"At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year." - Thomas Tusser

As this is my third year posting some sort of game at Christmas I think I can safely call it a tradition...if you haven't guessed by now, for me, some sort of g. is a necessity to while away the post-present opening/pre-feasting time period (though Mr. Heb will no longer play Monopoly with me as he claims I illicit too much glee from buying all the property and sending my fellow players to the poor house in record time).

This year's festive time-killing suggestions come from The Week-End Book, published in 1931...a time when, if this book is anything to go by, a weekend was considered a dead loss unless it consisted of good food and drink, a hearty dose of poetry, the singing of a few traditional ballads, some bird watching in the morning, and star gazing at night, some discussion on architecture and law, and games (both physical and mental). Ah, the good old days. And so...without further ado...the "sedate, intellectual game"...

The "fun with the right group of people game"...

And the "I really need to get out of the house more" puzzle...and, no, the 10 puzzles before this one were no less ponderous...

With or without games, I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas...frolicsome Festivus...or other, suitably entertaining, holiday shindig. Without you, dear readers, it would be very lonesome around here...