Take a Break

If you’re planning a Christmas party for a group of elementary-age children, there are a myriad of really fun games you can include. Be sure to have lots of prizes and take lots of pictures because some of the games can be silly!

To get the kids moving around, start with the “fill the stocking” game. In this game, create teams so there are at least 3 people and no more than perhaps 6 people on each team. Have a stocking for each team. Place the stockings on the wall and have also a bowl of candy and spoons. The first person on each team will put the spoon in their mouth (backwards, so the bowl of the spoon is sticking out) and get some candy out of the bowl. Still holding their spoon in their mouth, they must walk or run to the stocking on the wall and get the candy in the stocking. They run back to the line and the next child has a turn (each child should have his or her on spoon). The game continues until the candy bowl is empty.

The obvious prize for the stocking game is a big bowl of candy!

Another active game is an “unwrap the game” relay. Provide two piles presents at one end of the room (these can be presents with real teats inside, or “dummy” wrapped presents). The children are divided into two teams and a relay is created. One person runs to the stack of gifts, unwraps it, throws away the paper and runs back. Then the next child in line runs up, unwraps a gift, throws away the paper and runs back. If the paper lands outside the trash can, the child must run back and put it back in the trashcan before returning to the line and allowing another person to take a turn.

If these to games are played first the kids might want a little rest. Now’s the time to play a sit-down Christmas party game, like “remember this”. Get a large cookie sheet or baking tray and fill it with Christmas-themed items. You might include an ornament, a candy cane, a Santa hat, garland, ribbon, etc. There should be at least 20 items on the tray. Give each child about 20 seconds to look at the items, then cover the tray and remove it from sight. Give the children another 20-30 seconds to remember everything they saw on the tray. Have them quickly write don their guesses. The prize is for whoever remembers the most items!  Read more...

When it comes to silly party games, it seems unfair that birthdays get all the attention and Christmas none. It’s time to bring back some silly party games for Christmas, and “Pin the beard on Santa” is as good a place to start as any.

To begin this game, you need a cardboard cutout of Santa. This can be purchased at some party stores, or even little gift shops. It doesn’t have to be large, but it should be a big face of Santa. You can also find these at educational supply stores, or teacher supply stores, in the section of other cardboard decoration items that teachers put on classroom walls.

Once you get Santa’s face home, cut off his beard. That’s right, cut if clean off. There’s no point in pinning Santa’s beard on him if it’s already there, right? The beard you sliced off can either be thrown away or keep it to tape back up later, if you want to use Santa’s face for another game or as decoration.

Now, you can create several beards out of different items. It’s easy to take a piece of thick cardstock and cut the beard out of that, or you can use foam with adhesive backing. You can simply peel the backing off right before it’s used. You could also make the beard out of crumpled white paper, simply computer paper or the like. If you want to get a bit more elaborate, create Santa’s beard out of cotton balls or a large piece of cotton pulled and shaped into the semblance of a beard.  Read more...

Yachting traditionally is thought of in terms of the fun that can be had on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean, the Greek islands or some other exotic location.  And to be sure, a yacht is an ideal way to combine the adventure of being on the water for days or weeks and the kind of luxury that really makes your holiday memorable and relaxing.

Another entire world of yachting that is just as exciting and bursting with activity is the world of yacht racing or yachting for speed.  This seems to be a natural evolution on the original design of the Yacht when the boat was designed by the Dutch to chase down pirates.  Those yachts had to be fast and very maneuverable to live up to their purpose.  While those rough and tumble days in the history of yachting were long ago, modern yachts designed for racing are sleek and efficient machines just as much.

When it comes to the capital of competitive yachting, some would say that the little town of Cowes England on the Isle of Wight often claims that title.  The Cowes Week is a yacht sailing festival that draws enthusiasts from far and wide.  The event is neatly organized so those who are “hard core” competitive yachting devotees can engage in world class racing. But there are also some lower key races called “class” races for those of us who would like to race our yachts but maybe are not as dedicated to it just yet.  Read more...

It is not uncommon for a yacht trip to be exciting.  To take a cruise around the Mediterranean or the Caribbean and enjoy exotic cities, cuisine such as you never have known before and a nightlife that never ends may be the ultimate of luxury and pleasure for many yachters.  But there is a breed of yachting enthusiast who like the crew who must climb tall mountains that are as dangerous as they are beautiful, they must use their yachts to find high adventure.

There is no question that a well made yacht is the perfect way to approach finding an adventure of a lifetime.  By definition, adventure is going out there “without a rope” and finding excitement where it can be found.  That means that unlike those who stay in charter waters, you will use your yachting adventure to seek new places to explore, to find danger where it does not want to be found and to have excitement that only life threatening adventures can give.

A typical high adventure yacht outing would be to sail around the outback of Australia where the untamed lands and peoples are not used to seeing such a vessel and may not be friendly to your arrival.  Because you do have the relative safety of the yacht, you can pick and choose when to go ashore for some hunting or exploring.  Your objective is twofold which is to get around the entire continent and to stop and explore every day.  To make the journey even more exciting, only take provisions for a few days of a journey that will take weeks.  That means you must find food on shore in hostile environs which pits you against nature for survival.  Read more...