Make This Year's Holiday Get-Together a FUN one!

Holiday get-togethers, whether with friends or family or both, do not have to be boring and ho-hum!

Here's a few ideas for this year's Holiday Season that will make your Christmas/Holiday get-together's something everyone will enjoy & won't be yawning at!

The Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

While this one takes a little pre-planning with guests, it's really nothing more than a phone call with some rules for playing the game!

The Object:

Each guest is told to either come wearing or bringing wrapped as a gift the strangest/tackiest/ugliest/weirdest Christmas Sweater they can find.  The catch? They have to purchase their item from a "used" store, or a "thrift" store, or Goodwill style stores.  A dollar limit can even be set, although that's often not necessary for these type of stores' prices.

Don't fret, after the "winners" are announced for categories you choose, you can gather the sweaters and donate them to local shelter and retirement homes.  You would be surprised how many find them a wonderful addition to their holiday garb!

The Keep It Going Story

Give a long sheet of paper & a pencil to one of your guests. Tell them to start a story by writing a sentence. Then fold the paper down so the sentence is covered.

Hand the paper to the next person. Have them write a sentence & fold down the paper.

Continue passing the paper, adding a sentence & folding, until everyone's had a chance to write their sentence. When everyone has added a sentence, read the story out loud.

*You can propose a "theme" for the sentences also such as only write sentences that have to do with "Christmas" or "Snow" or "Gingerbread Men" or "The Grinch", etc.

*You may also want to specify "Only "G" rated sentences for family get togethers, etc."

This next one is one of my favorites to play at any family event.  Kids love it and you will have everyone laughing by the end of the game!

Sir Hinkle Funnyduster

This is a wild and crazy card game. Any number of people can play, making this a great group game!

• The game uses a regular 52-card deck.
• You must be polite and say "Please" and "Thank you."
• The object of the game is to end up with all the cards.

Deal out all the cards.

The person to the left of the dealer starts by asking any player for a kind of card--but the person must say "Please" before asking for the card. For example:"Dawn, please give me all your 3's."

A player must say "Thank you" before touching the cards being received. If anyone forgets to say "Please" or "Thank you," any player may say "Sir Hinkle Funnyduster!" The first person to say "Sir Hinkle Funnyduster" gets all the cards from the person who forgot to say "Please" or "Thank you."

Here is an example of how the game might go. Suppose Mary is first. She might say, "Chris, please give me all of your kings." Chris has two kings, so she gives them to Mary. Mary must say "Thank you" before touching the cards. Mary continues to ask for other cards from anyone.

Mary's turn is over when a player does not have a card she asks for. The person to Mary's left goes next.

Players who lose their cards may talk to anyone; but a person with cards may not talk to a person without cards. If a player with cards talks to someone without cards, anyone may say "Sir Hinkle Funnyduster" and get that person's cards.

Again, the person receiving the cards must say "Thank you" before touching the cards.

The player with all the cards at the end wins!

These are just a few games we play to keep the family event fun and interesting.  We hate sitting around looking at each other with nothing to do but eat & every year come up with new ways to make our time together fun AND entertaining! It's not just for kids, believe me! I have 3 teens now and they even enjoy the time we spend playing games, having auctions, surprise gift swaps of strange things, etc. 

Please feel free to add your OWN ideas for making your holiday parties a hit!