Good morning, everyone. Today’s Christmas memories are about: Christmas Games!

What was special for me, was My mother continued these traditions for us and we had great hilarity playing all these games throughout our childhood and then I played them with all my nieces and nephews when they came around each Christmas too. Perhaps they will teach their own children. 😊

A 1930s Christmas: Part Three, My Aunt Dulcie’s Christmas memories:

Christmas would be a time for family visitors.

One year my parents organised a whist drive in their best room. There were little circle tables with a pack of cards on each table and all my Father’s family would come around to play. They would have little prizes for the winners, like an embroidered hanky, or small book. Beetle Drive was similar and worked well for large groups and all ages. Another favourite was Bingo, as we could all play together when we were young.

My brother was good at conjuring tricks and we also had great favourites. We played charades and got into two teams to act out the syllables; Animal, Vegetable and Mineral. We thought of something, and everyone had to ask us questions and guess what it was in 10 goes.

Stations caused much hilarity. We sat on chairs in a circle with one person standing in the middle. Everyone would be the name of a railway station. One person would call out two stations and they would have to swap places as quickly as possible before the person in the middle sat in their chair.

Another one my father taught us, which we were never allowed to tell the answers to anyone, was called: “My Aunty Likes.” The person in the ‘know’ tells of two things that their Aunt liked and didn’t like: e.g. my Aunt likes stools but not chairs; or she likes apples but not pears.

Everyone could have a go in turns of what “My Aunt” liked and didn’t like. The person in charge would then say whether they were correct or not. My sister used to hate this game, because she could never work it out!

A game I liked was picture-charades, decades before the game Pictionary came out. A list of carols was chosen by my Mother and we would be in two teams and be in competition with each other. Two people from each team would go up to Mother and she would show us the name of the Carol and we would have to rush back and draw it in pictures for the rest of the team. As soon as one of us got it, they would run up to Mother and she would give a new Carol to us.

Other games I recall were:

  • Hunt the Thimble
  • Moving something in the room when everyone was out and searching around the room for what it was.
  • I went to the moon and took… where each person had to name something they took and recall what the last person had said as well.
  • I’m going to a party and I’m going to wear: You all sit in a circle and say what the person on your left is wearing, but choose subtle things. The person in the ‘know’ would say whether you could go to the party or not. This was sometimes extended to other facts about a person not linked with clothes.