Handmade Gifts

For the past several Christmases I have made my gifts to my children by hand. With one exception, all of these gifts have been made from wood, and most of that wood from wood I've reclaimed from fallen branches in my back yard. This year was different, but over half the time I've been able to put together what are, in my mind, some nice gifts from reclaimed materials, including a chess set, a Tafl board and pieces, the game of Senet, and the Royal Game of Ur.

This year the gifts were all games again, but instead of an "ancient games" theme, this year was "pub themed" games.

Game One: Shove ha'Penny

Shove ha'Penny is a traditional English pub game which, traditionally, used "half pennies" as pieces. I'm supplying American pennies with this version. The rules are simple: shove the penny along the board and have them land within the slots to score.

This particular piece is still missing the backstop, but it's ready to go otherwise, with the board sanded, prepped, and stained on one side, and the instructions printed on the reverse.

Another traditional pub game, the goal of Shut the Box is to roll the correct amounts to flip all the dominoes before your opponent does.

Game Two: Shut The Box

Game Three: Deck of Cards

Okay, so cards aren't really a pub game, per se, but one of my boys likes to collect deck's of cards, so this year I decided to make him one. But, being me, I wanted to have some fun with it. I happened to have some coffin shaped boxes from a Halloween party a couple years ago and decided to design coffin shaped cards:

Now, I know I'm fighting a losing battle: the boys will be more interested in the electronics and electronic games they get from others, but I will continue to make and build them personal items every year until I'm no longer able to. And if anyone is interested, I'll be more than happy to share the details of how I produced any of these.

(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe