6 Promotion Sunday Themes

Promotion Sunday is one of my favorite days of the whole year! It always has such a great energy as kids are excited to move up into a new class. We host ours right before school starts, so there’s the added excitement of the back-to-school season too!

I like to make the morning extra special and something out of the ordinary to celebrate all of the new beginnings. Whether you’re adding a fun theme to your already-planned curriculum or making the whole morning all about Promotion Sunday, here are a few fun Promotion Sunday themes!

1. Promotion Sundaes – I’ve always wanted to host a giant ice cream party on Promotion Sunday and make special ice cream sundaes with the kids! Peel some bananas, scoop some ice cream, and drizzle some chocolate syrup for a tasty celebration. Then hand out “Here’s the Scoop” print-outs with your event dates for the year or an overview of your ministry!
2. Pop Up Sunday – This year, we’re sticking with our regular curriculum and hosting Pop Up Sunday with popcorn-themed snacks, games, and decorations! Download some ready-to-print popcorn resources to host your own Pop Up Sunday here.
3. Sky’s the Limit (Balloons) – It’s hard to go wrong with balloons. They make any occasion just a little more exciting! Decorate your space with balloons and use phrasing like “sky’s the limit” or “We’re moving up!” Use your regular curriculum or use balloons throughout the entire lesson, like in our Movin’ On Up promotion Sunday lesson!
4. Future’s So Bright – One year, we gave all of our kids sunglasses with our kids ministry logo on them as back-to-school gifts with a card that said “Your future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades!” They were a huge hit! Kids loved wearing their sunglasses all year long, and for the lesson, we talked about shining God’s light at school.
5. Going to Be a Colorful Year – Give each grade/class a specific color, encourage kids to wear their new color, then have a morning all about how it’s going to be a colorful year! Pass out coloring pages, play color games, and even share a take-home color prayer journal or Color Back-To-School Blessings for families to be praying about their school year ahead.
6. Launch – Another year, we used rockets and space as our theme for Promotion Sunday, talking about how we were launching into the new school year! We were also starting over in our curriculum that year, so our Bible lesson focused on creation and how God launched His big story (the Bible) by creating the world and everything in it. We even borrowed some water balloon launchers from the youth ministry and shot nerf balls across the field/parking lot. It was a blast! I adapted that lesson to stand alone (instead of introducing our new curriculum), and it’s available here.

What’s your favorite Promotion Sunday theme? Do you do anything special for Promotion Sunday to celebrate this important milestone in kids’ lives?