One of the “perks” of being on the Teen Advisory Board at my library is getting to set up displays and decorating in the Teen Space, especially for holidays. I usually make it part of a regular meeting or schedule a “special” meeting to decorate. In the past few years, the teens have made a “book tree” for Christmas. This is a really fun activity that requires teamwork and some engineering – it totally counts as a STEAM program! The first year they made a huge tree, but this took a LONG time, so we do a smaller version on the counter now. It’s still pretty cool! We have a large book sale room so we use those books to make the tree and then put them back later.

I give the teens a book cart, some cheap decorations from the dollar store, plus some candy and hot chocolate, and they seem to have a pretty good time! Another perk is that my Teen Advisory Board members earn volunteer hours for attending meetings and any teen program at the library, even if it’s not technically “volunteering.” It’s like a form of payment, and while most people say the teens will come if you offer them food, I have found that they are more likely to come when they are going to earn volunteer hours!

This year, my teens did an amazing job of decorating the Teen Space, especially when it came to using old books!