Snow globes are truly fascinating. You shake ’em up. Set ’em down. Your imagination runs wild. As a youngster, I had one with Rudolph and Santa’s Sleigh. Every time I shook it up, I imagined traveling the world and delivering toys.

But as magical as snow globes can be, they also set the scene for some pretty cool games — you’ll just have to use your imagination. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Runaround

The very first snow globe game I ever played we called runaround. I was probably about eight or nine. Whenever I hear “don’t give me the runaround”, it takes me back with a smile. Runaround was simple. How far can you run around the house before the snow stops falling? (Parental supervision recommended.)

Shake It Up

With three vigorous shakes, how long can you make the snow swirl around: 10, 20, 30 seconds? Whoever can get the snowstorm swirling for the longest is the winner. (I believe the record is right around 32 seconds.) Whether or not you want to raise the number of “shakes” is up to you and your opponents.

Naming Games

Think of naming absolutely anything as the snow falls: songs, movies, actors, colors, cars, dinosaurs, types of trees found in the amazon — anything. How many can you name before the blizzard halts?

Looking back, the snow globe took on the form of an hourglass for any game you could imagine. To this day, whenever the timer for a game is missing, I bring out the Rudolph snow globe. Yep, I still have it. And there you have it. Cool games to play with snow globes.

How about you? Any ideas for cool snow globe games?