All Saints' Day Party Games :: A Saintly Jigsaw Puzzle Race!

My kids are getting so excited!   All Saints' Day is coming up next week, which means our Annual All Hallows' Eve Party is just around the corner. Last year our family decided to host a "small" party at our home, instead of the carnival style party at the parish hall, and it was such a blast!   Despite feeling slightly (okay, very!) overwhelmed with everything that needs to still be done, I keep reminding myself that it actually was pretty easy to host and I already have so much ready, left over from last year!   I just need to work on cleaning up the house... ;)

This year, in addition to the All Saints Bingo, St. Isidore's Pumpkin Roasting, and an Outdoor Flashlight Scavenger/Treasure Hunt that a friend is helping coordinate, I've been trying to come up with a couple more new games.   Since the Cupcake Puzzle Race was such a hit at our Little Flowers Tea Party, I thought it would be perfect!

My goal was to find a couple 100 piece puzzles representing either saints or biblical figures.  I ran across some made by EuroGraphics and decide to go with Jesus the Fisherman (with the apostles!) and David & Goliath.   (Other options included Daniel and the Lions and Moses.)

I opened up the boxes and was very pleased with the quality - the puzzle pieces are very durable and should be able to withstand many little fingers!  At the party we will probably break the kids that are interested in playing into groups of 4, but this afternoon my four oldest broke into two teams to give it a try.

They each choose a puzzle and I set the timer.  I couldn't believe that, 18 minutes and 24 seconds later, it was a TIE!  (I think at the Little Flowers Tea Party, with more people working on the puzzles, we completed them in about 12-15 minutes.) They had so much fun and are looking forward to playing again with their friends!

If you want to try this out, and don't want it to take quite so long, any 24 Piece Puzzle set would work as well.  I've also pulled out a few of our simple Catholic Puzzles for the younger children, or to have quick timed races.

You can find some of our past Saintly Games in the archives or listed in this post.