There is so much more you can do with candy cane other than let it collect dust on your christmas tree!
Candy Cane Hunt
While the kids aren't paying attention go outside and hang candy canes around the yard. Give each child a stocking and have them go outside and find candy canes.
Candy Cane Pick Up – Place a pile of candy canes on a table and provide a tray or basket for each player. Give each player a candy cane to put in his mouth with the hook end down. The player must use the candy cane hook to pick up the other candy canes and move them to the basket. The player with the most candy canes in their basket after one minute wins!
Candy Canes
If you have played the card game Spoons, then substitute Candy Canes for spoons and you are ready to play. If you have never played Spoons, here are the directions so you can play Candy Canes.
This game is best played with 6 people or less, as you need to be able to reach the Candy Canes.
Getting Started
To get started you will need a deck of cards, candy canes (you’ll want 1 less candy cane then people playing, so if 6 people you start with 5 candy canes), pencil and paper.
Have everyone sit around the table and place the Candy Canes in the middle of the table.
Select a dealer, have them shuffle the cards and deal out 4 cards to each player. The remaining cards are then placed face down in front of the dealer.
Game Goal The goal of Candy Canes is to be the first to get 4 of a Kind in your hand. Once you have 4 of a Kind you can take a Candy Cane as unnoticeable as possible.
After the first Candy Cane is taken, any player can then grab a Candy Cane (you don’t need 4 of a Kind to grab a Candy Cane at this point) and the player who does not grab a Candy Cane is given a point or letter in the word C-A-N-D-Y.
If a player get 5 points or has all the letters in the word C-A-N-D-Y, then they are out of the game and 1 Candy Cane is removed from the middle of the table.
Last player remaining wins.
How to Play Candy Canes
Once all the players have been dealt their cards and the remaining cards are in front of the dealer, the game begins.
The dealer selects the top card from the remaining deck of cards and decides whether to:
a. Add the card to their hand and discard an unwanted card by passing it to the next player on their left.
b. Immediately pass the card on to the next player on their left.
Once a card is passed to the next player, the dealer may then pick up the next card in the deck.
The person receiving the dealers card must then decide whether they want to keep or pass the card. This continues as each player around the table begins reviewing cards. Be aware cards will be moving at a very fast pace, so you need to decide quickly if you want a card.
Note: Players can only have 4 cards in their hand so every time a card is added one must be discarded.
The last player to receive the cards, the player on the dealer’s right, will create a pile of unwanted cards then are no longer in play.
If all the cards are passed and no player gets 4 of a Kind, then the unwanted cards are shuffled by the dealer and the process begins again. Note: This rarely occurs, but it can happen.
Once someone has 4 of a Kind, they pull a Candy Cane from the middle and then others will follow. The person who doesn’t get a Candy Cane earns a point or a letter in the word C-A-N-D-Y. Once a player has 5 points or the word C-A-N-D-Y is spelled out that person is out of the game and a candy cane is removed.
Once a Round of Candy Canes is complete the candy canes are placed back in the center and the cards move to the next dealer. Play until there is a winner.
Candy cane and cookies race
The players each have to put a candycane in their mouths and balance a cookie on it. The first person to make it down then turnaround and back wins!
Candy Cane wrap
Using white toilet paper and red ribbon or party streamers wrap up someone like a candy cane
Candy Cane Pick up Stix
Materials
Candy canes, wrapped or unwrapped, stacked into a pile. You can use some candy canes of a different color and give them a higher point value. Traditionally, there are Blue Sticks – 50 Points, Green Sticks – 40 Points, Red Sticks – 25 Points, Yellow Sticks – 10 Points. Change this according to the frequency of colors and rarity for your candy canes.
Activity
Played like traditional pick-up-sticks, the objective is to remove one candy cane from the pile without disturbing the remaining candy canes. Use a small stick such as a kebab skewer or chopstick as a tool in picking up the candy canes. The first player picks up candy canes, one at a time, until he causes any other candy cane to move besides the one he is attempting to pick up. The other team then gets its chance to do the same.
Candy cane horseshoes
Materials
Candy canes and a stick. Be sure the candy canes are wrapped in plastic as they are almost guaranteed to break into a number of small pieces during game play. For indoor games you can either drive a nail into a flat piece of wood or turn a table or stool over and use one of the legs as the post.
Activity
In the manner of playing horseshoes, the objective is to take turns to toss the candy cane at an upright stick. Place a stick vertically somewhere in the ground. Then participants take turns throwing candy canes (underhand) at it. A game is divided into rounds and each round constitutes the pitching of two candy canes by each contestant. In each round, the one with the highest score goes first.The objective of the game is to get your candy cane closest.
Scoring
A candy cane must be within six (6) inches of the stake to score. A candy cane that first strikes the ground outside the target area or rebounds from behind the stake cannot be scored, nor can any candy cane thrown from an invalid position. A “ringer” (3 points) is a candy cane that encircles the stake so that a straight edge could touch the two prongs without touching the stake. The closest cane from each pair scores 1 point. A leaning shoe has no value over one touching the stake. The points are scored according to the position of the shoes at the round’s end, that is, after the contestants have each thrown two candy canes. This means it is possible for the second player to knock the opponents candy canes either away or closer to the stake.
Santa lost his candy canes in the snow and has asked his reindeer to sniff them out.
Game Play
Each reindeer is given a pie-tin or tray of whipped cream. In each pie tin are two hidden pieces of candy canes. The aim is to sniff for the candy canes without the use of hands. First reindeer to sniff out the candy canes and come up with it in their teeth is a winner.
In America’s introduction to Christmas candy canes is often traced to August Imgard, a German immigrant who’s credited with introducing the Christmas tree to Ohio in 1847. The National Confectioners Association, for instance, says that Imgard “decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments and candy canes.” But a 1938 article on a ceremony that honored Imgard’s contribution and included three generations of his family mentions a different kind of sweet:
Ornaments were made of paper, festooned in long chains by the younger members of the pioneer community. Kuchen baked according to a recipe sent from Bavaria by Imgard’s mother, hung upon the tree and served both as ornaments and tidbits. The cookies were colored with brown sugar and the family spent weeks baking them in quantities for the guests. Gilded nuts were other ornaments and inside the gilded shells were warm messages of greeting.
Red-and-white striped candy didn’t start showing up until around the turn of the century. But there is one thing that Christians can claim as their own, when it comes to the candy cane. It’s not the shape, or the stripes, but the machine that actually makes them into J’s. Here’s Today I Found Out again:
Father Keller was the brother-in-law of the aforementioned Bob McCormack. McCormack was having trouble at the time because about 22% of the candy canes produced by Bob and his crew were ending up in the trash, because they broke during the bending process. Keller’s machine automated this process and shortly thereafter was perfected by Dick Driskell and Jimmy Spratling, both of which worked for Bob McCormack. This made it so the candy canes came out perfect nearly every time.
So while it’s unlikely Christians invented the candy cane, but they might have perfected it.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/we-dont-know-the-origins-of-the-candy-cane-but-they-almost-certainly-were-not-christian-157380385/#kdXqJEHV6SxGwblT.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment