Playing "Consequences"

There are traditions that are good to let fade away, and then there are new ones that are fun to incorporate.

One tradition that is constant in my family at Christmas is playing an old English children's party game called "Consequences." In this game, each person has a piece of paper and a pencil. At the top of the page, you write down a man's name. You fold your piece of paper over so no-one else can see it, and pass it on to the person on your right. You take the piece of paper from the person on your left and write down a woman's name. No-one knows what has been written before on the piece of paper they are writing on. And so it goes... passing on the piece of paper after each entry, which are as follows:

1. A man's name
2. A woman's name
3. Where they met
4. At what time
5. What he said to her
6. What she said to him.
7. What his reaction was
8. What her reaction was
9. What the consequence was
10. And what the lesson is for us all

After you've written down the last entry (#10) everyone has a piece of paper that is folded over many times. Throw all the folded up papers into a hat. Each person picks one out, and takes turns unfolding it and reading it out. It really gets silly and it helps that everyone is digesting and a bit squiffy.

Here is one from this last, drunken Christmas bout of "Consequences":

... George Bush met
... Georgia O'Keefe
... In a pet shop
... In the early hours of dawn
... He said to her: "Be gentle with me, I'm feeling very vulnerable"
... She said to him: "Everything you read on the bathroom wall is true... because I wrote it"
... He invited her to sit on his lap, with a leer
... She was moved to tears by his tenderness
... The consequence was they ran out of whipped cream and threw themselves into the pool
... And the lesson for us all is: Loose elastic in your knickers can be detrimental AND beneficial to your social life

Yes... it helps to be very, very squiffy. But honestly, it is fun with the right group, and it can get quite naughty too.