This year, we decided to go with “The Paper Bag Princess” for our New Beginnings theme. It may be a stretch to tie it to “Stand Ye in Holy Places”, but our President wanted to do it and we all agreed it was a great concept.
How It Ties In to the YW Theme
In the story, the princess is courageous and fights the dragon (which to me is standing in a holy place and not backing down–she’s doing what’s right). She also gets over the prince who doesn’t value her for what matters. (To me, that teaches the girls to stand on their own, even if who they thought was their “prince” doesn’t value them or their beliefs.)
What We Did for YW New Beginnings
Anyway, the week before New Beginnings, we had the girls make paper bag dresses for the leaders, without the girls knowing why. Then for New Beginnings, a man in our ward read the story in a super fun, animated way. After that, the leaders did a paper bag dress fashion show while someone read a really cute intro for each leader. Each leader represented a value and their paper bag dress had been decorated with that value’s color.
At the end, we gave each girl a small book of the Paper Bag Princess.
It was a great compilation of several leaders’ ideas. As always, the more input, the better the results.
The New Beginnings Invitation
Here’s the invite we used, just for fun.
