They used to call them parlor games — back when there were parlors and people had to come up with their own forms of entertainment.
Today, some of those old parlor games — such as Guggenheim, Picture Charades and the Dictionary Game — have been turned into board games such as Scattergories, Pictionary and Balderdash.
But there are still a lot of ways to have some old-fashioned fun with games that require few props other than paper and pencil — and willing participants. If you're looking for last-minute ideas for your holiday Christmas parties, here are some festive parlor games to try. You can give out simple prizes if you want to make it competitive. Or, you can just have a good time.
HEAD START ART
Give everyone a pen, a large flat book and a piece of blank paper. Have them put the paper on the book and the book on their head. Then draw the following — in this order:
Draw a floor.
Draw a Christmas tree.
Draw a fireplace.
Draw a star on top of the tree.
Draw a window.
Draw presents under the tree.
Draw snowflakes outside the window.
Look at your drawing, and score it as follows:
1 point if the tree touches the floor
1 point if the fireplace touches the floor
2 points if the star touches the tree.
1 point if the star is higher than the tree
1 point if the presents are under the tree
1 point if the window is next to the tree
1 point if snowflakes touch the window
Score an extra point if there is a fire in the fireplace (since you didn't tell them to draw one).
Score an extra point if there are ornaments on the tree (since you didn't request them).
Add up the points to see who is the winner.
BRAIN BOGGLERS
Just for Fun (Answers below)
1. How do sheep in Mexico wish you a Merry Christmas?
2. How do Chilean dogs wish you a Merry Christmas?
3. Why was Santa's helper down in the dumps?
4. Where do polar bears vote?
5. Why does Scrooge love Rudolph?
6. How would you fire Santa?
7. What kind of motorcycle does Santa drive?
8. What nationality is Santa?
9. Why did the elf put his bed in the fireplace?
10. It is midnight. Santa is making his rounds and appears to be a little behind schedule. As his big, red sleigh flies over the city of London, he looks down at Big Ben and notices that the big hand is on the 5 and the little hand is on the 2. What time is it?
TRUE-LIFE TRIVIA (Answers below)
1. If Santa flew over the world's tallest pyramid, what famous city would be in view?
2. If you're attending the lighting of the Christmas tree on the Ellipse, what city would you be in?
3. If you really can't wait for Christmas to come, what major nation is the first to celebrate Christmas every year?
4. If Rudolph always stays in the lead, how many ways are there to arrange the other reindeer?
5. In what country would you find a swagman at Christmas?
6. If you were to celebrate an authentic Victorian Christmas, when would you set up and take down your tree?
7. Rudolph comes in handy on a foggy Christmas Eve, but what would you be flying over if you hit a voggy Christmas Eve?
8. Over which country does a goat named Ukko help Santa's reindeer?
9. What famous political cartoonist largely gave us the Santa we know and love today?
10. In which country does St. Nicholas bring candy and sweets for Dec. 6 and the Christkindl send gifts on Christmas Eve?
RIGHT/LEFT GAME
Have everyone sit in a circle. Everyone has a small gift that he or she brought to the party — or use small gifts you have wrapped for the occasion. Read the following story, and each time the word "right" or "left" comes up, you pass the gift in that direction. At the end of the story, you keep the gift in your possession.
Christmas was RIGHT around the corner, and Mrs. RIGHT was finishing her Christmas baking. Mr. RIGHT, Sue RIGHT and Billy RIGHT returned from their last-minute Christmas errands.
"There's not much LEFT to be done," said Mr. RIGHT as he came into the kitchen.
"Have you LEFT the basket of food at the church?" asked Mrs. RIGHT.
"I LEFT it RIGHT where you told me to," said Mr. RIGHT.
"I'm glad my shopping is done," said Billy RIGHT. "I don't have any money LEFT."
The telephone rang, and Sue RIGHT LEFT the room to answer it.
She rushed back and told the family, "Aunt Tilly RIGHT says she LEFT a package for us RIGHT on Grandma RIGHT's porch."
"I'll go RIGHT over there RIGHT now, since she lives RIGHT next door, and get it," she said, as she LEFT in a rush.
Mr. RIGHT then LEFT the kitchen and brought in the Christmas tree.
By the time Sue RIGHT returned, Mrs. RIGHT, Mr. RIGHT and Billy RIGHT had begun trimming the tree.
The entire RIGHT family sang carols as they finished the decorating.
Then they LEFT all the presents under the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the RIGHT gift for their family.
Now, I hope you have the RIGHT gift, too; because that's all that's LEFT of our story — except to wish you a Merry Christmas. Isn't that RIGHT?
WHAT IF . . . THEN
Give everyone two slips of paper. On the first, have players write a phrase beginning with "What if . . ." (such as, "What if there was no Christmas . . ." "What if Santa got stuck in the chimney . . ." "What if Mom got everything she wanted for Christmas . . .").
On the second slip, write a sentence beginning with "Then. . . . ("Then, all of the other reindeer would feel bad," "Then, the stars would all fall out of the sky," "Then, we'd all be sick of eggnog.")
Collect the slips and put them in two piles.
Randomly pick one from the "What if" pile and one from the "Then" pile. You can give a prize to the people who came up with the funniest phrases.
IN OTHER WORDS
Can you figure out the real names of these Christmas songs? (Answers are below)
1. The apartment of two psychiatrists
2. Sir Lancelot has laryngitis
3. Give me dual incisors for this festive yuletide
4. The smog-less bewitching hour has arrived
5. Exuberation to this orb
6. 288 Yuletide hours
7. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure that stimulates my auditory sense organs?
8. Stepping on the pad cover
9. Leave and do an elevated broadcast
10. Hollow metallic vessels that vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck
11. As the guardians of little woolly animals protected their charges in the shadows of the earth
12. Frozen precipitation commence
13. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas
14. We are Kong, Lear and Nat Cole
15. May the deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans
16. Have hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs
17. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals
18. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me
19. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us
20. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres
COMMUNITY ART
Give everyone a piece of paper and have guests fold it in fourths lengthwise (half of an 8 1/2-by-11 paper works well).
The first person draws a head on the top fourth of the page, so that when it is folded back only the two lines of the neck show in the next section. Then the paper is passed to the person on the right. That person adds the torso, so that only the lines for the waist show in the next section.
The third person draws from the waist to the knees, with lines of the legs showing in the final section. The last person draws from the knees to the feet.
Unfold the paper, and if the lines all connect up as they should, you will have a completed figure. Encourage Christmas figures and motifs to add to the seasonal fun. Give prizes to the four people who helped draw the best figure.
STORY ART
Give each person a piece of paper. The first person writes a line of a Christmas story and passes the paper to his neighbor.
That person draws something to illustrate the story, then folds under the line of story and passes his drawing on to the next person. That person comes up with a line of story to go with the illustration, then folds the illustration under and passes the story line on to the next person.
That person must then illustrate the next line of the story. Keep going for four or five turns, then unfold the paper and see how closely it all ties together — or how far afield it all goes.
CANDY KISS GAME
Divide guests into two teams. Have two bowls of Hershey's Kisses and two pairs of large mittens at the other end of the room. Each team sends a player down, who must put on the mittens, peel the wrapping off the candy kiss and pop it in his or her mouth and run back to send the next player along. The first team to all get a kiss wins.
BOXES and MORE BOXES
Wrap a small gift in a small box. Put it in a slightly larger box and wrap it. Put that in a slightly larger box and wrap it and so on. Attach a message to each box before wrapping it in the bigger box.
The messages will say something like, "This present goes to the person standing closest to the tree" or "This present goes to the person who is sitting next to you on your left."
The final box will have a message designating who actually gets the gift — such as "The real winner of this gift is the one who washed the dishes" or "This present really goes to the oldest/youngest person."
12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS JUMP-UP
This works best with a big group. Each of the 12 days of Christmas corresponds to a month of the year. The first day is January, the second, February, and so on.
When the verse corresponding to your birthday is sung, you have to stand up; when it's finished, you sit down. Once you are four or five verses into the song, you should have people popping up all over the room.
CHRISTMAS CARD TOSS
Gather five or six Christmas cards of various sizes. Place a laundry basket about 6 feet away from the participants. Have each person stand at a specific place and throw the cards at the basket. The person who gets the most cards in the basket wins the game. (This sounds easy, but it is harder than your think.)
CHRISTMAS WHO AM I
Make tags with the names of Christmas characters — such as Kris Kringle, Scrooge, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, etc.
Put one tag on the back of each person. Everyone has to go around the room and ask questions to try to identify their character by asking only questions that can be answered with a yes or no. If you are asked questions, you can answer only with a yes or no. The first person to identify his character wins a prize.
GIFT WRAP RACE
Here's a game to test your coordination. Divide the group into partners. Each pair is given a box, some wrapping paper, tape and ribbon. Each team races to get their package wrapped. The catch? Each of you can use only one hand. The other arm must be held behind your back — and no switching in the middle. Wrapped boxes will be judged on both speed and how well they look. The best and fastest win a prize. UNWRAP THE PRIZE
Have a small gift wrapped in several layers of papers. Have the participants all sit in a circle and pass the gift around as you play Christmas music. When the music stops, the person holding the gift unwraps a layer. Whoever has the prize when all the layers are unwrapped gets to keep it.
CHRISTMAS BALLOON BATTLE
Divide the group into two teams. Tie red balloons to the ankles of half the group and green balloons to the ankles of the other half. Teams try to burst the other side's balloons by stomping or squeezing them. (No hands allowed.) When your balloon is burst, you are out of the game. The team with the last balloon wins.
SANTA'S BEARD RELAY RACE
Get a supply of Vaseline and cotton balls. Divide the group into two teams. Smear Vaseline over the lower face and chin area of each player. (Make sure it is evenly applied.) The point of the game is to run to the other side of the room, stick your face into a bowl of cotton balls and then run back so the next person can go.
At the end of the race, award 3 points to the team that finished first and a point for each cotton ball stuck to a face.
The winning team is the one that has the most cotton balls stuck to their faces in the least amount of time.
CHRISTMAS BOX GAME
Wrap a small gift in a succession of larger boxes. Use duct tape for the wrapping. Get a pair of dice and a 9-by-13-inch pan to roll them in. Get a coat, a pair of oven mitts, a scarf and a hat. Have everyone sit in a circle, with the box in the middle.
Choose a number to roll for a person to get a chance at opening the box. It's a good idea to start with a less probable number such as 4, and later move to a more common 7. Each person gets one roll then passes the dice to the next person. When someone rolls the number of choice, he must: put on the coat, hat, scarf and mitts and try to open the box. He gets to try until someone else rolls the same number, then that person puts on all the clothes and tackles the box. The game keeps going until someone gets to the prize.
ANSWERS
IN OTHER WORDS
1. Nutcracker Suite
2. Silent Night
3. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
4. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
5. Joy to the World
6. 12 Days of Christmas
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. Up on the Housetop
9. Go Tell It on the Mountain
10. Jingle Bells
11. As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
12. Let It Snow
13. O Holy Night
14. We Three Kings
15. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
16. O Come All Ye Faithful
17. Frosty the Snowman
18. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
19. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
20. Jingle Bell Rock
BRAIN BOGGLERS
Just for Fun
1. Fleece Navidad
2. Fleas Navidad
3. He had poor elf-esteem
4. North Poll
5. He dearly loves every buck
6. Give him the sack
7. Holly Davidson
8. North Polish
9. He wanted to sleep like a log
10. It's midnight — as stated. Obviously, the clock is wrong
True-life Trivia
1. San Francisco and the Transamerica Pyramid Building
2. Washington, D.C.
3. New Zealand — just west of the International Date Line
4. 40,320
5. Australia
6. You'd put it up on Christmas Eve and take it down on Jan. 5 — the 12 days of Christmas.
7. A volcano. The hazy weather conditions caused by volcanic gases is called vog.
8. Finland
9. Thomas Nast
10. Germany
Sources: Family files; www.santalady.com; www.partygamecentral.com; "The Games Treasury" by Merilyn Simonds Mohr, Chapters; World Book Encyclopedia
E-mail: carma@desnews.com