3 Great Games
for Holiday
Get-Togethers
Written By Michelle L. Dozois
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2. The Object of My Affection is a dinner game that will keep the kids engaged and everyone's stories flowing.
prep: A few days before your family gathering, ask everyone to pick out a small object to bring with them, something that has a story behind it. Explain that other people will have to guess who it belongs to, so you don't want something with a name or picture on it (or anything breakable, since it'll be passed around — perhaps not so gently). Ask them to conceal it in gift wrap or newspaper.
setup: Leave a basket or canvas bag near the door where people can drop off their wrapped objects.
play: Starting with an adult, pass the basket and have each person unwrap one object and guess whose it is. They also have to guess the story behind it. (Outlandish stories hold the kids' attention better than serious guesses, as in, "I bet Grandma found this seashell when she was washing behind her ears.") Then pass the object to the person you just named. If the guess is not correct, that person has to take a turn guessing who the owner is. (Grandpa says, "It's not mine. I bet my sister bought it at a gift shop in the desert," and passes it to her.) Set a limit of two passes before the owner must 'fess up with the real story.
our results: Kid testers kept forgetting to make up a story to go with the object before they passed it, but they loved listening to the wacky stories the adults came up with, like Jeff's guess that a small garden gnome was Nora's..."and it's a statue of her grandpa." The real stories can be amusing too: When 7-year-old Michaela found out that an object belonged to her mom, she exclaimed, "You're my own mother, and I didn't even know that!"
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