Shoe the Wild Mare - Strange Christmas Games

Shoeing the Wild Mare is a traditional Christmas game that goes back to at least the early 17th century.
Get a narrow(a few inches wide),strong wooden beam and suspend it from the roof with two even length ropes. The beam is the 'mare' of the title and should be level yet high enough above the floor so that a player's feet are off-ground. A player 'the farrier' then sits on the 'mare' in the centre, a leg either side. This player has a hammer and has to give the underside of the beam "four time eight blows" at a designated spot. If he falls off, it is someone else's turn.
Much hilarity, and the odd broken shoulder ensues.

nursery rhyme:
SHOEING
Shoe the colt,
Shoe the colt,
Shoe the wild mare;
Here a nail,
There a nail,
Yet she goes bare.

weird web: wiltshire white horses
strange games no:89...category: party games

Snapdragons - strange games with fire #1

As Christmas Eve approaches the nation tries to decide which family game to play. Should it be a classic board game, a cosy parlour game or maybe even a DVD quiz game. No, please don't make those mistakes...there is only one game for Christmas Eve: Snapdragons.
Very popular from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Snapdragons (or Flapdragons) has explicably declined in popularity.
Gather everyone around the dining room table, place a large flat dish in the centre. In the dish scatter a good handful of raisins then pour on top a layer of brandy or cognac. Set fire to the brandy and dim the lights. Players take it in turns to pluck a raisin out of the burning liquid and eat it quickly down. For a more competitive edge to the game use larger dried fruit such as apricots, one of which has a lucky sixpence stuffed inside.
Equipment needed: plate, matches, raisins, brandy, address of nearest accident and emergency department

Snapdragons, famously, makes an appearance in Lewis Carroll's Through The Looking Glass:

"Look on the branch above your head", said the Gnat, "and there you will find a Snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum pudding, its wings of holly leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy."

...

Alice thought to herself, "I wonder if that's the reason insects are so fond of flying into candles - because they want to turn into Snap-dragon-flies."

strange games no:88..category: Christmas games
Strange Games the Videos: Snapdragons