Ebony's Pearls

Trinkets Game
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Here's a game that's useful to have in a pocket or bag when you're going places where you know you may have a bit of a wait.

It's a small sheer bag filled with teeny trinkets. There are many ways to play this game.

It can be played as a memory game - grab a handful of trinkets from the bag, toss them into a small area, and have everyone look over it carefully for a set amount of time - longer for novices, shorter for experienced players. Then cover the trinkets with a napkin and see who remembers best what was there.

Or, grab a handful of trinkets, toss them in a small area, let people look them over for a set amount of time, then as you cover them up, take one or two trinkets away. Remove the napkin and see who spots what's missing.

Then you can play it as a pass-around story. The first person draws a trinket and starts a story with it, then passes it on to the next person, who draws a trinket and uses that to add to the story, and so on until the story ends or the trinkets are all gone.

You can build a story by drawing a set number of trinkets and using them to create a story. You can use the trinkets to write poetry, too.

You can use the trinkets as characters in a story or to wage "war" or "peace".

You can use hte trinkets to create pretty patterns, as in Elf Chess.

For children, the trinkets can be used to learn what they are (some of the trinkets are pretty obscure - a rug beater, for instance. Who besides me still uses a rug beater?).

They can put the trinkets in alphabetical order.

They can sort the trinkets.

They can use the trinkets as action figures in a story.

This little bag of trinkets can while away the time in a restaurant while waiting for your food to arrive, or take up time in a waiting room. It can spark conversation when you're sitting around waiting for something. It can be played practically anywhere by practically anyone. Because the trinkets are tactile, it can also be played by vision-impaired people, which gives it a one-up over storytelling cards.

My trinket bag contains teeny toy food: a pizza that can pass as a danish, a loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese that can pass as a slice of apple, and a milk bottle. It has a painted cowrie shell, a pair of pliers and a ball peen hammer, a wooden snowman, a wooden goblet, a glass bead fish, a glass bead flamingo, a teeny rubber duckie, a teeny clothespin, a child's toy block, a teeny plastic sword, a teeny book, a teeny pine cone, a doll house sized pencil, a teeny cauldron, a pewter dove, a very teeny Ganesh, a china mouse, two bluebird eggs (wooden), a gold ring (plastic), a turtle, a whale, a dubloon (fake), a gold plastic piece of Celtic knotwork, a piece of rose quartz, a red feather, an ancient bronze Roman coin (real), a gold Gypsy coin (fake), a dollhouse rug beater, a teensy ball of yarn and knitting needles, a pewter dragon, a plastic witch, and a plastic 4 leaf clover.

I make up these little bags and give them away as gifts, with instructions on how to play the games with them.

And now, you can, too. All you need are those little gauze drawstring bags you can buy by the dozen at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, or Hancock's (or similar stores), and little trinkets you find or buy - beads, charms, figurines, doll house things.

Then you have a simple, memorable game, and gift bag.