My hubby’s parents have always come to us for Christmas ever since they moved from Edinburgh on their retirement to live near us, so inevitably it has become a “tradition” as sacred as crackers, mince pies and satsumas. Over the years we have gradually shifted the Christmas feast from lunchtime to teatime so now we have the morning to sleep in, open presents and vegetate before they come over at 3pm. Last year, the in-laws asked us if we could have games after dinner. Games?! Good grief, is it not enough that we feed and water them and provide a perfectly good TV to fall asleep in front of, but now they want us to entertain them? Being the grinches that we are, we chuntered an agreement to this then promptly forgot all about it.
But on Christmas afternoon, after partaking in plenty of fizz and food, we were reminded of their request and, after a less than promising start with some trivia quiz questions, we decided upon that classic Christmas parlour game, Charades. We really should have prepared for this with some pre-set titles but took the dubious decision for everyone to think of their own movies, books etc, with some interesting results. Dad-in-law, George, who unfortunately has arthritic fingers, had difficulties if the charade had more than three words as none of us had any idea how many fingers he was holding up. Even his wife, Emily, shouted out “Three and a half!” at one point. He then proceeded to delve into the depths of television history with a selection of shows my poor son had never even heard of: Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green!
Husband Dougie strutted up and down the lounge like a demented chicken, constantly pulling at his ear until we realised that he was trying to be a hen and it sounded like den! A few snarls later and we realised it was Dragon’s Den. It was at this point his father, sounding puzzled, queried:”Where did the ear come into it?”
Son Rory then had everyone perplexed with a strange contorted version of Spongebob Squarepants, which meant nothing to the older generation. It was at this juncture I remembered we had a proper box of charades somewhere and amazingly I found it. It was Rory’s job to hand them out to everyone, regardless of whether they had heard of these obtuse titles. Poor Emily, having forgotten to bring her reading glasses, mistook a book title The Horse Knows the Way for The House Knows the Way. Once she was corrected by her grandson, she ignored the rules regarding not speaking and started neighing loudly. It took a dreadfully long time before we worked this one out.
But my favourite charade of all belonged to dear old George again who kept us puzzled for ages with the simple title Robin Hood. For some reason we struggled with the first word, constantly thinking it was “stealing” as he kept hiding ornaments under his jumper. He then did a fabulous pretend striptease as a “sounds like” for the second word. When we eventually got round to guessing the title we asked him what on earth the strip was all about:
“Easy”, he said, in his lilting Edinburgh accent, “it was NUDE, sounds like HOOD “.
Having endured so much forced merriment as a kid – including charades, or give us a clue as we called it – I swore blind never to repeat the same pattern. But actually it does sound like fun. Maybe we'll try it – your in-laws could have started a whole new trend!
Oh God, you have just reminded me that we are off to stay with friends for New Year and they LOVE playing games. I can't be arsed and prefer to get off to my bed but this year I have to show willing! I guess its better than sitting pie-eyed in a heap in the corner waiting to sing Auld Lang Syne!
We have Christmas dinner too as it is just too much to have lunch then sit around with a bucketload of carbs in our bellies.
Hope you have a good one and thanks for popping by my blog and leaving such a nice comment. I enjoyed your writing very much.
Hilarious – you should write it up as a sitcom script. I can just see it. Who would play George and who would play Emily?
PS Still struggling with the technical side of this whole posting/blogging thing – tried sending this comment yesterday but don't think it worked, so hope this reaches you!. And still can't add anything to my sidebar (ie, a link to your blog) without it deleting everything else that's already there! I'll figure it out in the end.
MOB – thank you for having a read. Sitting pie-eyed in the corner might have been preferable I think!
Notwaving – YEAH you did it! Though it may be because you are wordpress and mine is blogger. I had a bit of trouble trying to subscribe to your posts. It didn't work with the link on your page: eventually I had to type in the website address.
Still considering which actors could play George and Emily in my Give us a Clue sitcom…
Funnily enough I was just thinking about charades yesterday when, in my M&S mooch, I saw a board game for sale of the same title. I don't think we really need to pay for a list of films, TV or books though! I feel a definite round or two coming on this Christmas!
Wrightstuff – you have my sympathy then! Have fun with "life on mars" rhyming with "wife" and "arse": should break the ice!!
Priceless! My personal favourite is to prime everyone NOT to guess, then choose the person who's got most on my tits over the Yuletide and give them 'The House at Pooh Corner.' Hours of fun.
ELS – That's so wicked…I've added it to the list for this year.
I think this has to be one of the funniest things i've read in ages! The image of arthritic charades had me in fits. As you say, you could'nt write this stuff as often life is so much funnier than fiction! Haha!!
I'm going with Gregor Fisher for George and Annette Crosby for Emily! If you're doing charades again this year, can we all come and watch?
Do you know Craig, I had been thinking of Annette Crosby too! I just couldn't think of a George (he isn't really a Richard Wilson). Gregor Fisher, though probably not in a string vest like his alter ego Rab C Nesbit, would do the nude/hood rhyme perfectly!
Hello! Just found your blog and I love it!
"Three and a half" had me in stitches. Very funny!
Thanks Rachel. And a Geordie girl too I see from your profile! Lovely!
Had me chorlting about the neighing – think this might be a good one with my sister due to pop with her second child any day over teh holiday period; just think of the stories we'd be able to tell!
Ooooh this is a lovely reminder of charades!! I used to play this at Christmas time 'in the olden days' as my girly would say! A tradition I shall reinstate this year!! Thankyou!
So glad to have reminded you of such a great Christmas tradition! Have fun and thanks for having a read x