Fantastic Fairy Houses: Engaging patrons of All ages!

Use your Imagination

I love fairies and all things whimsical. Wherever I work I try to bring that whimsicality with me. This has been a huge part of my thirty year career working with children. Previously, I have used that sense of whimsy and magic to teach preschoolers. In 2020, I became Head of Youth Services at a public library. My idea was create a program that would engage all patrons. What I created with the help of a most willing and magical assistant was a ‘Whole Library’ fairy house program.

We call this the Fantastic Fairy House Program, and this is our fifth year hosting it. The entire program lasts about a month. I call it a ‘Whole Library Program’, because I want all departments of the library to engage their patrons in some way. In a perfect world, a ‘whole library program’ would consist of programs in all departments leading up to and during the actual program display. Every year, we have expanded a little more in each department. Growth is slow going because it relies on staffing, communication and budgets. Because of these roadblocks, we try to put on the program with as little budget as possible.

How It Works

Each year patrons of all ages register for fairy house kits. Kits consist of a base and a small bag of ‘doo dads’ to get them started. We make a point of offering glue if needed, because we always assume that people may have nothing they need at home. The doo-dads are enough to get them started and pamphlets are given out for ideas for creating houses without spending money. We do NOT want anyone to feel there needs to be any purchasing done to participate in the program!

These ‘doo dad’ bags have a mix of plastic and natural found objects. Registrants have 2 weeks to come up with their submissions. During this time, the children’s department runs fairy themed programming like story times and fairy door decorating. One year, a fairy house building program for teens encouraged them to join the program. That year six teen fairy houses were submitted!

In the past years we have organically gained plenty of adult interest in the submission of fairy houses. (Our adults are wonderfully creative!)

Once the houses come back we display them in the library. At this time, promotion becomes all about stopping in to see and vote on favorite houses. Patrons are encouraged to name their creations and each is numbered and labeled with Adult, Group, child or Teen to make voting easier. While the houses are on display, we have many other small passive programs going on. Programs like, find and name the fairy, a fairy themed scavenger hunt, and a fairy themed teen art display. Passive programs allow us to engage patrons of all ages, specifically those that do not come to the children’s room.

All Ages Welcome

Intergenerational programming is great, but, there are drawbacks and it can be tough to maintain. Patrons get to enjoy the display and talk together, by building houses as group and connecting with others while looking at all the houses in the library. We love overhearing conversations about the houses and the creativity that went into making them.

We spend very little time and energy promoting this program, because it speaks for itself. Patrons see the houses and remember through the rest of the year, eagerly awaiting the next program. Are we doing fairy houses again? Is a popular refrain in the spring, when patrons start looking forward to upcoming programs. This program lends it self to attendance numbers with very little active output from the library. Once the kits are assembled, the only other ‘active’ programs are our usual programs themed with fairies to keep things simple. The bulk of the Fantastic Fairy House interaction and numbers are passive but tangible

Let’s Talk Numbers

We count our numbers for this program in two ways. Active numbers; programs that have librarians running them and passive numbers; things that patrons do without librarian but does have a tangible number (like votes).

The first year we held this program we asked people to name our hidden fairy!

FY22

• 32 house submissions
• 62 people recorded finding the fairy and naming her
• 12 librarians voted on the 10 best names

Our fairy’s name became Rose P. (for Petal) Reader! Though the program was small with only 32 submissions, the excitement it created was enormous! This excitement caused us to create the overarching ‘Whole Library Program’.

FY23

Our Fantastic Fairy House Program really started to get rolling,

• 139 registrations
• 62 submissions
• 122 people voted
• 2 fairy themed programs with 8 children and caregivers

Best child, Teen and Adult house (with 1 teen submission and 2 adult submissions) voting options expanded voting and categories.

FY24

Finally, after realizing that creating a ‘group’ category for houses allows families and friends to work together, thus bringing the joy of intergenerational partnering into the program. This year also saw the categories for voting change slightly. People now vote for Best Child, Teen, Adult, Group and Best in Show houses.

• We had 145 registrations
• 65 houses
• 8 teen submissions
• 170 house votes
• 47 people reported finding the fairy
• 4 fairy themed active programs with 60 children and caregivers.

Going Forward

This year, FY 2025, we had planned two themed masquerade balls and a fairy tea party. Budget constraints have caused us to rethink our programming. With a call out to other libraries across the state we managed to create our kits without spending any money. We will not be having masquerade balls or tea parties, but we have so many left overs from previous years that we will not have to spend any money and can still offer programs that our patrons love.

2024 Winners

For more info…

For more info on inter-generational programs and Fairy Houses please follow these links!

https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/range-ages-mixed-age-play-library

https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2013/05/intergenerational-programming-at-your-library/

https://parkcitylibrary.org/22044-2/

http://sandspointpreserveconservancy.org/building-a-fairy-house/

https://newburyport.com/fairy-gnome-discovery-walk-experience-explore-magical-fairy-houses/

https://fairyhousetour.com/

This post addresses ALSC Core Competency III. Programming Skills, V. Outreach and Advocacy, and VI. Administrative and Management Skills.

Today’s blog post was written by Wendy Gardner-Breindel, Head of Youth Services at Ventress Memorial Library (Marshfield, Ma), on behalf of the ALSC Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee

The post Fantastic Fairy Houses: Engaging patrons of All ages! appeared first on ALSC Blog.

 Use your Imagination I love fairies and all things whimsical. Wherever I work I try to bring that whimsicality with me. This has been a huge part of my thirty year career working with children. Previously, I have used that sense of whimsy and magic to teach preschoolers. In 2020, I became Head of Youth Services at a public library. My idea was create a program that would engage all patrons. What I created with the help of a most willing and magical assistant was a ‘Whole Library’ fairy house program. We call this the Fantastic Fairy House Program, and this is our fifth year hosting it. The entire program lasts about a month. I call it a ‘Whole Library Program’, because I want all departments of the library to engage their patrons in some way. In a perfect world, a ‘whole library program’ would consist of programs in all…
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