Women2Day - Lifestyle: Time to make your Christmas game plan

Dec 20 2009 By Chester Chronicle

When the Christmas family get-together runs out of steam, games expert Josie Curran knows just how to get it going again. We speak to her about her love of games and her Organised Fun books for grown-ups and kids, and ask which games to play so the family can enjoy some good old-fashioned fun.

Josie Curran is the ideal party guest.

She's the bubbly woman you want on your guest list when family gatherings or parties quieten down too early - or if they never got going in the first place.

The 33-year-old is a walking compendium of games, and she knows exactly how to get the fun started.

Most of us have a party game repertoire of just one - charades. But for Curran, the list is endless - she might initiate a game of Human Buckaroo by piling paper cups on a sleeping party guest, or perhaps suggest a few raucous minutes of Never Have I Ever, where players take it in turns to state something they've never done, and other players confess if they have.

While she can't spin her gaming magic at all the parties where it's needed, the good news this Christmas is that she's put all her games ideas in two books: Organised Fun For Grown-Ups and Organised Fun, which features games for both kids and adults.

So there really is no excuse for dull moments at parties and family gatherings this Christmas.

Curran says she grew up playing games. "I come from a family where we always play games whenever we get together - it's part of Christmas, Easter and so on.

"From that, I've got myself a reputation as a bit of a games expert."

Her games prowess was honed at university where, she confesses, she seemed to spend most of the time she wasn't in lectures "planning daft things and games to play".

"People just came to accept that I'd always be trying some new game idea."

Friends began to ask her how games were played, and for the rules, and eventually she decided to record them once and for all in her books.

"It's always been a part of who I am, and it just made sense to put it in a book," she says.

The books feature hundreds of ideas ranging from familiar children's games like Blind Man's Buff and Conkers, to bizarre games that you're unlikely to have heard of before, like Schnitzeljagd (a kind of scavenger hunt).

They're from a variety of sources, including the author's childhood, her own ideas and games suggested by friends, as well as a huge amount of research.

The aim is simply that the games are a good laugh, with no cost attached - and if they need props, it's just things you'd find lying around the house and garden.

So in Broom Polo, for example, the idea is the same as for polo with horses, except the kids just need bikes, brooms and a tennis ball.

While Curran says her personal favourites depend on who she's with, she currently prefers the oddly-named Fungal Bum Candle, which involves participants trying to put out a candle in a jar using a mushroom hanging from string tied to their belt loop.

"It should be played in the latter stages of the evening," she laughs.

She's also keen on Ellie's Brilliant Name Game, where players write 10 names on pieces of paper which are put into a hat. The players split into teams and take turns, in a set time, to describe the famous person in various ways without actually saying their name.

"That's a brilliant one to play," she enthuses, "because you can play it with people of any age, anywhere."

Curran's fun outlook is reflected a little in her lifestyle - she lives in a houseboat off an island on the Thames in London with her partner Barney, their two-month-old son Herbie, a dog and a menagerie of swans, geese, ducks and cormorants.

Little Herbie is still too young to play games, but it won't be long before he's an ideal candidate for his mum's Baby Racing game.

Demonstrating that competition can start early in life, the game involves several babies aged at least six months who crawl, or drag themselves, from one parent to another along a short makeshift 'racetrack'.

Curran laments the fact that her enthusiasm for games isn't universal, but believes that while games have lost popularity over the last 50 years, they're beginning to come back.

"In Victorian times it was something people did when they got together, but the demise has gone hand in hand with the arrival of television and other easy ways you can distract yourself.

"The only time people play games now is when the TV or computer's broken, or there's a blackout.

"But it's getting better - I think that finally there's a sort of 'kidult' idea of re-engaging with your inner child.

"It's paved the way for there being a real appetite for games and home-spun fun at the moment - a resurgence in interest in old-fashioned ways to spend time together."

While the old favourite charades is in her book, it comes in several different guises, including the potentially hilarious Remember When?

In this version, instead of picking a film or book to mime, contestants act out an embarrassing moment from one of the group's lives.

"It's a really funny way of going through your memories when you all get together," says Curran, who goes on to relate how she mimes the time a boyfriend was sick over her in a restaurant on their first date.

For a spot of really successful game playing, Curran says you need a member of the group to be game leader, and they need to have the confidence to put ideas forward.

"If you present it in the right way and are boundingly enthusiastic about it, people will be swept along with you."

But before you sweep them along, make sure you have a number of games up your sleeve, and you know the rules.

"When you get to a certain stage in an evening, you've all sat around and you've eaten dinner and the conversation's started to run out, you just need something to give the night a new burst of energy," says Curran.

"Introducing a game re-engages people and gets them to connect."

At Christmas family gatherings, that can mean the older generation connects with the kids because they have a common goal in the game.

But for Curran, the best part of all is the memories playing games creates.

"Outside of the bonding and entertaining, for me it's such a brilliant way of making an evening or a day more memorable.

"When I look back on my childhood, the times with my family that I remember really clearly are the times when we were all laughing together playing a game."

Christmas games

Try Curran's top Christmas games for a fun festive season.

- Human Christmas tree

A great way for kids to get creative with leftover wrapping paper and decorations - all you need is a pile of post-present opening debris.

Split into teams, and equally divide up all the leftover wrapping paper, ribbons and packaging so there's a healthy pile for each team.

Decide who's going to be the Christmas tree in each team, and the teams then have five minutes to turn their elected player into the best Christmas tree using the leftover debris.

Prizes are awarded for creative use of materials, as well as closeness to the real Christmas tree form.

- Father Christmas's beard

This is a team race for all ages to see who can create the best Father Christmas within a set time. You need cotton wool balls and a pot of Vaseline per team, chairs and a stopwatch.

Get everyone into teams, with one nominated Father Christmas per team.

He/she sits in a chair, and on the 'Go' command, the rest of the team use their Vaseline and cotton wool to create the most recognisable Father Christmas by sticking cotton wool balls onto the nominated person's face with Vaseline.

The best Father Christmas after 60 seconds wins.