To add to your collection of festive writerly games, decor, and joyous silliness, I have a lovely new brace of parlour games for you, perfect for large groups. One of them is ideally suited to us of a literary disposition (but equally enjoyable for those who aren't!) and the other is really just a matter of joyous chaos. We tried them both at my birthday party last week and they worked even better than I'd hoped. Let the games begin!
Poem Enactments
This is best with a really good-sized group, at least ten people, ideally more. You'll also need enough space for people to sit around the edge and leave the centre of the room clear.
Anyone can read or recite a poem. Before they do, though, they assign people to act out the parts. (Or ask for volunteers.) It's very important to cast before reading.
While they read / recite the poem, the actors play their parts, following whatever directions come their way. I did The Walrus and the Carpenter, casting a sun, moon, walrus, carpenter, oldest oyster, and all the other oysters. My brother in law, as the sun, did a truly majestic job of trying to make the billows smooth and bright. My sister, as the moon, was splendidly sulky about it. The sight of most of my friends fervently pretending to be oysters, trotting behind the walrus and the carpenter, will live with me forever. Especially when they started making oyster noises.
In someone else's poem, I volunteered to be the pond. It turned out the poem was Daddy Fell Into the Pond, so I got heftily landed on! In The Owl and the Pussycat, many of us were bong trees. When someone else did The Jabberwocky, Gwendi (the Jabberwock) collapsed to the floor in death so dramatically that the thunk was audible.
Nursery rhymes, picture books, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, and Doctor Seuss are all great contenders for poems, as well as dramatic ballads like The Highwayman.
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The (Brief) Singing Of Many Songs
Everyone needs to be briefed to think of their favourite song to sing. A hymn, a carol, a pop song, a protest song, a lullaby, a folk song, whatever they know and is dear to their hearts.
Before The Singing, everyone firmly fixes their song in their mind, and lightly hums the opening note. Then everyone sings, all at once, for two minutes, and may the loudest voice win!
We didn't have a prize, but we totally should have, and the winner was 100% my sister with her passionate rendition of Toto's Africa, drowning out even her husband's and Will's combined Jerusalem. Glorious! Half the cacophonous choir collapsed in giggles after the first minute, but the remaining roar was still award-worthy.
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And if you want more silly or writerly festive things to do, I've got heaps more for you already up on the blog:
- Four Writerly Party Games (these work well with 4+ people)
- Zoom Party Games (the same four games plus two extra, all converted for playing over Zoom)
- The Present Game, for a chaotic and increasingly random present exchange
- How To Make a Christmas Star, which you can do on your own as paperly decor or as a group with everyone contributing spokes to the star
- How to Fold a Little Book, if you want to fill your Christmas tree with tiny books (You could use richly decorated Christmas paper so they look even more splendid.)
Wishing you wonderful, creative, silly fun!
