Читать книгу Montegue Blister’s Strange Games: and other odd things to do with your time - Alan Down - Страница 47

On Christmas Eve many families try to decide which game to play. Either a classic board game, a cosy parlour game or maybe even a DVD quiz game. Please don’t make those mistakes, there is only one game for Christmas Eve: Snapdragons.

Very popular from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, Snapdragons, or Flapdragons as it is also known, has explicably declined in popularity.

All you need to play is a bowl, some matches, raisins and brandy…and the address of your nearest accident and emergency department. Gather everyone around the dining-room table, place a large flat dish in the centre and into this scatter a good handful of raisins. Pour a layer of brandy or cognac over the dried

fruit, then set fire to the brandy and dim the lights. Players take it in turns to pluck a raisin out of the burning liquid and quickly eat it.

For a more competitive edge to the game, use larger dried fruit such as apricots, and stuff one of these with a lucky sixpence.