Young people would show up at the usual time, some ready for the festivities, others completely taken by surprise. We would play silly games in the hall - those time-honoured team-building activities such as passing a balloon between the legs or an orange under the chin.
I started to do this after visiting a youth project in a converted chapel. Upstairs they had put in a false floor and installed a bouncy castle. Those bouncing up and down were cool-dude teenagers in all the right attire but without their shoes on. Instantly, I realised how important it was for teenagers to be children once again. Hence our Christmas parties. We played pass the parcel, where the end prize (usually a bar of chocolate) was quite unimportant. We played musical chairs, which was often somewhat rougher than we remembered - burly and competitive teenagers are more physical than small children. And then we sat down for jelly and cakes, telling stories and cracking jokes.
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