Sarcasm, pizza, candy, and cutting toys apart to glue them back together…is there any better was for teens to celebrate Anti-Valentines Day? This was a super fun and unique event for our teens – I had 14 participants. Almost all high school aged, and an even mix of boys and girls.

FrankenToy

This was easily the highlight of the event. I set up a big table with old stuffed animals and toys (bought from the thrift store or donated by staff). Another table had scissors, sewing needles and thread, safety pins, yarn, and table. A nearby glue gun station was set up. Basically everyone got right to work chopping off heads. It was cool to see so many teens learning to sew for the first time. This is the perfect event for teens – extremely silly, unexpected, creative, and destructive. At the end we all voted, and awarded prizes to the creepiest Frankentoy and the cutest Frankentoy.

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In hindsight, I wish I had not included the big alligator stuffie that was filled with thousands of tiny Styrofoam balls, but you live and you learn (and you vacuum).

Anti Valentines Card Making

I printed some anti-valentines examples, and set out supplies: paper, cardstock, washi tape, glitter, old magazines, scissors, glue, sharpies, gel pens. Mostly, they liked cutting out images from the examples and basing their cards around them.

Anti-Love Potion Station

Teens love autonomy, and I try to give them as much control over the event as possible. They also love making up their own overly sugary recipes, so I made an Italian Soda station, disgused as an Anti Love Potion station! I put the ingredients out, and labelled them as though they were magical ingredients for a disgusting anti-love potion: sea horse spit, goblin dust, unicorn blood, frozen tears, pureed dragon liver, etc. Here’s the real ingredients:

• Club soda
• Pomegranate syrup (the one I found was sugar free, but they didn’t notice or care)
• cinnamon hearts
• Pop rocks
• Freezies
• Ice cubes
• Whipped cream
• Milk

One teen said she was “concerned by my creativity.” So, a success.

Photobooth

Easy peasy – hang some streamers and make some emoji masks. I gave a prize to the first teen to post and tag the library on instagram.

Minute to Win It & Prizes

I threw in a quick Cookie Face Challenge at the end, which they always love. Like last time, I set up a prize table with wrapped up prizes from the dollar store (mostly candies). They love the mystery and competition. They longer the prizes sat on the table the most they wanted to win them. I posted signs around the room with a list of ways to win the prizes.

What stations did you have at your Anti-Valentines Day Party for teens?