sometimes still run out of everything. Super helpful advice.
Planning for thousand people this year. If nobody comes I'll have candy until Easter.
Find Volunteers Before They Get Smart
Need way more people than makes sense. Every booth needs two people because someone always bails.
Started asking in July when people still feel guilty about saying no.
By October everyone's tired and pretends not to see you coming.
Had volunteer last year take one look around and text her husband for emergency pickup. Smart lady.
Games That Don't Fall Apart
Tried fancy carnival games last time. Spent three hours setting up ring toss that collapsed in ten minutes.
This year doing stuff that can't break. Duck pond where everyone wins. Bean bag toss with targets so big you'd have to try to miss.
Face painting sounds cute until you need someone who can actually paint. Stick with temporary tattoos unless you're secretly artistic.
Candy corn guessing jar works because kids get candy even when they're wrong.
Food That Won't Kill Anyone
Hot dogs are foolproof if you don't turn them into hockey pucks. Learned that hard way.
Cotton candy machine died halfway through last year. Kids acted like world was ending. Have backup or rent from people who know what they're doing.
Popcorn smells good and hides other smells which is important.
Don't try anything that requires actual cooking unless you have volunteers who won't poison people. I don't.
Candy Situation
Bought cheap candy last year. Parents complained and kids looked sad. Can't cheap out on Halloween candy apparently.
Buy ridiculous amounts. Kids come through line multiple times and you don't want that awkward moment when candy runs out.
Mix good stuff with okay stuff. Everyone gets something decent but you don't go bankrupt buying full-size Snickers for entire neighborhood.
Hide good candy for volunteers at end. They earned it.
Decorations on Whatever Budget You Have
Pinterest makes everything look expensive. Ignore Pinterest completely.
Orange streamers and pumpkins work fine. Maybe some cornstalks if feeling fancy.
Asked church people to bring pumpkins from gardens. Free decorations plus people feel helpful.
Spent way too much last year on stuff that looked terrible and blew away. Keep it simple stupid.
Weather Will Probably Ruin Everything
Had everything outside last year. Rained of course. Soggy volunteers and muddy kids everywhere.
This year doing half inside half outside. When weather turns bad move everything indoors even if it's crowded.
Wet games and miserable people aren't fun for anyone.
Parking Disaster Prevention
Forgot about parking last year. Cars everywhere including neighbor's lawn. They called cops. Awkward.
This year making everyone park at school and walk. Providing volunteers with flashlights to help.
Signs don't work because nobody reads signs but least you tried.
Cleanup That Doesn't Take Until Midnight
Cleanup took four hours last year because nobody planned for it. Everyone wanted to die.
This year assigning specific jobs to specific people before event. Bringing industrial garbage bags.
Paper plates make cleanup easier even if environmentally terrible. Pick your battles.
Figure out what to do with leftover everything before you're standing there with seven pumpkins and fifty hot dogs.
Things That Will Go Wrong
Someone won't show up. Have backup people who owe you favors.
Something will break. Have simple backup that requires zero setup.
Kids will spill sticky drinks everywhere. Bring all the paper towels.
Parents will complain about stuff you never thought about. Smile and pretend to care.
Kid will eat too much and puke. Have cleaning supplies and parent phone numbers ready.
What Actually Matters
Point is families having fun not creating perfect event for Instagram.
Kids want candy and games they can actually win. Adults want kids to be happy.
Simple usually works better than elaborate stuff that stresses everyone out.
If people leave happy and ask about next year you didn't completely fail.
Random Stuff I've Learned
Start planning stupidly early. Good stuff disappears fast.
Ask people who've done this before. They'll warn you about things you'd never think of.
Get more volunteers than seems necessary. People get sick and bail and disappear.
Keep games simple. Complicated equals problems.
Don't cheap out on candy and prizes. People remember when stuff sucks.
Plan for weather and parking and cleanup before you need it not during crisis.
Don't try to do everything yourself or you'll hate everyone by end of night.
Had one volunteer last year who showed up drunk. That was interesting. Background check doesn't test for that apparently.
Kid got lost for twenty minutes because parents thought other parent was watching. Found him at duck pond having great time.
Cotton candy machine caught fire. Not kidding. Had to call fire department. Kids thought that was coolest part of whole event.
Ran out of prizes halfway through. Started giving out leftover VBS supplies. Kids didn't care.
Why We Even Do This
Kids love fall stuff. Gives families something to do besides argue about homework.
Community thing happens when people work together even if they complain the whole time.
Good way for church to meet neighbors without being weird about it.
Memories happen even when everything goes wrong. Maybe especially then.
Getting Started When You Don't Know Anything
Pick date before other people steal good weekends. Check school calendar so you don't compete with football.
Make list then add more stuff because you forgot half of everything.
Start bugging people for help immediately. Way earlier than feels right.
Keep it simple especially first time. Can make it bigger next year if you survive this one.
Have fun planning or everyone will be miserable including you.
Truth About Fall Festivals
Perfect one doesn't exist. Something will definitely go wrong and that's normal.
People remember if they had good time not whether games worked perfectly.
Ask for help, start early, keep it simple, have backup plans for backup plans.
Buy way more candy than makes sense. Seriously. I cannot stress this enough.
Most important thing is people leave happy and don't hate you for volunteering them.
If kids had fun and parents didn't complain too much you basically won.
