February 01, 2005

There are many ways to reveal Secret Sisters from having each lady announce whose name they had chosen for theirs to having everyone bring a gift on the Reveal Night to give directly to their Secret Sister.

Below are some ideas for Secret Sister revealing that was part of a discussion from my old message board.

Post From aholley

We always do it at Christmas time and put it in with our regular monthly meeting. Not all of our women participate so we just delegate about 10 or 15 minutes for it during the meeting.

Post from mheavrin

We do our reveal at a restaurant around Christmas time. Everyone is invited, whether they're involved or not, and we have a great meal and fellowship time together.

Then we exchange presents for our reveal at the end. When each person gets their present, they have to guess who their Secret Sister is before looking. It's always at lot of fun.

Post from Valerie

At one church we were in, we exchanged gifts and revealed our identity at one of the monthly ladies fellowship meetings. We got a new secret sister there every 6 months. This was nice because we didn't have to wait so long to reveal who we were!

Post from D

We do our reveal at our Christmas Party. We ask those that are not involved to bring a gift for a gift exchange if they like. This last year was the first year that we did it this way. Some didn't bring a gift, and that's OK.

One of the Prayer Sisters volunteers to start, and she gets her gift from under the tree, and takes it to her sister. That sister then takes her gift to her sister, and so on. It's fun to see people circle the room and end up taking it back to the sister that they had passed by the first round. After we have finished the reveal, the others draw names, and exchange their gifts.

It is so nice to see people exchange gifts with others that they don't know. We've had visitors in the past, who were sort of left out, but this was a great way to include everyone.

It is very sweet to see the kindness and gratitude expressed when the gift is exchanged.

Post from Borntoserve

Our revealing is in Octobe, and we are going to take turns saying who we think is our secret mug sister, and why? Then one by one we will find out who really is our secret sister.

Also, once they find out who their secret mug sister is I want them to spend a few minutes sharing with them about their prayer request that there mug sisters were praying over. That same night they will gain a new mug sister for the following six months. I plan to do a devotion as well, what the Lord puts on my heart to do, plus munch down on some good food.

Post from donnakh

We run our secret sister year along with the calendar year. We tried in years past to have the revealing during December with Christmas gifts, but everyone is very busy with other gatherings. It just didn't work for us. So, we decided to hold the revealing party during the first week in January. That seemed to work very well.

During the month of December, we promote the program to attempt involve new members or ladies who have attended our church but have never been part of Secret Sisters.

We also have those who are planning on being part of the program fill out their personal information sheet ahead of time. They turn those sheets into the program coordinator. The coordinator makes copies of each sheet and files them. This really helps if someone misplaces their sister's information during the year or if someone drops out.

We have a man draw names for the sisters and keep a record of who belongs to who. That way all the ladies are in the dark about who has who. This is very helpful if someone feels forgotten etc. We can check to see if their sister is still wanting to participate. Or again is someone drops out or moves. Then at the party in January the names for the following year are handed out. If not everyone is able to attend the party we hand them out at church.

The ladies bring a small token gift to give to their previous year's sister with their name on the enclosed card. It's really fun to see the expressions on their faces when the gifts are opened. Some are truly surprised, and others have an "I thought so" look.

We each bring some small appetizers to share and play a couple of fun games. It's always a good time of fellowship.

Post from becin

We also go to a local diner and have a nice meal then try to guess who our sister is.

Post from Dyna64

We have always done our reveal the same. One person starts and takes it to her sister, then that sister takes hers to her sister, and so on.

Its fun this way, but I was hoping to change it up a bit.

Post from OhioMT

Hello all! Secret Sisters is in its second year at our 4-charge church. We have 46 women participating.

Our reveal party is in February and what I have done this time around is ask each lady to give me three pictures of themselves...one when they were small, perhaps one at graduation or wedding and then a present picture. So, when Jane Doe comes on the screen via powerpoint, I'll say Sally this is your secret sister...any idea? no, not on picture one...how about picture two and then as the third picture comes up Sally can say Jane Doe! Then all three pictures will be on the screen so all can see. Our secret sisters age group is from late 20s to early 90s! Interesting combination.

We also have a Christmas in July party to bring all the secret sisters together. Our secret sisters run from May to February....we take March and April off.

Post from farawayfriend

We had our Secret Sister reveal last night. Our theme was Fruit Salad and I shared a short message about how we each differ, but bring our own unique taste to a friendship.

We decorated the area with balloons in fruity colors and served fruit salad with ice cream (it is summer in South Africa!). For an ice breaker each lady had to bring a "white elephant" from home, and it had to be wrapped. We then used play money for the auctioning of the different gifts - from canned food to a foot spa! Each lady then had to build a puzzle of her secret sister which we made from recent photos. The faces were cut out.

The ladies then used a play bow and arrow to shoot at the balloon with the picture of their Secret sister's face in a small envelope tied to it. When the ballon popped they could take the envelope and finish their puzzle. Afterwards we had a great time eating our fruit salad together and fellowshipping with our "new" friends!

Copyright ©2005 Julia Bettencourt

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