we do the entire haggadah, start to finish -with the food in the middle (shulchan aruch)...it takes about 4 to 5 hours, starting at 8 and ending about 12:30....
we don't just read it - we have plays, game show contests, quizes, songs - everyone has to come to the seder with something prepared.....all the kids and adults...
we're usually about 30 people at the seder - 2/3 of whom are kids aged 0 to 25....
so for example, towards the beginning when we talk about being slaves in egypt - the littlest kids are given huge building blocks to build the towns that the slaves had to build....
for the ten plagues, we sometimes have a live guest - (e.g. a frog - although one year he got away and ribetted the whole night from behind a cabinet)....
all of this is to keep the little kids' attention (and my attention as well)..
one year, one of the game shows was "who wants to be a millionaire" - of course, all of the questions in the quizes/games are based on the seder.....
another example, one year we had a time travel game - the little kids got into this giant box and when they come out they had traveled back in time and were now somebody else...they had to figure out who they are by asking questions (sort of any elaborate 20 questions)....
we also give out prizes along the way - for example walnuts in their shells....this keeps everyone busy breaking open the shells, and keeps them a bit fed, since it takes a few hours to get to the main food....and every now and then a toffee candy gets tossed at the person with the correct answer..
the little kids get to put on plays along the way....usually several of the kids do something...they usually practice for months in advance, they get so into it....
anyway, there are lots of different games, quizes, plays, songs, etc..
we also make a big deal about the songs at the end of the haggadah...
we sing chad gadya with finger puppets....there's a puppet for the lamb, the dog, the cat, the fire, the stick, the water, the anger of death, etc etc..
there are multiple puppets so that everyone at the seder gets something and we all act it out as we sing the song....(chad gadyaaaaaa chad gadya)....
we sing echad me yodayah several times the different ways people grew up singing it...first we sing it the traditional way, then a really cool american version, and then a funny yiddish version..
bottom line, it's a great great great great seder.....
my brother-in-law leads it and he's outstanding - a professor of philosophy who knows how to take things down to a level that little children will enjoy and actually learn from....
we've been doing it like this for the past 15 years...
it's at my brother in law's kibbutz (in northern Israel - not far from the sea of galilee)......
we use one of the kibbutz children's houses in order to have room for all 30 of us...
