Winterfest has a long tradition of faith-formation with senior high and college students in our synod! Winterfest is scheduled for January 2-4, 2026. Event registration includes participant’s two-night stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast on Sunday. Worship concludes our time together on Sunday morning, and parents who are coming to pick up youth are invited to arrive early enough to join us for worship.

Download the Winterfest 2026 Registration Information Packet.

What to Expect?
Winterfest gathers youth in grades 9-12, college students on winter break, and their congregational advisors for a weekend immersion in Christian community, focused around a central theme. Large group gatherings feature keynote speakers and live music that introduce the theme, and help inspire youth and young adult attendees to think critically about how the theme intersects their daily lives. Small group conversations allow participants to go deeper, and to explore the ways God may be speaking to them through the theme and the surrounding Christian community. Congregational advisors have opportunity to meet with peers for continuing education, networking, and mutual support.

Youth and congregational advisors can look forward to a variety of social activities in addition to our faith-formation conversations and teaching. The community feel that has defined Winterfest for generations will also be a prominent part of this year’s event, alongside inspired worship and time for reflection and sharing.

NEW for 2026:
Food Packing ‘Service’ Event:
We are excited to announce that we will be hosting a food packing service event on Saturday afternoon following lunch. We are targeting the packing of 30,000 meals for people living with the realities of food insecurity. Youth and adult advisors are all encouraged to participate in this event-wide food packing project. Scheduled for Saturday, from 1:30-3:30 PM.
Vacation Bible School (VBS) Planning for Congregation Youth Leaders and Pastors:
Congregation youthworkers are welcome to join a Saturday session with peers where we will take the ‘Better Together’ theme and design a VBS for Summer 2026. Original content with a Lutheran lens! Join veteran youth ministry leader and teacher Michael Williams, who is also a member of our curriculum development team, who will help leaders develop a VBS for congregation use, based on this year’s ‘Better Together’ theme. Michael developed a VBS Curriculum for his own congregation in 2025, based on last year’s “Fingerprints’ theme and looks forward to work alongside colleagues interested in helping to envision a curriculum for 2026. We will share the resulting curriculum with all synod congregations. 
Discounted Rate for Young Adults:
We have lowered the rate for young adults to help congregations include MORE young adult participants. The rate for young adults is $200.00, instead of the regular event rate of $240.00. Please note the change to our digital registration portal.

NEW Medical Forms
We are moving to an online or digital ‘fillable’ medical form for all synod youth events. You can send the link to parents and ask them to fill out the fillable PDF form online here. Once they have filled out the form, they can save a pdf and email the completed form to you, or print the completed form and give it to you to bring to the event. If you opt to collect the completed forms as digital files, you can upload the completed forms to our office here. You may upload up to ten forms at one time, so if you have more than ten, please consider uploaded them in batches. PLEASE NOTE: We request that you do NOT encourage parents to upload their students form directly. We would prefer to receive the completed forms from congregation leaders (pastors or youth workers). Again, if you prefer, you can continue to print out completed forms and bring paper copies to the event to turn in at check-in. You will also likely want to carry print copies or digital copies with you as the primary adult advisor at the event. We understand that since this is a new process, it may take a year of getting used to the change. Please be patient with us as we commit to being patient with you throughout this transition. Ultimately, we hope by digitizing this process, it will make it easier on families to complete these forms.

Registration Materials
+ Download the Registration Information Packet to gather all the details:
+ Space is LIMITED, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come basis!
+ Event cost for 2026: $240/person ($50 deposit due at time of registration)
+ Register electronically, but don’t forget to send us your rooming assignments by mail, or scan and email to croberts@lss-elca.org  
+ Read about our 2026 theme: ‘Better Together‘

Download the Winterfest 2026 Registration Information Packet.

2026 Theme: ‘Better Together’
As Lutherans, we don’t have to look too far to see the value and power of community. We experience a sense of community in worship as we recite a shared liturgy heaped in scriptural references, and we gather at Jesus’ table for a practice known as Holy ‘Communion’ rooted in the gathered ‘body of Christ,’ or the worshipping community present in that moment. We experience Christ in that moment, together!

These weekend events are about community, as we strive to focus on our relationship with God in Christ Jesus, experienced in and with our gathered community of peers. Here, we draw upon the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells within each of us. We not only speak of the love and care God calls us to share with one another, but we often see it lived out in real time, with real people. Authentic, often loving, but also broken, and flawed people, who are capable of living out that grace and love of Christ, because of that same Spirit who dwells within them. Ours is not an individual faith, but one that comes to life and is best lived out, in the presence of the gathered community of believers.

²⁴ And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10: 24-25, NRSVUE

Download the group forms, and promotional materials, posted below:
Winterfest 2026 Registration Information Packet (detailed information on “how to” register)
Winterfest 2026 Group Housing Form (please mail or scan and email completed form)
Winterfest 2026 Bulletin Insert
Winterfest 2026 Participant Information Collection Sheet
WINTERFEST Medical Form: NEW (parents can fill out electronically with a fillable online form)
WINTERFEST Child Abuse Disclosure Statement : Volunteers ONLY
Winterfest 2026 Wyndham Adult Agreement
Winterfest 2026 Wyndham Youth Agreement

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 5, 2026