parlour games

[bathbuns]

Does anyone know any really fun traditional parlour games that can be played at Christmas, particularly ones that a 2 and 3 year old will enjoy, not necessarily taking part but 'helping' one of the adults and finding enjoyable? I'm looking a lot online and most people just recommend charades. Charades is fine, but we play that anyway.

Thank you!

[amummyinwaiting]

How about hunt the thimble? (or another xmassy thing) they could help looking or shouting warmer or colder?

[chicaguapa]

How about something like Articulate? DC have the junior one and you could choose clues that your 2 & 3 year old could help answer (some are Postman Pat, Teletubbies etc) as part of a team.

[Chatelaine]

I don't know what this is called, and it's not really a game, more of a trick to be played on young children or other innocents! and works well with a seated group, so perfect for Christmas. Older people like it as they get to sit down.

Have three egg cups, or three anything eg nuts and line them up in full view of everyone present. One person in the group goes out of the room and a child is invited to touch one of the three objects in the row. So the choice is the one on the left/right or middle. Then they sit down and the person enters the room and must guess which one of the three was touched. However, this person is in "the know" because a key person in the room will give a very discreet, predeterminded sign, something like licking the corner of their mouth or rubbing an ear or scratching nose for the middle object. In days gone by it was someone smoking a cigarette and positioning it accordingly, but we don't have indoor smoking these days. I digress. Once a few people have taken turns to leave the room and make the correct guess, the child has a turn and in all probablility will guess wrong. If they guess right can they do it again? Obviously no signal is given. They will want another go and another, even better if someone in the know goes out with them and makes the correct guess after the child gets it wrong! We loved this as children, ours did too. You decide eventually to let them in on the secret, or not, depending on how sensitive they are. Or say it's magic and you can only do it when you are ten or eat a lot of Brussel Sprouts

[4plus1]

Santa's Elf- Not really a 'game' but very funny. My sister&I would do this for our party piece at xmas. I'll try to explain as best I can!
You need 1 large jumper, 1 pair leggings/tights, pair childs shoes, santa hat.
-2 people go behind a couch
-1 Puts the jumper on, but dont put your arms in the sleeves. Put the leggings over your arms and the shoes on your hands.( with me so far?!)put santa hat on and some lipstick to make rosy cheeks.
-person number 2(if using adult&child the adult does this part as your arms need to be longer, they go behind and put their arms into the sleeves. So their arms become the 'elfs' arms!
-the 'elf' hangs its 'legs' down the front of the couch and person no2 stays hidden.
-the elf sings a xmas song or talks to everyone and the other persons hands can fix their hair or scratch their face.
-this is really funny acted out, trust me!

[JetLi]

2 teaspoons tied to very long pieces of string. Split into 2 teams. The teaspoon has to be passed up/down the clothing of each member of the team. It should go down the ladies clothing, and up the gents clothing - trousers, shirts, everything. Try to make the teams boy/girl. The winning team is the one who does it the quickest. For added frisson, put the teaspoons in the freezer beforehand.
Again 2 teams, tie string around the waist & then dangle a banana from the waist tied on another piece of string. Use the banana & much hip-thrusting to push a ping pong ball the length of a room & back again. Then the next person on the team has to do the same. The winning team is the one who does it the quickest. If ping pong balls elude you, those cat toys which are plastic balls with bells in work fine, as does tinfoil scrunched into a ball.

[PaxoIsEvil]

The chocolate game - Everyone rolls a die. If they get a six, they have to put on hat and gloves and try to eat a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork (or break in to lumps and use a spoon for littlies). The aim is to get some chocolate before the next person rolls a six.

Squeak piggy squeak - One person is blindfolded and carries a cushion. Everyone changes seats. The blindfolded person has to find someone's lap (the other players help with 'warmer', 'colder' etc). Then they put the cushion on the persons lap and sit on it. They then say 'Squeak piggy squeak!'. The sat on person makes a piggy noise. If the blindfolded person guesses who's lap they are sat on correctly, that person gets blindfolded (this can go on for ages, and small children generally find it hilarious. Also a laugh if adults have had a few).

Plus there are loads of 'magic' games, but your DC may be to young.

[bathbuns]

Thank you so much! Some great ideas and far more than expected.

[storminabuttercup]

Stop the bus?

Think of 6 catagories, for example Boys Names, girls names, countries, sweets, tv programmes, films, cartoon characters...you get the idea.

everyone writes these catagories down.

someone says the alphabet in their head and someone (possibly the kids) shouts 'stop the bus' and the person saying the alphabet says the letter they were at.

then its a race to fill the catagories with things begining with that letter, the first to fill all catagories shouts 'stop the bus' and everyone stops writing. the aim is to have an answer that noone else has.

you get a point for every original answer.


Disclaimer - i have NO idea what this has to do with busses....