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Fill the stocking

First suggested by Scouts Northern Ireland
Get active and practise balancing with this festive relay game.

Back to Activities

You’ll need

  • Christmas stockings, Santa sacks or boxes
  • Dessert spoons
  • Small items, such as. wrapped sweets, chocolates or toy building bricks
  • Containers for the items

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
  • This game is a variation of an egg and spoon relay race. Each team will need a stocking, Santa sack or box, a spoon and a container full of small items.
  • Make sure you’ve got at least an item for one per person, so everyone can have a go. If you’ve used chocolates or sweets, these could be shared out at the end of the session, as a treat to take home. Make sure to check for any allergies or dietary requirements and provide suitable sweets or treats for everyone to take some.

Play the game

  1. Everyone should get into teams and line up at one end of the meeting place.
  2. Each team needs to be given a dessert spoon and a container of small items, such as wrapped sweets, chocolates, or toy building bricks.
  3. At the other end of the meeting place, each team will have a Christmas stocking, Santa sack or box.
  1. The first player in each team takes an item and balances it on their spoon. When the person leading the game says ‘go’, the player moves as fast as they can towards their team’s stocking, sack or box, without dropping their item.
  2. If they drop their item, they should stop, pick it up and put pop it back on their spoon before they start moving again.
  3. After they’ve placed the item in the stocking, sack or box, the player returns to their team, passing the spoon to the next person.
  4. Continue until all the ‘gifts’ are in the stockings. Which team managed to fill their stocking first? Who worked best as a team and was the most supportive team, too?
  5. Alternatively, you could play for a set time limit and see which team can get the most gifts in their stocking.

Reflection

This activity gave everyone the opportunity to be active and persevere more so they could fill up the sticking at the other side of the room. Balancing items on spoons can be tricky to master, how did everyone do? How did it make you feel if you dropped an item or when you made it to the other side? If anyone felt cross or frustrated, what did they do? Did they give up or did they keep trying? How did they feel when they managed to achieve it? Even though everyone had their own turns, were there any ways that people helped each other? Did people encourage each other or share helpful tips?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Food

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.

  • You could change the size and shape of the spoons or the objects to make balancing easier or harder.
  • To make it harder, if someone drops the item off the spoon, they need to go back to the start.
  • The distance between the starting point and the stockings/boxes could be shortened or moved to a larger space.
  • For more of a challenge, extra rules could be added, such as having one hand behind your back or everyone using their non-dominant hand.
  • If a relay race isn’t accessible for everyone, the items could be hidden around the meeting space instead. Everyone could work together in teams, or as a whole group, to find all or as many items as they can. They should collect them in their stocking or box.
  • Remember to check for any dietary requirements or allergies if you’re going to use sweets or chocolates.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Squirrels All Together Challenge Award
Beavers Teamwork Challenge Award
Cubs Teamwork Challenge Award

Learning to balance things is a really good skill to learn, think about how you can use these skills in other ways. For example, how can balancing help you when your building something or how it can be used when completing team activities.