Prohibited Words.
We have used over and over again the game in which certain words are prohibited, but we used it as a game that had a definite time limit. It has proved far more effective to put a ban on those words for the entire evening. Perhaps these words are “Yes” and “No,” or “You” and “I.” All through the evening those words are forbidden. Anyone heard using them pays a fine to the one who caught him making that social error.
At each offense a fine of one candy or one bean or one of whatever thing is used as the means of exchange, is exacted from the one who made the error. This means of exchange may depend on the season. On Valentine Day it might be little candy hearts in small bags; at Easter, little candy eggs; or at Christmas, tiny bright red candies. However, just plain beans may be used, a small bag being provided in which to carry them.
Perhaps you think that if candy is used, your guests may eat their means of exchange before the evening is half over. Warn them against it. Then, at the end of the evening, just before the last game, ask for a count of their “money,” and as it happens, “To him that hath shall be given.” The richest one is given additional riches in the shape of a box of candy, with the assurance that he need not open it till he gets home! The ten who made the most lapses and consequently have the least money, and those who ate most of their money, are obliged to give up any they still hold and to sit on the platform as the infant class while their brighter and less greedy brothers and sisters march past them, munching their candy!
It is easy enough to remember not to say “Yes” or “No” to anyone, when that is the particular game of the moment, but to have to remember not to use those words through all the nonsense of the evening is a slightly different matter. Another very good phase of this game as a mixer is that it gives a real incentive for people to talk to each other, even if they have never seen one another before—all for the sake of a bean!