General Conference is this coming weekend! I always enjoy this spiritual feast. I love that the fall Conference, on the first weekend of October, is always close to the anniversary, September 22, of Joseph Smith receiving the plates that he translated into the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It was on that day, in 1827, when Joseph was allowed by the Angel Moroni to take the plates from the earth. They had been hiding in a stone box with other artifacts, for centuries.

The story is so amazing with many parallels, involving the artifacts and timeline, similar to Moses and the Israelites. This makes sense, since Joseph was called to be the prophet to usher in the gathering of Israel in the last days by translating the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I won’t be getting into any more details, just watch below and read my blog post here.

I love what Brother Don Bradley says, in one of those videos above, that (not an exact quote) “Sacred history is happening today, just as in ancient times.” This is something to celebrate, right?! Let’s celebrate that sacred history happened in Bible times, and that it is happening now. Let’s celebrate that Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior and Redeemer, taught the most amazing teachings to cultivate joy. Let’s celebrate that Jesus is an awesome big brother/kindest guy/ultimate host and sport/GOAT superhero and father of our spiritual rebirth into the Kingdom of God.

Let’s celebrate that He has atoned for our sins, allowing us to live again after we die as families, and that He is gathering Israel with the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Let’s celebrate that Jesus speaks today through the apostles and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to help us each get prompted by the Holy Spirit to each write our sacred story. That’s what General Conference is all about! You can watch it online, this Saturday and Sunday, October 3-4, 2026. Go here to learn how.

I was talking to my girlfriend Melanie, just this past Monday, on our morning walk. She agrees with me that General Conference deserves to be treated like a holiday with its own decorations, food, and activities. I can see that that might sound overwhelming when you have a lot of little children at home like I used to, so I’m all about finding that sweet spot between simplifying for sustainability yet still having it be special.

I didn’t bring this up with her but I’m sure she would agree that October General Conference is reminiscent of the Hebrew Feast of the Tabernacles, when families gather in booths or tents. See the article here, about the Hebrew Holy Days/Festivals. The part about The Feast of Tabernacles is towards the bottom. We don’t gather in booths, just our homes, but some families do let the children erect tents in the living room in front of the TV to watch Conference. This is also a nod to the families in King Benjamin’s day of the Book of Mormon who gathered in tents to hear their prophet and king, King Benjamin, speak.

So here’s what Melanie does for her family General Conference traditions:

1. Special food: bacon, cinnamon rolls, and eggs for breakfast. She says they only ever have bacon and cinnamon rolls for General Conference weekend, both mornings. Her children know when they wake up to the smell of bacon, it means it is General Conference day.

2. Special timing of serving of food: in addition to making special food for Conference, Melanie has a special time for serving this food. She says that she and her husband work to have all the food ready to serve and give thanks/ask for a blessing in prayer, right before the morning session of Conference starts. Then they eat while watching Conference, so the children are a captive audience. The children are allowed to leave the room and not watch Conference, but if they want to eat the special food, they have to do it in the room where Conference is playing. Or course, this increases the likelihood that they will want to listen.

3. Special activities: Melanie uses perler beads for a crafting activity. She says after all the years of getting her 7 children (currently ages 12-28) to be quiet and listen during Conference, perler beads top everything, even Conference bingo or other activity sheets. I had to laugh, as I remember hearing Sarah Mackenzie say in one of her podcasts that she hates perler beads as a quiet activity during read-aloud time. They are tiny and easily make a mess. Despite those issues, Melanie says this is her favorite activity for her children. She says they easily stay engaged and quiet for a long time while listening to Conference.

4. Another thing Melanie does is go to a store with bins of bulk food, before Conference. Everybody gets to pick their favorite candy or other treat. Then she puts all the treats in a basket that is served whenever the choir sings. So whoever is in the room when the choir sings gets to eat some treats. She doesn’t announce the treats are being served, that is call out to the children to ask them to come get treats. This motivates the children to stick around in the room so they know when the singing happens, which increases their likelihood of hearing the words of Conference. Well played, Melanie!

So that’s what girlfriend Melanie has done for Conference in terms of family traditions. Here’s what I’ve done:

1. My special food: we’ve had cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs or charcuterie board on Saturday and Sunday for brunch. Then for dinner we’ve sometimes had chili in the fall and nachos in the spring. Or just other fun savory stuff like quiche. Then ice cream and pie for dessert, or s’mores around a fire in the firepit while we discuss Conference. I’d love to get to the point where it’s always the same thing in the spring, with two days of special spring food and two days of special different fall food, but I haven’t figured that out. I’m almost an empty nester though so I think I’ll just turn it over to my married daughter and her foodie husband to take over the idea and turn it into a firm tradition. Another friend of mine just told me that her family makes caramel popcorn every conference, spring and fall. I like that idea! It’s much more doable than cinnamon rolls. Go here for my whole foods kettle corn recipe. I also love the idea of making something with apples like pie or crumble for the fall conference. This year we are doing savory s’mores after the Sunday afternoon session with my carnivore sis and bro in law and their son.

2. Special activities to do while listening: we used to do Conference packets. (Go here if you want some links to make your own. as well as here and here.) When my youngest child was a tween I phased out the packets and started setting a jigsaw puzzle out. It’s usually a Jesus-themed puzzle or my map of the world puzzle, to symbolize gathering Israel out of the world as the kingdom of God spreads over the whole earth. It’s especially fun to work on this during the Church’s World Report that many people watch in between sessions. I like to see if I can find the places mentioned in the report on the puzzle map. Personally, I always like taking notes of the talks with colorful pens in my journal but my children were never much into that. Probably because I didn’t do anything special to encourage it.

3. Then after General Conference, I have sometimes gathered my family in person and/or in zoom to do General Conference Jeopardy. One time we didn’t do it with any of the out of town family. Instead the children still in the nest, along with my husband and me, joined my BYU-attending son’s FHE group to play it. So fun!

Here’s what I wish I had done…

a. for a special decoration: make a banner like this one here, and have people write sticky notes of one thing they learned from each speaker or session or day and put it on the banner. I would do this while eating ice cream or apple pie, after dinner each Conference night, and discuss what we’ve learned. I love that that banner emphasizes that Jesus speaks today, through His anointed servants and His Holy Spirit. That is something to celebrate!

b. for an activity: I also wish I had encouraged my children more with taking notes by getting them fun and colorful note-taking supplies. Then I would have printed out activity sheets tailored to what they like: word searches, coloring pages, Conference bingo, etc. to keep in a binder to create a keepsake journal. What I did do was keep them in pocket folders and store them on a bookshelf, but I didn’t tailor them to each child. Keeping them in a dedicated binder for each child and customizing them would have made them more special. Then I wish I had given them a new set of colored pencils, crayons, or pens for the family to share.

So that’s what a friend of mine has done, what I’ve done, and what I wish had done for General Conference family traditions.

Recently I did a quick internet search to find even more ideas from people I don’t know. I love the idea of General Conference Baskets similar to Easter Baskets but honestly, I don’t think I would have been able to afford that unless I put a lot of intention into thrifting year round to gather the stuff twice a year, on top of Easter baskets. Yeah, I don’t think it would have happened! The General Conference Store (idea #7 here) looks so fun too but not sustainable for when I had a lot of little children and little money. I’m more into doing stuff that is sustainable regardless of the ups and downs of family income and time needed to prepare. This next idea fits in with that well. It’s what one mom has done, as put in the comment box on the redheadedhostess.com site over here:

My children range in age from 12 years down to 18 months and they look forward to General Conference almost as much as Christmas. They love waking up Saturday morning to see our family room transformed into a “Conference Room”. We move the couches and the coffee(“hot chocolate”) table to better point to the T.V. The entry to the room has a big sign that says, “Quiet Zone”. The table just beyond the Quiet Zone sign, outside of the “Conference Room” is ready for quiet crafts that I have planned knowing that they will be able to do the crafts quietly and without adult help. The wall behind the T.V. has a picture of each member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. Each child has a binder with their name on it. Inside they have a place to draw, take notes, color and a sticky notepad where they can write or draw a picture of what each of member of the First Presidency or Apostle talked about. After their talk, they go and post their sticky note on their respective picture. It’s fun to see the wall covered in colorful sticky notes by the end of conference.

Before conference begins we remind them of the conference “rules” and say a family prayer. The conference rules are easy…1. No talking in the quiet zone 2. If you need to take a break, go out for a little while(run around outside for a minute if you have to) and then come right back in. 3. Work on the craft or puzzle that is at the craft table for that session. I love to work on the puzzles sometimes too. It helps me if I ever feel like nodding off to stay awake and pay attention while keeping my hands quietly busy.

General Conference weekend is the only two weekends of the year that they have “sugar cereals”….a kids dream when they don’t ever get it. Between the two sessions on Saturday, we have a family picnic(pick up pizza at Little Caesars-easy, cut up fruits and veggies before hand to take) at a near by park.

When conference is over, we talk about what each child wrote on their sticky notes. Great review! It helps us all remember all the major points.

I really love that! (Except the sugar cereal part…that rubs my WAPF sense the wrong way. I would have done something more healthful, like sprouted granola or pumpkin oatmeal.)

As with all of these ideas, take what works for your family and leave the rest. (I used to be a La Leche League Leader. I said that at the beginning of every meeting that I led, as all Leaders usually did. It applies to so many situations when we are applying principles.)

Here are more ideas/resources:

1. The Red Crystal has some printables for activities here, I love the matching game on that page to learn the apostles’ names and some Fun Facts about them.
2. Etsy features many sellers with loads of printables, banners, activities, etc. over here. Proceed at your own caution, it’s definitely overwhelming!
3. Make a General Conference basket to give away to someone who might need some cheering up full of fun things that go with being cozy while watching conference like: colored pens or pencils, socks, lip balm, the matching game and fun facts cards above, and a treat.
4. This site over here shows how Elder Bednar studies General Conference talks. This method involves taking notes of three types of things: doctrines, invitations to act, and promised blessings. I found another site that mentioned something similar but now I’m not finding it. Darn. It added two other categories: scriptures and stories. This other site suggested games you play after Conference, based on those categories, like General Conference Pictionary, and hunting for objects that relate to your notes that you share with your family. I like these ideas because it helps you put principles shared in Conference into your heart and into action.

5. Sometimes I host a game night after Conference where we play General Conference Wits and Wagers or General Conference Fun Facts.

Happy General Conference to you all! May it be a faith-filled fall festival time. It’s time to get cozy, gather in as a family, listen to apostles, prophets, and other anointed leaders of God, and see what God is wanting us to do to continue to write our own sacred stories.

P.S. I just realized that the spring General Conference, the first weekend in April, often occurs during Passover, another Jewish festival. It is also close to the beginning of spring and the day that the Book of Mormon was published, the proposed date of the First Vision (both dates are March 26) and on the day of or close to the anniversary of the Church being organized, April 6, 1820, as well as Easter. God definitely works in patterns!