I am kinda expected to think of interesting things to do at our extended family gatherings. I thought I’d share what I put together for Easter’s after lunch fun. We had twenty-five people at our house, about half of them were in their teens, with a few eight and nine year olds. A lot of the adults were curious and gladly took part as well, rather than sit and stare at each other. Having curious, fun, people always helps.
I put a different “ingredient” from our kitchen into each container. I cut a flap into each and pasted a bigger piece of cardboard to the flap so it could easily be opened and the contents sniffed. I wanted to try to keep the smells gathered inside unless the flap was opened so the smells stayed pungent.
I set the containers outside, all around our house, and in view. One of the rules was you had to fill out your paper in the order that it showed, so the right container had to be found before you could sniff the contents and guess what it was. Definitely added another level to the game.
Each contestant got a piece of paper with a unique order of containers to find a smell in a different order. The unique order thing also kept contestants dispersed and not waiting in line to smell a container.
I bought these cardboard gift boxes for 1.99 for a dozen, which was the grand total I spent on this game. I made each one a different color to correspond with a line on the contestants forms, but they could’ve been numbered or lettered, or whatever. Numbering and lettering would’ve made the containers a little harder to identify which could’ve been good. I made the order of finding the containers different for each piece of paper, and that was probably the most difficult part of the whole thing.
I taped two of the smell containers onto some hats that were worn by fun-loving adults at the party who were told to wander around and wait for people to ask to smell their hats.
I also lined the bottom and sides of the containers with aluminum foil so that the more liquidy contents didn’t leak.
The “key” or the page with the answers was inside the house where the contestants went and checked their answers after being finished. I was the judge of many questions, like “The answer sheet says ‘mint’, but my answer was ‘spearmint’. Does that count?” You must be able to play the part of a wise and powerful judge.
All ties in the numbers of correct answers among contestants are broken by which of those contestants finished first. So it would probably be good if the finishing time was written on each sheet for later.
The “Key”. (The kids hated the tuna one, which was quite funny. Don’t put anything too terrible inside though, because people probably won’t play your game the next time. Also, don’t make a person wearing one of the hats wear a bad smell.
This game needs a better name, and I await any ideas in the comments. I made this up in one day, so I’m also sure there could be changes and improvements.
Good luck and happy sniffing!
