'My Christmas Quiz Is A Hoot!'

Well, I am glad to say that my annual Christmas Quiz went down a storm at my Shorelink Writers club meeting yesterday. Our last regular meeting of the year (before our Christmas meal next week)  I am usually called upon to put a Christmas themed quiz together for a bit of fun.

Ye noble chocolate rations!

As ever, I supplied the three teams led by Ro, Brian and Alan (2), with a 'chocolate ration' to keep their spirits up and their brains fed during the evening and dressed in a suitable daft way to MC the evening!

With 6 rounds of questions prepared, including a music round where I intended to play 20 or 30 seconds of 10 festive songs and ask the teams to tell me the artists name, there was a lot to get through in two hours. I was a bit disappointed at the turnout as only 13 people showed up ( we regularly get 18-20 at meetings these days) but things happen at this time of year and one of our regular members relies heavily on the trains so the disruption at the moment was always likely to count him out...

Thankfully though, the 13 I did get were all in a festive mood and took quite keenly to the quiz once we started. I did try to split Ro from Sally (one or the other's team ALWAYS wins our quizzes) but Sally objected quite rightly claiming that they always get separated and could not help being so intelligent! Dashed insolence, eh? HA HA HA

Ro (in red) and Sally (opposite) - The DREAM Quiz team!

Suitably attired as Quizmaster!

Having had quite a bit of flack the previous two years for making my quizzes too hard I
REALLY tried to make it all a lot easier this year and had also 'upped the silliness' factor by including rounds about 'Christmas Riddles' and a 'questions you were asked last year but I hope you have forgotten the answers' round!

Introducing the idea of each team playing their joker on one of the rounds for double points I started the evening in hope that everyone would enjoy themselves...

Well, I think you can see from the pictures here that it was a good night! I had planned for 4 teams of 5 to play the quiz but in the end we had to settle for two teams of 4 and one of 5. Sally and Ro were in one of the 4 person teams but soon went into the lead and after scoring an impressive 16 points with their joker in the second round were well ahead even by half time! Brian and Alan (2)'s teams though were locked in a battle for 2nd and dead level at the half-time interval...

Half Time and Ro's ALREADY in a good lead!

My previous music rounds have been slammed as 'too hard' by all in previous years and so this time around I simply played snippets of 10 festive songs and asked the teams to tell me who it was singing - no need for the song title or anything else... This seemed to do the trick as all of the teams did very well and appeared to enjoy the christmas vibes! Both Brian and Alan (2)'s teams scored 5 out of 10 on their prospective joker rounds (doubled to 10 points)  and amazingly at the end finished locked together for second place as they had been at half time - Ro's team having long sauntered past the winning post (as usual!)

Oh no! Ro' wins AGAIN!

Chris 1 and Sian (LOVE the specs) of Brian's Team...

Alan (2)'s team deep in thought

Overall, it was a fun night and I think the best quiz I have put together so far. Just hard enough to get people thinking, it was still easy enough for everyone to feel they were doing well and that is always the mark of a successful quiz!

Onto the last Shorelink get-together of the year next week - our Christmas dinner at Westfield. It should be a great night and a fitting end to another great year for Shorelink...

To finish off here is a track from one of my favourite Christmas albums by Lady Antebellum - check it out!

HO! HO! HO!