As the festive season for 2015 comes ever closer many magicians will no doubt be doing a Christmas show or two as the year comes to an end. With that in mind I thought now would be a great time to get creative juices flowing on Christmas themed presentations for tricks. To set the focus of this thread, I would like to focus on Christmas presentations for standard tricks like cut and restore rope etc because well it's easy enough to buy the latest themed Christmas trick from a magic shop, I suspect that most magicians have more then enough material sitting in their books and DVDs at home that could be enough for a complete Christmas show if given a little thought.

To get the ball rolling and to spur ideas I thought that I would share a Christmas Card Trick that's suited to a parlor setting. The trick in question is The Great Pearl Mystery out of the book Encyclopedia of Card tricks by Jean Hugard, my contribution is simply the presentation.

On a table sits four drinking glasses each containing one of the four queens and a fifth glass that sits behind these fours holds a single king of diamonds.

On Christmas eve four little girls in four different houses decided to go to bed early ready for Santa (point to the King of Diamonds) to arrive to deliver their presents, in preparation for Santa's arrival each girl put out a cup of hot coco (magician places the four aces face out against each glass).

When Santa eventually arrived and was about to drink each of the hot coco (the magician gathers each of the aces and places them behind the kind of diamonds) one of the little girls woke up to investigate what the noise was. Santa quickly put all the cocos back before the little girl found out what the commotion was (the magician replaces each ace face down against each glass an places the king back into the fifth glass).

In the morning when the three girls woke up each found something very surprising. Despite Santa being interrupted each girl found that a present had been left where their cup of coco was (magician turns over the face down aces to reveal that each has now become one of the four eights).

Santa must of got is hot coco after all (the magicians takes the King from it's glass and spreads it across the table or in his hand to reveal the four aces are now with the King of Diamonds).

I look forward to any other ideas that others may like to share.

Magically

Aus

Right out of the press:
https://www.amazekids.com/magic-download......s-theme/
In an Amazekids/Danny Orleans edition for only 10 Bucks …

I just thought of this reading the post. Do a Christmas Confabulous.

You say, “I not only try to get ahead on my Christmas shopping, but I like to get a jump on my thank you notes”. Have a spectator tell you what he’d give you for Christmas and you pull out a thank you note thanking him that that exact Gift.

Could do the same thing with a th***b Wr***r.

One year for a magic club meeting we dressed up an Abbott's/Hughes' ATTABOY in a Santa outfit and called him SANTABOY. I can't quite recall the routine, but it used Santa-backed playing cards and a special Christmas Gift for the helper.

Julie

Nice Idea's everyone, here are some more from my bank of routines.

Using Bob Hummer's 3-object principle get three blank cards and on one side of each write naughty, nice and nicest. Explain that Santa knows if you naughty or nice and if you put on a this Santa hat you are imbued with Santa like powers. Have one of the cards picked and turned face down and have the cards mixed as per the routine well your back is turned and you can pick the selected card each time.

The next one is a professor nightmare routine, in a small box you say you have Christmas ornaments (the magician removes three different colored balls) but also the rope to hang the ornaments on the tree are also in the bag (the magician removes the three different length ropes). The magician realizing that he has a problem with the ropes not being the same length to hang on the tree he has to use magic to make them all the same size. Elaborate the routine more or less as required.

This is more of a stunt then a magic trick but a good novelty piece to throw into your program. Explain that you think you have worked out how Santa fits down the chimney, but since you don't have a chimney you will show them the same thing using a piece of a4 paper. Proceed to cut the paper in the way explained here and follow through on your claim. http://www.kidzone.ws/magic/walkthrough.htm

A Bank Night routine with letters from Santa as the theme where one letter has a candy cane in it as the prize well the others have letters have funny excuses like rudolph ate them on the way back to the north pole or there was a hole is Santa's sack and most of them feel out on delivering presents to Africa etc. The final letter left to the performer proves to be the only one with the candy cane.

Magically

Aus

What about a bill-to-orniment? Could use the bill to cigar method using the $100 B.S.

...or a card to ornament via intercessor. Have several prepared, place one (not loaded) you have supposedly chosen at random into a plastic bag and break it revealing it is empty. Place the spectator's ornament into a plastic bag and break it revealing the selected card sans corner.

Julie

Check out the December version of TopHat magazine

Use some Christmas Tree Balls in your egg bag.

So again it comes around to that time of the year where we focus on Christmas festivities so I thought I would resurrect this post and add another set of Christmas routines to the list again with commonly found or easily obtainable items. No shop bought Christmas tricks here.

The first trick is called "Under Two Hats" on page 175 on "Scarne on Magic Tricks". The effect of the trick is essentially a matrix done with rolled up paper balls and two hats. The trick can be themed up by getting some gift wrapping paper and rolling them into balls. The premise of the routine is based on how Santa delivers presents during Christmas time with the collection point of the matrix representing the location the presents are to be delivered to. You could go further with the theme by getting Christmas themed hats for use in the trick.

Now since you have four balls of wrapping paper from the previous trick you can perform this next trick straight after. In preparation for the previous trick wrap three small bits of coal in three of the rolled up paper balls and one small trinket (your choice) in the fourth. Mark the ball with the trinket in a way to distinguish it from the others and your set to go.

The premise this time is a naughty or nice test, force the ball with the trinket on a spectator (magicians choice or another preferred method) reveal ticket then the coal in the three others highlighting the possible outcome if they had chosen something else.

The third trick is what I consider a hidden gem in Karl Fulves Self-Working Mental Magic (page 90) called Slight of Mind. Essentially five spectators each get dealt five cards each and asked to look at them and mentally choose one of them. The cards are collected after some presentation then redealt to the five spectators. The Magician takes each packet in turn and asks each spectator if their thought of card appears among them and if it does he reveals their card, if it isn't he moves on to the next spectator, this is repeated with each packet until all chosen cards have been revealed.

The theme here is simple, we are doing a test on how Santa remembers the right presents to give boys and girls. Get 25 file cards and write or draw any number of words or images that could be representative of possible gifts for Christmas and your set.

Anyway, I hope my ideas help get your creative juices flowing in your Christmas performances this year. Remember it isn't what you do it's how you do it.

I wish everyone on the magic Café a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Magically

Aus

Well it's been four years since I last posted on this thread, and here we are again looking back at the year that was and forward to the year that's now fast approaching. With Christmas coming ever closer some magicians will be refocusing our performances for the festivities to come whether it be professionally or with friends and family, so with that in mind and with the spirit of giving, I thought I would share a Christmas routine for everyone to use this coming Christmas.



Secret Santa

Effect: After a short monologue about various Christmas Traditions the magician introduces the concept of a secret gift exchange often practiced called Secret Santa. The Magician places a wrapped gift box with bow on the table.

The Magician explains that this gift is for that last person remaining after all others have been selected. Upon explaining this the magician introduces ten blank faced cards with peoples name written across them. After a brief mixing a spectator is asked to select one remember the name and then return it to the remaining cards, then shuffled. The cards are then thrown into a brown paper bag where the spectator and the magician take turns pulling names out of the bag until only one remains.

Upon revealing the last name left in the bag, it is shown to be the name the spectator selected at the beginning of the trick. After the shock of this revelation has settled, the spectator is asked to open the gift that was placed on the table from the very beginning.

When the spectator opens the gift it is revealed to be a snow globe in which upon closer examination reveals a personal message bearing the chosen name.

Requirements:

10 blank faced playing cards.
1 large brown paper bag.
1 gift box containing the personalized gift bearing the predicted name.

Method:

The method of this trick is an adaption of the trick titled "Grab-Bag" on page 96 in the book Royal Road To Card magic. Once this method is clearly understood, the adaptation to the above routine should be straight forward.

...until next time.


Magically

Aus