Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1892 — CHRISTMAS GAMES. [ARTICLE]

CHRISTMAS GAMES.

Holiday Entertainment for the Young Folks. If you are to entertain a large circle of young folks of all ages at Christmas, it will be well to provide yourself beforehand with a list of amusing games. “Fling the Towel Let the company form a circle, with one of the players in the center. One member of the circle then flings a large towel, aiming to hit some other member. If the player in the middle is adroit enough to intercept it and catches the towel on its way across the ring, he takes the place of the one who threw it, who then takes his hand in the middle. If it hits the one at whom it was aimed, he must try to get rid of it by throwing it to another player before the one stationed in the middle can catch it. The game of “Santa Claus,” which is not unlike that called “Donkey,” is great fun. Tack upon the wall a big white sheet. Make a large paper Santa Claus; cut off his head, his feet, his arms, legs and pack; cut off his ears and nose; cut out his eyes, and paste his body on the sheet. Blindfold each player and give him a portion of the Saint’s anatomy, and let him place it where he thinks it should go. You can have a bit of dried mucilage on the backs of these bits of paper; so that they can be moistened and stuck to the body. He generally turns out a most peculiar looking saint, with one eye on his heel, another on his thumb, his head where his feet should be, and nothing in the r ght place. You can have two simple prizes—one for the person who comes nearest being right in the placing of some member, and a booby prize for the one farthest out of the way. We have seen a whole roomful of grown people convulsed with merriment over this game. “Gossip” is amusement for the older ones. All sit in a circle. One communicates a piece of gossip about some person in the room, who proceeds to tell it to the one next, and so it goes on until the last one is to repeat aloud just what he hears, and the starter gives the original sentence. They are generally just about as far apart as the gossip started at a sewing circle is from the same piece of news when it has made the village rounds. “Metamorphosis:” Let each member of the company be furnished with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Let him draw at the top of the sheet the head of some bird, beast, fish, or human being, and fold down the sheet so as to leave nothing exposed except lines to show on what part of the paper the body is to be placed. He then passes it to his next neighbor, who draws on it a body to suit his own fancy. It is then folded and passed to the next, who must draw legs, two or four. When the papers arc examined, some very curious monsters, unknown to natural history, are displayed. “Apprentice” is not too intellectual for the little ones. One of the players begins by saying, “I have apprenticed my son to a butcher,” or dry-goods merchant, or to any tradesman, and gives the initial of the first thing his son sold. The rest must guess what the article sold was, and the one who guesses right must then “’prentice” his son.