FAMILY PARTY GAMES FOR CHRISTMAS

The vicar's cat

How to play
Each person takes his or her turn to describe and name 'the vicar's cat', using letters of the alphabet in order. For example, the first player might say: 'The vicar's cat is arrogant and his name is Albert' and the next may continue with: 'The vicar's cat is belligerent and her name is Bessie'.

Keep going until a player hesitates for too long, when they have to drop out or - to stay in the game - do a forfeit chosen by the previous player.

Variation: You can make this game more complicated by insisting that each new player recites the whole list so far. So, player three would have to say: 'The vicar's cat is arrogant and his name is Albert; the vicar's cat is belligerent and her name is Bessie' before going on to think of an example for the letter 'C'.

The yes/no game

How to play
Give each player in the room five matchsticks. Divide players into pairs. One of each pair thinks of an object (it could be an ornament, an animal or anything else that springs to mind) and their partner then quizzes them to find out what it is.

The first player must answer all questions without saying 'yes' or 'no'. As soon as a 'yes' or 'no' is given, that player is given one of his or her opponent's matchsticks.

Play then rotates so that partners swap and change until everyone has played against each other. The first player to lose all their matchsticks - or the one with the least at the end of the tournament - is the winner.