Christmas
jumper? Check! Tin of Quality Street? Check! Captive audience? Check!
It’s
literary games time! I come from a family that plays games. Big time. I could
open a board game café with all the ones in the cupboard. And at Christmas time
I can make even more people join in because it’s my house and they’re trapped
here for the festive season. So here are my suggestions:
Quiz! The papers are full of these as Christmas approaches. I like The Guardian Review Literary Quiz and The Telegraph does a good one too. Previous years are available online so try this Art and Literature quiz for kids from The Telegraph and this Fantasy Teen quiz in The Guardian.
The book tokens hidden clues game. Every Christmas, the book token people produce a picture rammed with references to twenty book titles. Some are obvious - settings like Gilead and Darkest Peru on a signpost for instance - but others require more lateral thinking like 'extremely angry vineyard'. Previous years puzzles are on the site along with a simpler version for kids. Check it out at: Hidden Clues
The Great Penguin Bookchase
I bought this at the Hay festival many
years ago and it’s basically trivial pursuit but much harder and slower with
usually at least one visitor disappointed that no actual penguins feature. The
kids groan when I get this one out but don’t be deterred because, look, you
collect little books for your little bookshelf! How cute is that!
Story consequences – pen and paper.
First
fold – Once upon a time there was a ...
Second
fold - who wanted to ...
Third
fold - But ...
Fourth
fold - So he/she ...
Fifth fold - And in the end …
Who am I?
We play this on the Folly Farm winter retreat and it works well for large groups. Split into two teams. Everyone secretly writes down at least four authors, literary characters or any famous people if you want to widen it out, on slips of paper which are folded and placed in a bowl/Christmas stocking.
Each team takes it in turn with one member having one minute to describe as many of the names on the slips as they can without using the actual words written down. They get a point for each correct one and they can pass once. Carry on until all the slips have been used once. Now it gets trickier. All slips go back into the bowl.
This time you're only allowed to use one word to describe the person/character - though remember that everyone will have heard them described in full once. Carry on until all the slips have been guessed.
The final round has all the names back in the bowl but this time no words are allowed - only actions. The team with the most points across all three rounds wins.
Who am I?
We play this on the Folly Farm winter retreat and it works well for large groups. Split into two teams. Everyone secretly writes down at least four authors, literary characters or any famous people if you want to widen it out, on slips of paper which are folded and placed in a bowl/Christmas stocking.
Each team takes it in turn with one member having one minute to describe as many of the names on the slips as they can without using the actual words written down. They get a point for each correct one and they can pass once. Carry on until all the slips have been used once. Now it gets trickier. All slips go back into the bowl.
This time you're only allowed to use one word to describe the person/character - though remember that everyone will have heard them described in full once. Carry on until all the slips have been guessed.
The final round has all the names back in the bowl but this time no words are allowed - only actions. The team with the most points across all three rounds wins.
Don’t forget all the classic word games like Pass the bomb! Taboo! Bananagrams, Boggle, Scrabble and Codewords. And of course no Christmas games session would
be complete without Charades! Books
only.
Quick round of Elmer bingo, anyone?
Merry Christmas!
2 comments:
Great points & suggestions, Tracy. I heard someone in my Book Group talking about that Big Book Chase game and although I haven't seen it in full enough detail yet, the idea does look intriguing.
A range of games like these (when carefully chosen and NOT just by who always wins!) can be a great way of helping people to mix over a holiday. You can't do chores, you have to be in the same physical place, and the interaction is not totally in the head or on a screen. Besides, some games are good for giving quieter people a chance to speak!
(Only, if the game goes on for ages, I always feel there should be an opt-out point. There'll be books to read, won't there?)
Thanks Penny - yes games are great for mixing up the generations. Opt-out is washing up duty so we tend to get a high participation rate! I've even got books wrapped up as prizes...
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