I learned a new Australian game over the weekend -- pass the parcel! Generally it seems this is played at children's parties, but seeing as I'd never encountered it before, I was rather amused by it. Basically the idea is that hosts wrap up a large series of small gifts -- in our case, mini koala toys, Mars bars and magnets, all with Bible verses -- each in their own sheet of newspaper with all the previous gifts. Our parcel is going to the Jesus Club, which is a group of adults with disabilities who meet for socializing and Bible study. I think the idea is that it gets passed as the music plays and, when it stops, the person holding it gets to open one layer and keep the present.
6 comments:
Trying to understand this game. All the presents end up individually wrapped within one great big package, that is opened layer by layer, each layer revealing one individually wrapped present?
Yes, that's right :)
I'm amazed - I would have thought that this game was as ubiquitous as Pin the tail on the Donkey (don't tell me you don't have this one).
Normally there is one major prize in the middle and only occasionally a small sweetener prize (mini chocolate or toy) in the outer layers (i.e. not every layer has a prize) and, of course, the secular version doesn't have the Bible verses.
The idea is indeed that music is played and when the music stops the person holding the parcel gets to unwrap a layer and keep the prize (if there is one) under that layer alone. Getting children to play fair and not hold onto the parcel is the challenging bit, particularly as the size of the parcel dwindles.
Now, tell me, do you have the chocolate game? Musical chairs? An equivalent of seeing how long of an unbroken string you can tear a Mintie wrapper?
Our children do play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and musical chairs; the other games I am unfamiliar with. I don't believe we even have Minties (or at least they don't go by that name if we do), but competitively tearing a wrapper into long strips is not anything we would typically do anyway, unless, perchance, we were very nervous.
Chocolate game:
* You need a regular 6-sided die, a 'family sized' block of chocolate (works best if it's hardened by being in the fridge for a while before the game - at least overnight) and a plate and knife and fork
* Have everyone sit in a circle (works best for largish groups - say a dozen or so).
* Participants take turns to roll the die. If they get a specific number (e.g. 6) they get to cut up the chocolate block into pieces and eat it, only consuming one piece at a time. The chocolate block needs to be cold and hard to cut to slow people down.
* They must use the fork to get a piece into their mouth (yeah, yeah, exclude all those with colds or other saliva-transmissible disease).
* As soon as someone else rolls the specified number they have to put the implements down even if they are half-way to getting a piece of chocolate into their mouth. This is the hardest part to enforce / get people to obey the rules.
Minities are a chewy, mint flavoured lolly (candy) individually wrapped in a type of wax paper (rather than say a plastic or cellophane type of paper) that can be torn with the fingernails. One tears it around the square, so to speak, to get a long string with no breaks (like one might try to peel an apple or orange without breaking the peel). There's a prize for the one with the longest string (has to be some reward other than kudos for the effort to encourage participation).
This game is more suited for older children (late primary / early high school) who have the fine-motor skills and concentration levels to persevere. It provides a good opportunity for the host to keep the kids occupied while they organise something else (food / other activity).
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