10. October—Hallowe’en.
11. November—Thanksgiving.
12. December—Christmas.
Bag Handshake.
Each guest is given a paper bag which is to be put on his right hand. He is to shake hands with everyone in sight, the bag being an indicator of how zealous he has been in his efforts! As soon as it is worn out he may rest in peace, but not until then.
The Little Theater.
The plan of “Holidays” is used over and over with different “motives.” One of them is musical. The words of a song like “Yankee Doodle” are written out on separate slips which are numbered alike. They might all be numbered. “1.” The second song might be “Dixie,” and its words are similarly written out on slips and numbered “2.” Each guest is given a number and is asked to find all others who have the same number. When everyone has found his or her group they are to have just a very few minutes in which to practice their song. When the time is up the leader calls out each group in turn and asks them to sing their song, at the same time putting enough dramatic action into their performance to really get the motive of the song across! The group which the judges agree on as best gets a bag of peanuts.
Dressing Up.
There is nothing like “dressing up” to make a crowd relax and laugh. Therefore, with a large group of guests, most of them strangers to one another, use caps and bells for as successful a mixer as you could desire. Fancy paper caps can be bought very inexpensively when bought in quantity, and the same is true of tiny bells. Each guest is provided with a little bell which has a string attached by which to hang it around his neck, and also one of these foolish paper caps. They are all asked to put on both bells and caps and to keep them on all evening.
A crowd of guests thusly adorned looks foolish enough to furnish entertainment for a long, long time!