Homecoming celebrations are a time-honored event; especially at high schools and colleges in the United States. Current students, teachers, parents, alumni, and community members come together to celebrate pride for their town and school spirit. Homecoming festivities and traditions span a wide range of events from dances and football games to fundraisers and parades. Better yet, homecoming celebrations give people the opportunity to show off their school spirit to rivals. Every year, schools look for new ideas for events to include in their homecoming week. Here are 28 homecoming activity ideas everyone is sure to love!
1. Homecoming Festival
A homecoming festival is a great way to kick off homecoming week celebrations. The festival can include food trucks, games, music, etc. It can follow the homecoming theme and students, alumni, and teachers can all attend.
Learn More: School Themes
2. Paint the Town
A great way to make homecoming events fun and visible is to “paint the town”. Parents, teachers, students, and community members decorate their houses, businesses, and cars in the color(s) of their school to celebrate homecoming.
Learn More: EIU.edu
3. Family Fun Night
A family fun night is another fun event for students and families. The fun night can include games, trivia, and food. The important aspect of a family fun night is to invite the families of current students to attend and celebrate homecoming’s rich history with school spirit.
Learn More: EIU.edu
4. Homecoming Parade Livestream
Homecoming parades are a staple for most celebrations, but adding a live stream aspect gets more people involved. The live stream can be broadcasted in local businesses, including restaurants, and homes so the whole community can attend.
Learn More: Homecoming
5. Homecoming Picnic
A picnic out in a shared space like a quad or a courtyard is a fun way to celebrate homecoming as a community. Food can either be provided or students, families, and community members can bring their own food. This is a major event that takes minimal planning but helps foster community bonding.
Learn More: Daily Illini
6. Decade Floats
As a fun parade addition, schools and students can challenge alumni to decorate floats according to the decade in which they graduated. It’s even better if there’s a float competition. This is the perfect way to get the alumni association involved and invite them to participate in the festivities.
Learn More: Mag-nificent
7. Raise Money For Local Charity
Another fun way to get the whole community involved in homecoming week is to get the community together to raise money for a local charity or come up with other homecoming fundraising ideas to benefit local programs. Having a common goal for current students and alumni encourages a positive sense of community.
Learn More: Mag-nificent
8. Spirit Week
Spirit week is another event that encourages current students to show off their school spirit. Student organizations can collaborate to pick the themes and make it fun for everyone involved. Common spirit day themes include pajama day, decades day, and team day.
Learn More: eHow
9. Team Spotlight
The homecoming football game is always the highlight of homecoming week, but another way to recognize sports teams is to create a daily team spotlight. This activity gets all of the sports teams involved in the homecoming festivities.
Learn More: OASC.org
10. Spirit Raffle
A spirit raffle encourages current students to participate in spirit week. Every time a student dresses up, they get a raffle ticket. At the end of the spirit week or activity, there is a drawing for a grand prize. This raffle-style event gets everyone invested and motivated to show off school spirit!
Learn More: OASC.org
11. Pep Rally Games
Pep rallies are another common homecoming activity. Schools can spice up their homecoming pep rally by including pep rally games. There are individual games, team games, and relay races that teachers can organize for the pep rally.
Learn More: We Are Teachers
12. Make an Entrance!
A fun way to kick off homecoming week is to make a grand entrance to the school. Students can run through a tunnel, teachers can make posters to welcome students, and administrators can play fun music, or even the school song, to celebrate homecoming.
Learn More: We Are Teachers
13. Glow Party
For this activity, there has to be part of the homecoming week that happens at night (like a football game!). Students wear neon colors and glow paint to glow in the dark while they attend the football game in the student section. They can also bring glow sticks or other light-up items to really glow!
Learn More: Superlative Events
14. Lip Sync Battle
Lip sync battles became popular in the past ten years. For this activity, students or groups of students pick a song to “sing” to. Then they deck out the performance with dancing, props, and costumes and perform in front of the student body.
Learn More: Twitter
15. Dance Off
The homecoming school dance is another time-test tradition of homecoming week. Schools can add to the tradition by including a dance-off. Different groups of students, like the student council, put together a dance to perform. Groups compete against each other for a prize.
Learn More: BCCHS Patriot Post
16. Decorating Contest
Homecoming decorations make the festivities visible for students to enjoy. A fun way to include school spirit items and buy-in is to have a class competition for homecoming decorations. Students can decorate a hallway, locker bays, or even a bulletin board for homecoming week.
Learn More: MDT Project
17. Banner Competition
Homecoming banners can be used at the football game or during the homecoming parade. Students can make the banners using long bulletin board paper or a basic bed sheet with paint. It’s even better if the banner fits the homecoming theme!
Learn More: Midlo Scoop
18. Bingo Night
Bingo night is a fun way to get students, parents, and community members excited about homecoming. The Bingo cards can be made to fit the homecoming theme. As numbers or words are drawn, participants will mark the rows and columns off to get a Bingo!
Learn More: The Advocate
19. Locker Decorations
Most schools, especially junior highs, and high schools, have lockers for students. Students can decorate their lockers to fit the homecoming theme. This interactive experience is a great way to have students show off their school spirit items, plus the lockers make homecoming visible!
Learn More: SCA Leader
20. Homecoming Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt gets the whole community involved in the homecoming celebration. Alumni and current students go on a scavenger hunt looking for school spirit items like hall-of-fame pictures, trophies, and other memorabilia. Teams that finish the scavenger hunt can get a unique homecoming item to show off during the big homecoming game.
Learn More: SCA Leader
21. Bonfire
A bonfire is a fun way to end a homecoming week. The alumni association can provide the pallets to have the bonfire and invite community members, current students, and alumni to enjoy each other’s company, good food, and fun music to end the week.
Learn More: Leadership Logistics
22. Organize a Flag Football Tournament
Host a flag football tournament before the big homecoming football game! This is a super opportunity for all the non-football players in the school to put together teams and compete against each other and build some school spirit! Oftentimes these games are juniors versus seniors.
Learn More: NFL Flag
23. Talent Show
A talent show is a perfect activity to add to the homecoming party ideas. The student council can put on the event and students can submit their act for consideration to perform in a school-wide talent show. Student leaders will love showing off their talents.
Learn More: American Tent
24. Fun Run
Fun runs are all the rage these days and schools can include a fun run as a homecoming fundraising idea that the whole community can participate in. As an added bonus, participants can dress up in school colors or in costumes to fit the homecoming theme.
Learn More: College Weekends
25. Blood Drive
A blood drive during homecoming week can help save lives while celebrating community among participants. The alumni and current students can band together to donate blood as a service project. Not only does this event save lives, but it gives communities a shared mission.
Learn More: College Weekends
26. Soap Box Derby
Usually, we think of soap box derbies as kids, but this is a fun activity to do at the high school level or college level as well. Teams of students compete in making a soap box and racing to the finish line. As an added bonus, teams that have the best homecoming theme decorations can win a prize!
Learn More: TXST.edu
27. Lantern Walk
A lantern walk is another activity that the community can participate in during homecoming. Lanterns line the path of the walk and alumni, students, parents, and community members celebrate homecoming along the lighted path.
Learn More: Richmond Waldorf
28. (Car) Window Decorations
Window decorations in town at businesses and on houses help to get the community involved in homecoming festivities. Additionally, students can offer to decorate car windows in a decorated drive-through.
Learn More: News.UWGB.edu
