Christmas party games make any holiday celebration fun. Party games liven up the party and keep it going. Like most Christmas traditions, Christmas games have been enjoyed throughout the centuries as an important part of Christmas celebrations.
Already in the 16th century it was customary to play games at Christmas. English law in the late Middle Ages allowed servants and commoners to play games at Christmas that were prohibited the rest of the year. These games included tennis, dice, cards, billiards, and others.
Christmas games enjoyed in the modern period were blind man’s bluff, pigeon feeding and hot cockles. In Hot Cockles, each player in turn is blindfolded. The blindfolded player places their hands behind their back, palms up. One of the other players hits the blindfolded player’s hands. The blindfolded player must guess which of the other players has hit him. If he does it correctly, he can penalize the player he “caught”. Those who preferred a greater mental test could retreat to a game of chess, while the physically agile could
challenge each other to tennis or bowling.
The English also enjoyed playing cards and games of chance at Christmas, especially dice. During the reign of the Tudor kings, workers may have found greater pleasure in these games than the wealthy, since they were forbidden by law to play games except at Christmas. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Puritans condemned those who celebrated Christmas by gambling and gambling.
In Victorian England, parlor games remained popular Christmas entertainment throughout the 19th century. The Victorians favored games like Snapdragon, Forfeits, Hoop and Hide (Hide and Seek), charades, Blind Man’s Bluff, Queen of Sheba (a variation of Blind Man’s Bluff), and Hunt the Slipper. In Snapdragon, players would gather around a bowl of liquor-covered currants. A lit match was dropped into the bowl, setting the alcohol on fire. The players challenged each other to take a burning gooseberry out of the bowl and pop it into their mouths, thus extinguishing the flames. A bit of light verse describes the fearsome delights of this game:
Here he comes with a flaming bowl,
Don’t want to bill?
Cutout! Break! Continue!
Be careful not to take too much
Don’t be greedy in your clutch,
Cutout! Break! Continue!
with its blue and licking tongue
Many of you will be stung,
Cutout! Break! Continue!
‘Cause it breaks into everything that comes
snatching at his feast of plums,
Cutout! Break! Continue!
But Old Christmas makes it come,
Although it looks so expensive! fa! smoke!
Cutout! Break! Continue!
Don’t be afraid of him, be daring.
He leaves, his flames are cold,
Cutout! Break! Continue!
Players increased the effect of the glowing blue flames by turning off all other lights in the room except the one emitting from the burning bowl.
In Hunt the Slipper, players form a circle around a person. They put their hands behind their backs and passed a slipper around outside the circle. The person in the center of the circle had to guess who was in possession of the shoe at any given time.
Several other English Christmas games have now disappeared so completely that only their colorful names remain. Folklorists cannot now say how they were played. These forgotten games include Shoe the Wild Mare, Steal the White Bread, Post and Match, Feed the Pigeon, The Cat in the Corner, and The Parson Has Lost His Cloak. Before a Christmas party winds down for the night, sleepy guests might play one last game with a quaint name called Yawn for a Cheshire Cheese. The players sat in a circle and yawned at each other. Whoever produced the longest, widest, and loudest yawn won a Cheshire cheese.
The Christmas Games are also played in other countries. Some traditional Christmas games are for children. In many nations, Advent calendars entertain children with a kind of counting game in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Children in Mexico often play with piñatas at Christmas parties. In Iran, young people play egg-beating games at Christmas. Most Christmas games, however, involve adults and youngsters. In a number of different countries, sports matches, games of chance, or fortune-telling games are associated with one or more days of the Christmas season.
In the past, Swedes used to play games with Christmas presents, which they call Julklapp, on December 24. On Boxing Day, both Swedes and Norwegians used to race horses (see Norway, Christmas on). Ethiopians celebrate Christmas Day by playing ganna, a sport that resembles hockey (see Ethiopia, Christmas in). In the United States, many people enjoy watching football games on New Year’s Day. In Lithuania, people entertain themselves on Christmas Eve with fortune-telling games.
Some popular Christmas games that we enjoy today are Yankee Swap, Elephant Gift Exchange, cookie swap, Christmas carols and others. There is no doubt that Christmas party games still play an important role in making the season special and memorable.
