A mystery banquet will take a lot of organising, but when it runs, it is great.

Give out menus, with different or made up languages on it. Take your campers 'order' and only let them choose 4 items from the menu.

The only catch with this is that, because all of the items on the menu are in a different languages the kids may order something like a bowl of spaghetti, roast, ice-cream and other half decent foods.

As fun as that is, you need to put in other things, like a knife, cup, bowl, peg, and other booby prizes. I've had a friend do this who ordered a a knife, fork and spoon! He was very hungry!

I'm sure everyone knows what black lights are. My suggestion is that you fill a room with these lights for a totally awesome effect.

For something different, set up candles to have your evening devotion.

Have stacks of newspapers with sticky tape. Break the kids into groups of about 5 in each or so. Offer a challenge to them all to have the best dressed couple in newspaper, where they have their friends cover all their clothes in newspaper. Makes a bit of a mess.

Set up a huge screen outside, with projector and have either real cars or cardboard cars which campers made previously.

Play a 'How To Host A Murder' game.

Have a mystery request system, where campers can put requests in a box. Grant simple requests like 'can I have a newspaper on my table for breakfast', or 'breakfast in bed' or 'even pizza for supper'. Maybe even use this as a reward thing too.

How about a cricket match in the snow?

Give everyone 2 pegs, or some item that can be used as a type of currency. Let the kids group up, and then have a leader up the front and auction them off to a the group of kids. The highest bidder gets the leader for 24 hours, or the day or something, to do what they want them to do(within reason of course).

Take a digital camera on camp and take heaps of photos, uploading them to a computer each time when the camera gets full, then at the end of camp, have a CD burner available and some good web software and create a photo album on a CD in HTML format (a web page on the CD) and give every person a copy of a CD, so at the end of the camp, they will have something to take home and be able to remember camp by. It's great to also put photos up on a web site that kids can come and have a look at too.

Please read this information regarding this idea.

* Please note, use under EXTREME CAUTION*

** No responsibility will be taken from the using of this idea.**

This works really well if done correctly, but can also be very dangerous if done incorrectly.

Please check whether fire restrictions are in force before attempting this.

This effect is something that we do new years eve. It is done with many sparklers and should be done in an open area. The way you make a sparkler flare, is break up many sparklers, and put all of the bits into a milo tin, preferably a small size tin. When the tin is 3/4 filled or just over, dig a hole in the ground large enough for the tin to sit in and not be able to be seen. Get another sparkler and place it vertically in the broken bits to act as a fuse. Have a good 2 litres of water on standby. Move everyone watching to a minimum of at least 10 metres away and then light the sparkler standing up, and move back with the other observers who are 10 metres away.

Advise everyone not to look directly at the flare as it is VERY bright!

When the flare has finished, which will only take about 20 seconds, move in cautiously.

* Do NOT touch the milo tin, as it will be extremely hot *

It will look something like this: The tin will contain molten metal of very high temperatures.

I also received this via email which is a variation to the sparkler flares which sounded good too. I haven't tried it as yet, but it'll have similar results for sure.

"hi i think your idea of the ground up sparklers are okay , i mean most people know of that already. But a better way is to get alot of sparklers about 5-20 packets or whatever you want, and take all the sparklers out of the packets, then you can clip the metal ends if you want (but it doesnt really matter it just works better) and get all the sparklers in a bunch and apply lots of tape or masking tape or duck tape whatever and i mean lots of tape ok. Then you stick a sparkler in the top as a fuse but make sure it has room to get into the other sparklers and room around it about half a centimeter then you can set it off at nigh. NIGHT IS WAY BETTER THAN AT THE DAY BECAUSE AT NIGHT YOU CAN SEE ALL THE SPARKS. "

Imagine you are at a new game show. The crowd is going crazy with cheering and screaming. The studio lights are hot and blinding from where you are sitting up the front. It's your turn to play. The host asks you a question, "Fill in this phrase, Roses are red, violets are what?"
"Blue", you confidently answer.
"Correct! You have the chance of winning a fabulous prize. What will it be? $20 or the box?", the game show host asks.
"The box", you say. There was no thinking involved with that answer.
"Alright, $50 or the box?", he asks again.
"The box".
"Mmm, okay. $250 or the box?" the host asks you a third time. The audience are yelling even more now as you are try and decide what to take. "The...." looking at the audience they are all confusing you saying take the money, take the box, take the money, take the box. You pipe up and yell "The box!"
"You have chosen the box. Unlock the box!" With the host's lovely assistant opening up the box, she reveals a lawn mower. You thought, wow! But I just bought one last week. Oh well, lucky I didn't get a dud prize.

This game requires a little bit of preparation but is great fun. Get various sized boxes, cereal boxes do well and fill them up with prizes.

These prizes should be something of value to the kids, such as chocolate bars or lollies or something. As well as putting in good prizes, put bad prizes in them too, such as apple core, a tea bag, a peg, a week old newspaper.

As well as good prizes, you will also need a currency of some sort. Smarties are a great alternative, so instead of saying $20 or the box, you say 20 smarties or the box. etc.

Get 3 people from you audience to 'Come on down' and play, with maybe a name out of the hat selection. Ask your contestants a few questions and the winner gets to play money or the box.

Have fun!