Celebrate The Winter Solstice With Beloved Old Parlour Games

The Winter Solstice is a time for celebration in many varied cultures across the globe. We all, at this point of the year, need lifting from the dark. We all crave a bit of fun to distract us from the cold and the long nights. Well, to help us all do just that, we have collected a fun filled list of festive parlour games that have been tried and tested by many generations and are sure to offer distraction and seasonal cheer.

 

This is a game with a simple premise and hysterical results. It is sure to banish any winter malaise.

 

Sit in circle, or as close to a circle as the size of your group will allow. At gradually increasing speed take it in turns around the circle to say “HA”, “HO” or “HEE”. The last one to laugh wins.

 

This game is an alternate version of “Would I Lie To You”. One person in the group picks, from a dictionary, the most obscure word they can find and reads it aloud. Every other person writes what they believe the definition to be on a piece of paper and passes it back to the reader. The reader than reads all the proposed definitions out load along with the real definition if it hasn’t been hit upon by any of the players. Each player states which definition they believe to be correct.

 

Points are awarded for each time a definition is picked and for picking the correct definition.

 

This game requires one “sculptor” and a selection of “subjects”.

 

The people who are deemed “subjects” each pull a pose of their choosing and freeze in that pose (the results of the game are more amusing if the subjects are preforming an action). The “sculptor” may now arrange the “subjects” in any manner they choose to create a tableau.

 

(Photographic evidence of the resulting interactions is advised)

 

We are all aware of Charades, the rules needn’t be repeated but a fun alternate version of the game is one popular from the 1920’s. Nebuchadnezzar can be played in teams or as one group.

 

If playing in teams:

 

One team agrees on a personality from History, The Public Eye, or Fiction, take “CAESAR” for example. This team then proceeds to act out in turn, a character whose name begins with a letter from the original person’s name. So, one person might act out “C…harlie Chaplin”, then another “A…lexander The Great”, then another “E…lon Musk”, and so on until “CEASAR” is spelt out. The other team guesses with the aim being to guess the overall character before it has been fully spelled out. Points can be awarded for every letter that wasn’t acted out, if desired.

 

This continues, alternating groups.

 

If playing as one group:

 

The original Character is picked jointly or on a rotational basis and the whole group is aware of that character. The game comes from guessing the letter characters from the performances and from knowing what the first letter will be.

 

So, draw the curtains, light the fire and fill up your glasses. Enjoy winter the old-fashioned way.