If gifts are to be distributed it adds a great
deal to the fun to have a bit of mystery about it. Santa Claus
comes in with his pack on the back. After the usual preliminaries
he announces that has a wonderful lot of gifts in his pack,
but that the only way a guest can get one of the wonderful packages
is to guess what is inside it! You know what this element of
mystery will do for children!
All the gifts are done up in tissues pare in queer shapes, so
that is no clew as to what they are. Santa Claus takes out one
gift at a time, holds it up in front of the guests, and asks
them to guess what it is. The first one to call out that is
it a book, although its wrappings make it look more like a windmill
than a book, gets the package, but is not allowed to open it
until all the guests have received their gifts. Each guest receives
just one gift of course, and drops out of the guessing contest
when he receives his package.
When all the packages have been distributed they are all opened
at the same time. No further entertainment is necessary!
However, if children are present, Santa Claus must be a very
tactful person. He notices that one little mite is too timid
to speak up and says what she thinks is in a package, so he
picks up a gift, turns to her and say directly to her, “Tell
me, Jean, what do you think is in here?” and helps her
along the until she guesses just what it is, much to her surprise
and delight. Other children may have interrupted to tell Santa
Claus what they thought was in the package, but Santa has suddenly
stricken deaf, and cannot hear them, having ears only for Jean
for the time being.
Also, if there are both girls and boys present and Santa is
afraid that a boy will guess a doll package, the names of the
different gifts are written on their outside wrappings, and
Santa may announce, “This next gift is something in which
only the girls are interested. Let a boy make a guess at his
own peril!” |
