The beginning of summer marks the start of many camping trips. If you went to summer camp as a child, you probably remember the traditions your camp had. These traditions have likely stuck with you over time and you may sometimes find yourself reminiscing about how wonderful those camp days were.
Now that you’re grown up, you can still have these classic summer camp traditions with a group of friends or family. No one ever said summer camp traditions were just for kids! In this blog post, we’ll go over eight summer camp traditions that you can enjoy as a child or adult camper.
1. Storytelling and Roasting S’mores Around the Campfire
Camp wouldn’t be camp without spending some time storytelling and roasting s’mores and hot dogs around the campfire. As children, you probably told scary stories. As adults, you can use this tradition to catch up with the going-ons in everyone’s life while eating s’mores and roasting hot dogs. An added touch to this tradition can be having a drink or two around the campfire to go with your snacks.
2. Night Hikes
As children, you probably had a set path that you had to go on when you went for a night hike, and everyone probably needed to have a buddy, and counsellors around. Now that you’re an adult, you can find new trails and paths to explore. Without a set time to be back at camp, you can spend as much time as you and your friends would like for the hike. Hikes are always more fun at night, right?
3. Arts & Crafts
You’re never too old for arts and crafts! This is one of the most essential summer camp traditions. With all the Do-It-Yourself options you can find online, you can kick your arts and crafts game up a notch and make things like mason jar candle holders, twine bowls, and little planter magnets.
Make sure you shop for these supplies ahead of time, so you’ll have everything you need for your arts and crafts session. Whatever you make will be a great keepsake to remember your camping experience. Doing arts and crafts is always relaxing and good for your mental health, so why not let the tradition live on?
4. Giving out Awards
When you attended camp as a child you probably got awards for “Camper of the Week”, awards for doing the polar bear dip, showing new campers the ropes and much more. As adults, you can make up silly, mock awards like “Most Sleep-Deprived” for your friends with kids, and other silly things that you can take from your inside jokes. These awards will give everyone a good laugh and you can even design these mock awards ahead of time, so everyone has something to take home.
5. Scavenger Hunts
Now that you’re in control, you can make your scavenger hunts however you’d like. Instead of searching for things like eggs, or camp-related items, you can make the hunt more adult-themed and search for mini bottles of alcohol, chocolate, candy, or even splurge on a few gift cards to stores you know your friends like.
If you’re going on the camping trip for an important event, like a bachelorette party, or a 30th birthday party, you can even make your scavenger hunt themed. The possibilities (and fun!) are endless!
6. Colour War
Colour war is definitely one of the classic summer camp traditions. If you have enough people in your camping group, you can divide your friends into groups and compete against each other. You can even keep score and hand out a fun prize to the top team. Some games you can play are tug-of-war, water relay races, air pong, glow stick ring toss and more.
7. Water Balloon Fights
Remember how fun it was doing water balloon tosses at camp as a child? Now you can kick it up a notch and have full-on water balloon fights! These types of friendly fights are fun activities to get everyone participating and laughing, not to mention helping you cool down on a hot summer day.
8. Signing
What’s camp without signing? You’re never too old to sign, so you can continue this camp tradition as an adult. Sign the same songs that you probably remember from your camp days, are do some karaoke with new songs. This will be sure to have everyone laughing and the new memories will last a lifetime. Signing also helps you get into the camping spirit and kind of acts as an ice breaker.
Whichever camp traditions you choose to keep while camping as an adult, we’re sure it’ll bring back happy memories from your childhood, and help you create fun memories with your friends as adults. Camping is meant to be fun, so the sky is the limit. Never think you’re too old for camp traditions!
