7 Fun General Conference Traditions for Kids

Try these simple and fun General Conference traditions to build up your children’s excitement for Conference weekend!

My husband and I enjoy watching General Conference every April and October. We aspire to make Conference weekend a special occasion in our home. Something that our children will look forward to just like they eagerly anticipate holidays, birthdays, and other annual events we celebrate.

We thought what better way to get them excited for General Conference than to establish fun traditions around it. Just like Valentine’s Day has it’s candy hearts, Valentine cards, and chocolates and Easter has it’s egg painting, bunnies, and egg hunts, Conference weekend in our home involves special activities and treats.

My boys would definitely view General Conference in a negative light if they saw it as simply sitting and listening to speakers for 8 hours. That would sound boring to anyone! But by incorporating a few fun activities and food (important to be fed physically so you can be fed spiritually), they see General Conference as a biannual event they actually look forward to. They have even invited a few of the neighborhood kids over to participate with us!

Since they are still young boys and we watch all of Conference on Sundays, we let them choose if they want to listen to it with us on Saturdays. Thanks to these fun traditions, they choose to watch it with us! It’s been wonderful!

Here are a few of our General Conference traditions that have kept the boys engaged – as much as you can with young children! They are simple activities that don’t take a ton of prep work, which I am definitely a fan of!

1. Find the Speaker Activity

This is a little activity that we created to help the boys become familiar with church leader’s faces and names. It also has been extremely helpful in encouraging them to be involved in watching conference. The gist of the game is whenever a new speaker stands up to give their talk, the boys need to find the speaker on the chart of General Authorities and Officers of the church and say his/her name, then they get candy.

This keeps them in the room, because they don’t want to miss any speakers!

>> Learn more about the “Find the Speaker” game here

2. General Conference Coloring and Activity Pages

Several years ago, the primary presidency prepared General Conference Coloring & Activity packets for all of the primary children. They encouraged them to color the packets while they listened to conference. And if they brought back their colored packets to church the following Sunday they would be given a special treat.

You better believe my boys made good use of their markers and crayons during each session!

This worked so well that even when the primary doesn’t provide a packet, I compile one together for my boys. It gives them something to do, while also being church related, which helps keep them focused on Conference relevant topics.

There are lots of fun, beautiful, and free church related coloring and activity pages for both kids and adults. I usually peruse Pinterest a week or so before Conference for activity pages that I think my boys would like.

Here are links to several that we have enjoyed:

• 3 Free LDS coloring pages (fun for adults and kids) by Ministering Printables
• General Conference Activity Packet (creates a new one for every conference) by Ward Cartoonist
• 7 LDS Word Searches for Kids by Live Craft Eat
• Lots of General Conference Coloring Pages of apostles, conference squares, first vision, notebook for older children, etc. by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Coloring pages from the Scriptures (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine & Covenants) by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Draw the Speaker by Kiwi and Company
• Fun Coloring Pages and Draw the Speaker by Religious Doodles
• Conference Note Sheets sheet to write notes, draw the speaker, and more by So Festive
• General Conference Word Search & Word Puzzle by Someone In Mind
• Giant General Conference coloring page (also comes regular size paper 8.5×11″) by Lively Hope
• Complete General Conference Packet for younger children by Some What Simple
• Another Complete General Conference Booklet by The Idea Room. With a maze, word search, bingo, coloring pages, etc- it has a lot!

3. Build a Tent

“And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them.”

Mosiah 2:6

Before every General Conference, we like to recount the story of King Benjamin gathering his people to hear him speak. They came and had the opening of their tents towards the temple so they could listen to his words.

We are always trying to bring the scriptures to life for our boys. So we in turn construct a tent with the door open to view our television screen so that we “pitch our tents toward the prophet”.

We have been building one for years and the boys love it! Really what child doesn’t love building a tent/fort? And one they get to keep up for two days!

An hour or so before General Conference on Saturday, is when the construction begins! The boys bring in dining room chairs and a grab a slew of blankets from the closet and with the help of Daddy, they build their tent. We like to have it all finished before the session starts so we are ready to listen.

My husband and I will even sit inside of it for a talk or two to appease our boys. They get a kick out of it when we do! 🙂

4. Have A Special Meal

A long standing and one of my family’s favorite General Conference traditions is enjoying a batch of my husband’s homemade cinnamon rolls. We enjoy these warm tasty morsels alongside a variety of fresh cut up fruit.

Although we all love his cinnamon rolls, he only pulls out the recipe a few times a year. This makes whenever he does bake them a very special occasion and the boys can hardly wait to eat them!

I’m still trying to figure out a consistent lunch/dinner option to look forward to that is simple to make. We were making a seven layer bean dip a few times for conference but then it changed to chicken salad. Both meals I can make the day before which is wonderful. Another meal that my husband makes conference weekend is a roast because all the prep work can be made beforehand. That way we are free to focus on the word instead of all the work!

We are still trying to figure out a set dish for Conference weekend. So if you have any favorite meals, be sure to let me know!

5. House in Order

Going along with prepping beforehand so we can be a Mary and get our Martha chores finished ahead of time, is getting our house set in order.

This isn’t the funnest of traditions, but it makes such a difference to our entire conference experience! Along with having the coloring packets printed, the candy out, and meals prepped, we also like to tidy up our home in preparation for General Conference weekend. The boys take care of all their chores on Friday so that our Saturday can start out clean (although it doesn’t always end that way!).

Basically the more we can do beforehand and the less we have to do the Saturday and Sunday of General Conference the better.

6. Quiet Toys Available

Let’s be honest, they aren’t going to sit still like perfect little angels for two hours straight. They are in fact children. So the room we watch conference in has toys for the young ones to play with. This keeps them occupied and in the room with us.

A fun idea that I want to try, is to set up a section of the room with legos and encourage them to build something church related like temples, scenes from the scriptures, pioneers wagons, or anything else they can think of.

7. Be the Example

Being the example is hands down the most important tradition of all! If my husband and I aren’t listening to the speakers, it doesn’t matter how many activities, treats, or fun things we provide for our boys, you better believe they won’t watch it either.

We knew that if we wanted it to become a habit for our boys to watch General Conference, we needed to pave the way by watching it ourselves. To us, this means putting away all distractions (aka phones) to better listen to the words of our church leaders. Both of us will usually have a pen and journal in hand to jot down any impressions or thoughts that we have.

It’s not all peaceful and quiet when we watch conference, far from! But there are occasional times when one or two (sometimes all) of them are still and are quietly listening to the speakers.

Let me tell you that those are some pretty golden moments!

Well that basically sums up what our conference weekend looks like! Pretty simple ideas for sure but enough to get my boys excited when General Conference rolls around, which is what I am always shooting for. 🙂

Hopefully you found these ideas for General Conference Traditions helpful.

What activities do you and your family enjoy during Conference weekend? Let me know in the comments below!

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