Sep 28

A great way to ensure your Christmas will be remembered with warm and cherished memories is to incorporate some rituals. Adding rituals to the festivities will create fun and magic moments that will not only live in your families memories forever but will be excitedly looked forward to each year. Rituals will bring your family closer together creating joy and happiness for all!

Here is a fun ritual you could incorporate into this coming Christmas. Add some Christmas bells to the dinner table and ring them just before the festive meal is ready, calling all to attend the dinner table. Long before Christmas in the old days, bells were once rung with the assumption that the noise would chase away evil spirits. Santa Claus has jingling bells that he uses accompanying his sleigh ride around the world each year. His bells are symbols; they are jingled to remind us of the birth of new beginnings and the death of ignorance (once referred to as the devil).

Ringing bells before the meal is eaten is a wonderful reminder to push away judgments, speak no ills, and come together with a sense of joy, positivity and acceptance for one another. Make the festive meal a time where you all come together and share a positively good time. A time where only supportive words are spoken, encouragement and acknowledgement of each other is heard. Ringing the bells will remind all to keep positive, bright and joyous!

So have some fun, get yourself some jingling Christmas bells and chase away any menacing spirits or thoughts before the festive meal. You can be creative with your jingling and get your children to enjoy a brisk stroll through the house or around the dinner table as they jingle the bells joyously to ensure no menacing mischief makers will be heard on the day! The children will love this fun activity and all will enjoy the friendly reminder of the bells if anyone starts to slip up on their good attitude throughout the day!

Another ritual you could incorporate is the ‘Mistletoe Game’. This is a very old Christmas game where it was once common place to have suspended Mistletoe hung in the main room. For this game everyone would assemble in a circle around the Mistletoe. The first player (a male) has to slide a slipper and aim so it will land under the Mistletoe. If he fails another takes their turn. If he succeeds, even more fun begins as there is a scramble in the direction of the lady towards which the slipper points. She must seize the slipper and get away before being caught!

Rituals offer the opportunity for family and friends to interact in a joyous and fun manner. So why not add a few rituals to your festive day to add some fun and create great memories of a truly joyous and happy day.

Visit http://www.HoHoHoChristmas.com & sign up for our FREE Newsletter full of tips, tools & resources for reviving the fun, joy, magic and real meanings of Christmas PLUS receive our bonus f*r*e*e 10 day e-course with audio on how to enrich your Christmas experience from The HoHoHo Expert, Bernadette Dimitrov, author of the world’s best Christmas ebooks and audio books. The HoHoHo Factor!’ everything you’ll love to know & share about Christmas & the new fun adventure series ‘Bluey, Santa’s New Recruit!’ Creating fun and cherished memories for families!

Sep 15
What is Close-up Magic
posted by: admin in Entertainment on 09 15th, 2009 | | No Comments »

Close-up magic is magical entertainment that happens right in front of you, magic you can not only see but feel and touch. This intimacy is what makes it so different from other types of magic. An expert close-up magician will involve and interact with the audience far more than a stage magician (or any other form of entertainer for that matter).

Most close-up magicians use common props such as playing cards, coins, sponge balls and rope. And all magicians perform the same basic magical effects with these props, making them appear, disappear, change, levitate, break and restore, and penetrate other objects. What is amazing about close-up magic is that it happens so close to you, sometimes while you are holding the props!

There are many standard close-up magic effects and standard routines used to present them. For example, the ‘Ambitious Card’ where a chosen card repeatedly rises to the top position in a deck of cards without any shuffling or cutting, or the ‘Sponge Balls’ where the balls move invisibly between the magician’s hands and those of the spectator’s. In fact, these routines are freely available if you care to look. Anyone can search the internet and buy books and DVDs on close-up magic, or even the props and standard routines.

What really sets one close-up magician apart from another is how they present their magic. In fact, presentation is the key – it is what makes close-up magic entertaining. A really good, professional magician will be creative and present their magic in an original and entertaining way. Sometimes humorous, sometimes mysterious, sometimes just plain weird and freaky. The magic becomes a vehicle for the personality and ideas of the performer.

This is what makes close-up magic great entertainment. An interesting, strange and funny person demonstrates the impossible, weird and wonderful, right under your nose!

Dan Gifford is a professional magician and entertainer from Leicester, England. Dan performs close-up magic throughout the UK at parties, weddings, corporate events and trade shows. Visit his website at http://www.dangifford.com

Feb 22
Christmas – Powerful Secret Wish Tool!
posted by: admin in Entertainment on 02 22nd, 2009 | | No Comments »

Who doesn’t want their Christmas wishes to come true! While there is not a ‘no’ to be heard on the planet, most people have no idea how to make their Christmas wishes come true. So let me share with you a powerful secret Christmas wish tool that has been practiced for centuries. While its practice has had varying styles and forms its essence is the same. I will share with you the modern yet powerful “Santa Wish Box” version. Practice it daily then fasten your seat belt because you are in for a great ride as you watch your wishes come true!

Let’s start by going back in time. Around the world many gather to make wishes on the eve of Christmas when the Star of Bethlehem magically appeared. It is believed to be the most potent night for conjuring the magic of the heavens to attract what you want. This is the night to start your powerful secret wish tool.

Today there is quantum science behind the centuries old secret wish tool. What I am about to share with you works! Here’s how it goes. Choose about five to six wishes your want to manifest over the next year. Write out each wish onto a separate piece of paper or if you prefer draw symbols for each wish. Now shut your eyes and see yourself floating up to your ‘Santa Wish Box’ in the sky. See yourself placing your wishes in your ‘Santa Wish Box’. Take a few deep breaths then take one out, blow magic energy into it and visualize that wish as if you have it. See it in full techno-color and feel how good it feels! Spend time enjoying the feeling of having it manifested. See others around you happy for your successful wish manifestation. Now place the wish back into your Santa Box and go visit it every day for the next year. Increase your fun each visit with each wish. Follow this process for each wish.

This secret wish tool is also known as ‘visualization’. Many great success strategist and gurus today use it consistently while the great prophets from long ago all swore by its great power. It’s a tool that starts the process of manifestation! Science tells us that five sixths of your brain is in the unconscious. It doesn’t know the difference between reality and non reality. It only knows that what you focus on is what you want. It works to bring you closer to it. So be bold, be brave, make wishes, do your powerful secret wish tool practice daily and you are guaranteed to make your wishes come true!

Visit www.HoHoHoChristmas.com & sign up for our FREE Newsletter full of tips, tools & resources for reviving the fun, joy, magic and real meanings of Christmas PLUS receive our bonus f*r*e*e 10 day e-course with audio on how to enrich your Christmas experience from The HoHoHo Expert, Bernadette Dimitrov, author of the world’s best Christmas ebooks and audio books. The HoHoHo Factor!’ everything you’ll love to know & share about Christmas & the new fun adventure series ‘Bluey, Santa’s New Recruit!’ Creating fun and cherished memories for families!

Dec 16
Magic Tricks – Misdirection
posted by: admin in Entertainment on 12 16th, 2008 | | No Comments »

Misdirection is the art of distracting the audience while you perform your ’secret move’ without being spotted. Some think it is more important to get 100% correct than your patter. After all, if you can misdirect well enough, your trick can go completely wrong and the audience will never know!

It is essential to ‘control’ your audience’s thoughts and eyes – you should not give them the opportunity to think “how does he do that” or to see your subtle move.

This is easily accomplished on stage with careful use of lighting, props, assistants and pyrotechnics. However, for the majority of us, we need to use misdirection when standing less than a metre away from the audience.

You can control the audience with a wide range of techniques. Start by positioning them in a suitable place. This is especially important in tricks where angles are important, such as the Balducci Levitation. Once they are in a suitable position, you can start concentrating on the more subtle forms of misdirection.

Eye contact is essential – you should always monitor your audience – sustain eye contact while you are doing ‘your move’ (so you can execute your move with perfect timing, knowing that they are looking at your eyes). If you believe someone may see your move, make a larger move with another part of your body – you may cough, itch your face, wave your magic wand, put something on the table… the list is endless.

You can also misdirect the audience by allowing time from the ’secret move’ to the point where the audience is made aware that something has happened. This is perfectly demonstrated in the Cross Cut Force

It is possible to develop your routine to include the necessary distractions. Try to think of what would naturally be done at the time when you need to misdirect. It would be stupid to toss a coin when doing a card manoeuvre, but tossing a coin would be natural if you are in the middle of a coin routine. Once mastered, your routine should leave the audience entertained by the magic you have just performed, and the fact that they don’t know how it is done leaves them mystified, thinking about your performance, and possibly, your next performance!

Edward Jellard has been a professional magician for many years, performing on stage, at children’s parties and close-up magic.

You can find many free magic tricks at Magic Hat to practise your misdirection techniques.

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