CHRISTMAS GAMES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 101, 15 December 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS GAMES

THE CHILDREN LOVE

FUN FOR EVERYONE

You have heard of musical chairs —here's one much on th? sarin' lines. It is called the musical parcel and is another version of the musical chairs games which is just as exciting but less damaging to small limbs. A nice prize is done up in a packet and quickly passed from hand to hand of a circle of guests, only the left hand being used. Music is played during the passing, and when the music stops the player in whose hand the parcel is drops out of the game. Finally, only two players are left in. The parcel belongs to the player who does NOT hold it when the music stops for the last time. Radio, gramophone, or piano are all suitable for providing the music, since each can be stopped at will by somebody made responsible. NEW HIDE AND SEEK Here is a game which will not tire you. It is a game of hide and seek played in the mind! One child is 'It," and closes her eyes while the others "hide"—though actually they remain seated in their chairs. Each child thinks of the place where she would hide, and the advantage o.f this game is that really impossible places may be thought of, such as behind tin clock on the mantlepiece, or inside the coal scuttle. "It" asks questions of each in turn. "Are you behind the curtain?" Are you underneath the table?" "Arc you inside the Loud Speaker?" and so on, till the hiding place of each is guessed. Th? first child "caught" is "It" for the next round. POEM GAME A novel game which can be played without any preparation, and is particularly good for older children, is organised in the following way: One player —preferably an adult — selects a short story or poem from . any book at hand. Every player except the one Avho is to read them i chooses a trade or profession, which | he holds throughout the game. When | the trades are selected, the reader! opens his book and reads from it any passage he selects. Every tim? he comes to a common noun lie pauses and looks at one of the "tradesmen," who must immediately name some article or tool connected with his profession. By this substitution of nouns the most pathetic passage is converted into a jumble of absurdities. For example, say No. 1 is a butcher, No. 2 a carpenter, No. 3 a grocer, No. 4 a mason, No. 5 a druggist, and No. 6 a baker. If the poem, chosen were, say "The skeleton in Armour," one of Longfellow's, it would sound something like this: Speak! Speak! Thou fearful (1) lamb. Who, with the hollow (2) Nails. Still is rude (3) Flour drest. Comest to daunt me! THE PENNY HUNT This makes a very exciting game, and is done with bright new coins. Half-pennies or farthings are just as suitable, of course, if these are preferred. (Continued foot previous column)