I've been doing birthday party magic shows for the last 17 years and believe it or not, I've never done a Christmas show. Wierd but true. Recently, a friend asked me to do a show for his wife's company Christmas party in December. It's going to be a small one...around 20 kids between the ages of 4 and 12 and I was looking to add a couple of inexpensive (I'll probably never use them again) Christmas themed tricks/routines that would play well to that age group. Any ideas/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Harv

How about listing what you already have and maybe we can offer suggestions onhow we can turn that routine into a Christmas Theme.

Example: 20th Century Silks can easily be turned into a Halloween, Christmas, or Happy Birthday routine.

Hi Dennis..thanks for the response. 20th Century Silks sounds like great place to start as I have a set I've barely used.

Den makes a great point. A lot of what you can do for themed shows is notalways have to dive into buying a new themed holiday effect. A lot can be done with effects you already own. It is a mater of changing the effect around through use of patter and decorating your props or changing the colorof the silks. Suddenly you take something you have already owned and create a new routine that fits perfectly with the holiday. It keeps costs down and increases your own creativity.

Kyle

You can make a hat tear that looks like a Santa Hat (if you don't want to buy a box of 'em).

Christmas....Rudolph....Red Nose..... = sponge ball routine, get some cheap christmas bells, big unz, and use sponge balls for a cups and balls type routine.

Wrap your squared circle (or make a card board one) in Christmas wrap and produce candy canes.

Take ribbon and do cut and restored ribbon.

For your 20th Century Silks take a box and put paper on it so it looks like a chimney and the silk that vanishes can represent how Santa gets into a house, it appears tied to the other silks in the Chimney.

Hey fellas, he wants to toss in a couple Christmassy type effects, he isn't trying to re write the whole thing to a 'Christmas Theme'....

How about using a Square Circle and produce a small tree, decorating it, add small wrapped ring boxes, a stocking or two. Plus a snow storm or instant snow. All to the music of "White Christmas"!

Here is more for you to think about *means effects I've used.

• Professor's Nightmare can be used to tell a story, and so can the What Next Card
  
• The Fraidy Cat Rabbit* gets dirty coming down the chimney helping Santa
  
• The Monkey Bar* can be converted by placing a Christmas Ball on the rope instead of a ring. (Any Christmas item can be used.)
  
• The Spirit Cloth* can make a Christmas tree float
  
• Cut and Restored Ribbon (Easy to make and do) (Mentioned above)
  
• Billiard Balls but with Christmas Balls.
  
• Make a Christmas Coloring Book* from the dollar store
  
• Frosty the Snowman* with Axtell's Drawing Board
  
• Make a Christmas Stocking Change Bag* (Easy to make)
  
• Egg Bag routine using a Christmas Stocking
  
• Box Tricks can be made to look like a Christmas Present*
  
• Tip-over Box can Produce Santa (Giant Chrismas Present from the North Pole)
  
• Drawer Box Present* to produce Frosty (Frosty is your rabbit's Holiday Name)
  
• Dream Bag using a Christmas Bag* from the dollar store (Mine sings)
  
• D'lites* as Christmas lights
  
• Magician's Choice* with Six Christmas Items
  

Add in a couple of comedy props that can be found in the stores and you have more than enough Christmas Routine for a marketable Christmas Show every year.

Tate from KIDabra did a break-out session on this topic where most KIDabra attendees offered thier suggestions. There were so many I now wish we wrote them all down!

Lets not forget the existing Routines:

• KIDabra DVD:Assorted Holiday Routines
  
• Sammy Smith has a Big Red Nose Routine*
  
• Sammy Smith has a Jingle Bell Prediction
  
• Tim Sonefelt has Trevor's Tree
  
  
• Tim Sonefelt has Legend of the Tree
  
• Mike Bent has a funny Big Bag of Blitzen Routine
  
• Silly Billy has The Magic Christmas Picture*
  
  
• Then there is the Mis-Made Santa*, and
  
• Mis-Made Christmas Tree*
  

There sure is more than enough possibilities to answer you request:
"Need advice on a couple of Christmas themed routines"

As a matter of fact, this is an excellent topic (posting) to list ideas for converting existing routines to a Christmas Themed Routine (It's also that time of the season to start booking your Christmas Shows... Actually Aug is a better starting month because by Nov many places are already booked)

Looks like you have lots of ideas for routine ideas there. Here's a joke an 8 year old told me last year:

What happens if you swallow Christmas decorations?

You get tinselitis.

Christmas shows are often followed by an appearance of the big man himself. A common ruse (which also allows a lot of room for your own creativity) is to have a phone go off several times throughout the performance. Answer it and get a progress report from santa.

George

I forgot I made this list in 2003:

Converting Effects for the Holiday Season

• CHRISTMAS DOVES
  Dye one red, one green, using food coloring for your holiday shows.
  Do a Tranformation Effect or Color Changing Dove Routine
  
  
• HOLIDAY BOXES
  Dress up your stage props in red and green for the holiday season.
  
  
• BIG RED NOSE
  Buy Sammy Smith's great kidshow trick "Big Red Nose". In this trick, a picture of Rudolph has a blue nose. It vanishes, and a red sponge nose appears on you. Finally, a red nose appears printed on the picture.
  
  
• CUT AND RESTORED RIBBON
  Perform the standard cut and restored rope with a two inch wide red ribbon. Be sure and snap it taut before and after the cut to prove it is solid.
  
  
• NEST OF BOXES
  Use a nest of Christmas gifts wrapped in pretty paper. Cover your nest of boxes and perform, as usual.
  
  
• TWIN CANDLE VANISH
  A pair of white Fantasio vanishing candles vanished, one in each hand, covered with a red and a green 18" silk.
  
  
• CHRISTMAS CHARACTERS
  Adapt a routine you already perform to Christmas characters such Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, and an Elf. The Axtell Drawing Board does this well
  
  
• ZOMBIE ORNAMENT
  Decorate a large Styrofoam ball like a Christmas tree ornament and use it to perform the Zombie Floating Ball effect. A blackck coathanger lakes an adequate gimmick. Maybe even use a 36" Santa silk.
  
  
• SNOWSTORM
  Introduce the popular "Snowstorm in China" effect (confetti) with patter about a white Christmas. Perform it to music such "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", or even "White Christmas".
  
  
• BOY TO SANTA WAND
  Buy one of those five foot Santa posters and roll it up with the top edge outside. Glue black paper on the outside to make it look like a wand. Get a boy on-stage. Say you'll change him into Santa. Wave the wand and let it unroll in front of him. Voila - Santa!
  
  
• JINGLE BELL WAND
  Tape or glue several jingle bells inside the cap of your popaway wand. When the cap pops off, the bells will make noise. With a children's audience, you can pretend not to hear the noise and let them tell you about it for extra fun.
  Another thought: simply attach some jingle bells to the end of a regular magic wand. Everytime you wave it, the wand jingles. Appropriate I think for this time of year.
  
  
• SANTA SILK
  Several dealers are now selling Santa Claus silks. Abbotts has a 36" one with a green background. Use this for a production or a large blendo effect.
  
  
• DRESSED UP SANTA
  During any kid helper routine, dress up a boy like Santa. Put a red cap on his head (with a jingle bell tassel). Have him wear a white beard (made from cotton or store bought). You can also have him wear a red vest backwards so it looks like a Santa suit. Another alternative is to buy a kid-sized Santa suit.
  
  
• GUARDIAN ANGEL
  Similar to No. 10. Dress a little girl in white with gold trim and a halo for her head. Give her a magic wand to hold and wave. Call her the Christmas angel, who will help you perform magic. Depending on the venue (a church show, for instance), this could lead into patter about the "real magic of Christmas," meaning the birth of Jesus.
  
  
• SANTA POSTER
  Buy a Santa poster or picture. Work it into a trick, such as a dye tube. Change silks from white to red and green in the tube. Open the tube to show that all that remains is Santa's picture. You could also use the Santa poster as stage decoration.
  
  
• CHRISTMAS COOKIES
  Offer your helpers some Christmas cookies. The cookies are in a potato chip can decorated with Christmas wrapping paper.
  Perform a switch as you do your Snake Can routine and have spring snakes pop out for the fun of it. Explain these are Christmas snakes, and they must have eaten the cookies.
  
  
• GREETING CARD REVELATION
  Buy a special holiday greeting card that has Santa or some character pop up. Glue a playing card (force card) to the pop-up Santa, close the card, and put in its envelope. Force a duplicate card, then use the pop-up Santa card to reveal the chosen card.
  
  
• EGG BAG TRANSFORMED
  Instead of an egg, use an unbreakable Christmas tree ornament.
  If you are really industrious, sew yourself an egg bag that will end up turned inside out as a Rudolph or a Santa puppet (like the old Climax Egg Bag).
  
  
• DRESS UP PROPS
  Wrap props in green, red, or other Christmas wrap. You can employ them' for holiday shows, and remove the wrap in January to resume their normal look. Example: boxes, cans, tubes all can all be wrapped.
  
  
• CANDY CANE WAND
  Use red and white plastic tape around your wand to give it a candy cane appearance.
  This would look great with a bang or shooting wand, since the audience would not suspect it to make a noise.
  
  
• HOLIDAY PREDICTION
  Reveal a prediction by handing a spectator a wrapped Christmas package.
  When he opens the package, the prediction is inside.
  
  
• CHRISTMAS STOCKING BLENDO
  Attach two silks (one red, one white) to the inside of a pliable red/white Christmas stocking or colorful sock. Pull the silks out and bunch the stocking accordion-style.
  Palm it in one hand, letting the silks hang out. Brings your hands together, one hand grabs the bottom and one hand grabs the top of the stocking. Quickly, pull it open (engulfing the silks). The silks are instantly changed into a stocking or sock.
  This works much like the old color changing shoelaces.
  
  
• CONVERT TEMPLE SCREEN
  Print on photo paper four nice color picture of Santa and four nice color pictures of a Christmas Tree. Glue and tape them over that ugly green chinese letters and the budda on the bright red side of the Temple Screen. You now have a Christmas Production effect.
  

Here are some Older Café links I found:
Holiday Magic
Christmas Magic
Christmas Ideas
Christmas Magic Talking Deer Head
Christmas Theme Show Books and Tapes
Christmas Effects

Thanks for the great ideas. I think I may pick up Big Red Nose by Sammy Smith. I'm still curious how the 20th Century Silks could be dressed up for Christmas (the set I own is red and blue.)

20th Century Routine can be done by two methods.
1. A gimmick Silk or
2. Silk folding method as described in Rice's Encylopedia of Silk Magic


The middle designer or theme silk appears tied between the other two.

I have a red and blue set. My designer silks (1. Rabbit) 2. (Multi Colored), 3. (Santa), 4. (Halloween pumkin) 5. (Happy Birthday) are interchangeable based on the season or show.

Obviously the duplicate designer silk is vanished anyway one choses. It can be Santa, Christmas Tree, A Christmas wreath, or anything like that. I think Tim Sonefelt sells some of these silks, or at least he knows where to get them.

Is this clear enough without going into greater detail?

Samuel Smith has a great routine in one of his books "Ernie the Elf" using a squared circle. Chris Carey has a great routine in his book using the "Professors nightmare" rope routine, also a funny game for kids involving picking up snowballs and puting them into a giant Christmas Stocking, BUT they have to wear boxing gloves.
David Ginn has just put out his "Santa's Blendo" the artwork on the Santa silk is just superb.
I have a routine for the "Joker tube" in the November issue of "Magic" magazine, that some of you may want to check out called "Race to the North pole" a cute routine about a game the reindeers play while waiting for Santa to load the sleigh, with a Magicial ending, be sure to check it out.

Thanks for the links Dennis. That was helpful.

Make Santa appear at the end of your act with "The Bryce's screen". Third from top: http://abbottmagic.com/catalog/index.php......cPath=14

Posted: Oct 17, 2007 9:24pm
More from Abbot's: http://abbottmagic.com/catalog/index.php......cPath=28

Santa could also appear via the circle squared (a great and compact effect from Creative Magic). Also new this year is a David Ginn Santa Blendo which looks really sharp. And there's the P and A silks Frosty the Snowman set, which looks like lots of fun (a little pricey for my budget, but gets great reviews).