Minute to win it games are quick, easy, and fun games for kids and adults to play at home using cheap everyday household items.
This article provides fun and holiday-themed ideas for minute to win it games for kids.
Easy Minute to Win It Games for Kids at Home
These games are all easy for kids and don’t require many supplies or room to play.
1. Cups Away
Line up a row of paper cups, upside down, along the edge of a table. The player blows up a balloon, then lets out the air towards the paper cups, blowing the cups off the table.
The player who blows off all the cups in the shortest time is the winner.
2. From Top to Bottom
Two players each receive an equal-sized stack of paper cups, with the top cup a different color from the rest of the stack. At the starting whistle, both players begin moving the cups from the top of the stack to the bottom, one cup at a time.
The winner is the first to get their starting cup back to the top of their stack.
3. Apple Tower
Place a basket of apples on a table. The players make apple towers by piling the apples, one on top of the other, without any falling.
The winner is the player who stacks the most apples in their tower.
4. Trunking-It
Cut one leg off a pair of nylon stockings and place a tennis ball in the foot of the remaining leg. Arrange a row of bowling pins, cups, or bottles on the floor. The player puts the stocking on their head with the leg hanging down in front of their face like a trunk. Holding their hands behind their back, the player swings their trunk to knock over the objects with the tennis ball.
The player who knocks over the most objects in one minute is the winner.
5. Creaming-It
Squirt some lotion onto a plate or bowl, and set the plate on a table next to a bowl of cotton balls. On another table across the room, place an empty bowl. The player dips their nose in the lotion. The player then dips their nose in the bowl of cotton balls to stick a cotton ball to their nose. The player walks across the room, to the other table, and shakes the cotton ball into the bowl without using their hands.
The player who transfers the most balls in one minute is the winner.
6. Pull Through the Cups
Make a pyramid of paper cups with a thin piece of paper between each cup. The player must pull out the paper without knocking over any cups.
The player who pulls out the most papers wins. If two players pull out all the papers, the fastest player wins.
7. Color Coding
Place a pile of multicolored M&Ms and a row of plastic cups in front of each player, on a table. Using their non-dominant hands only, the players must sort the M&Ms by color, placing each color in a separate cup.
The fastest player wins.
8. Trading Colors
Place two cups of M&Ms in front of each player, on a table. Each cup should contain only one color of M&Ms, with a different color in each cup. Without using their hands, the players use straws to suck the M&Ms out of one cup and place them in the other cup, until all the M&Ms have been swapped around.
The winner is the player who trades the most M&Ms in one minute.
9. Cookie Wriggle
Each player tilts their head towards the sky and places a cookie on their forehead. Clasping their hands behind their backs, the players move the cookies down into their mouths, using only their facial muscles. If the cookie falls, the player has to start again from the beginning.
The first player to get the cookie into their mouth wins.
10. Pyramid Pile-Up
Each player has a stack of paper cups. The players must arrange their cups into a pyramid, then collapse the pyramid into a stack of cups.
The first player to build and deconstruct their pyramid is the winner.
11. Outside the Box
Each player has a full box of tissues. At the starting whistle, players pull out the tissues one by one, using their non-dominant hands only.
The first player to empty their box wins.
12. Potato and Spoon Race
Give each player a potato and a spoon. Players must run across the room or lawn to the finish line while balancing the potato on the spoon, without touching the potato. If the potato falls, the player must start again.
The first player to reach the finish line is the winner. Make this game more challenging for older kids by using bigger potatoes and smaller spoons.
13. Rolling It Out
Each child has a roll of toilet paper. At the starting whistle, the players start unrolling their toilet paper.
The first child to unroll their entire toilet roll is the winner.
14. Pinging It Out
Cut a hole in either side of a tissue box and thread a belt through the holes. Fill the tissue box with ping-pong balls. Each player straps a box around their waist with the belt. The box should be behind their back, opening-side up. Without using their hands, the players must jump up and down to bounce the balls out of their boxes.
The first player to empty their box wins.
15. Marshmallow Mania
Make a wire ring about 12 inches in diameter and suspend it from a hanging light fixture, about 5 feet above the ground. Place an empty bowl on the floor behind the ring. The player stands behind a line, 4 to 6 feet away from the ring, and throws marshmallows through the ring into the bowl.
The player who gets the most marshmallows through the ring and into the bowl, in one minute, is the winner.
16. Musical Chairs
Players stand in a circle around a ring of chairs. There must be one more player than there are chairs. Play music for a few seconds while the players run around the chairs.
The moment the music stops, each player must sit down in an open chair. Whoever is left standing is out of the game. Remove one chair for each new round, until there is only one chair left.
The player who gets the last chair wins the game.
Christmas Minute to Win It Games for Kids
Play these Christmas-themed minute to win it games around Christmas and Christmas break.
You will need candy canes, bags of cotton balls, a Christmas wreath, a few pairs of white socks, a pile of blank cards, and some markers.
17. A Christmas Sentence
Write a list of Christmas-related words on blank cards and lay the cards out, face-down, on a table. Each player must pick up 10 cards and make a Christmas-themed sentence using their cards.
The winner is the player who makes the longest sentence.
18. Candy Cane Lane
This is a game for two teams, with an equal number of players on each team. The teams stand in straight lines. Each player holds a candy cane, by the long end, between their teeth. Hang a second candy cane from each of the teams’ first player’s canes.
With their hands behind their backs, the players use their canes to pass the extra cane down the line, without dropping it. If the cane falls, the team starts again.
The winning team is the first to pass the candy cane to the end of the line.
19. Wreath Target-Practice
Hang a Christmas wreath above a doorway, with an empty box on the other side of the doorway. Supply a pile of rolled-up white socks as imaginary snowballs. One player at a time must stand behind a line a few feet away from the wreath and throw the socks through the wreath and into the box.
The winner is the player who gets the most socks into the box in one minute.
20. Spooning Snowballs
Place a large bowl filled with cotton ball “snowballs” on one end of a table. Place an empty bowl at the other end of the table. Blindfold the player and give them a spoon to transfer the cotton balls from one bowl to the other, using only one hand.
The player who transfers the most cotton balls in one minute wins.
21. Nativity Night
Fill a large Santa bag with assorted items like sheets, blankets, soft toys, dolls, and dress-up clothes. Players form teams and take turns picking one item from the bag at a time until the bag is empty. The teams use their items as props to act out a Nativity scene.
In the end, everyone votes for the best scene.
22. Sniff It to Win It
Place a selection of Christmas food items in bowls on a table, one item to a bowl. Use foods like a slice of Christmas cake, a cinnamon stick, a pine cone, a gingerbread man, and a teaspoon of nutmeg. Blindfold the player, who must identify the foods by their smell.
The winner is the player who identifies the most foods correctly.
Halloween Minute to Win It Games for Kids & Adults
Here are some fun Halloween-themed minute-to-win-it games to play around Halloween time.
Make sure you have white paper cups, black markers, paper bags, MIKE AND IKE candies, Halloween-themed cookies, plastic spiders, straws, and candy pumpkins.
23. Ghost Cups
Give each child a white paper cup and a black marker. Let them draw ghost faces on the cups. Stack all the cups and have each participant take a turn to build the cups into a pyramid, with all the faces facing the same way while being timed.
The winner is the one who builds their pyramid the fastest.
24. Bone Shaker
Draw pictures of skeletons on eight paper bags. Using MIKE AND IKE candies as bones, put two candies in the first bag, three in the second bag, and so on, up to nine candies in the eighth bag. Jumble up the bags in a pile.
Each player has to “shake the bones” to guess how many candies are in each bag and arrange the bags in order of how many candies they contain.
The winner is the player who gets the order the most correct, and they get to eat the “bones.”
25. Cookie Feed
Decorate some Halloween cookies. Divide the kids into pairs and blindfold both partners. Give each player a cookie. Players must feed their cookies to their partners, blindfolded.
The team that finishes their cookies first is the winner.
26. Spiders on the Run
Line up a row of plastic spiders on a table. Give each child a straw. The kids must each blow a spider across a finish line at the end of the table.
The player with the fastest spider wins.
27. Pumpkin Nose
Give each child a candy pumpkin. The child licks the pumpkin and sticks it on their nose. Players must walk across the room with their heads back to keep their pumpkins on their noses.
The player who walks the farthest without dropping their pumpkin is the winner.
28. Gummy Mummy
Divide the kids into pairs. Give each pair a full roll of toilet paper and a gummy candy. One kid wraps their teammate in toilet paper from head to toe, by circling the “mummy” as they unroll the toilet paper, leaving only the mouth and eyes exposed.
When their entire roll of toilet paper is used, the player puts the gummy candy in the mummy’s mouth.
The first team whose mummy has been fed is the winning team.
Valentine’s Day Minute to Win It Games for Kids & Adults
Here are some fun, Valentine-themed minute-to-win-it games for Valentine’s Day.
You’ll need red cardboard, white paper, glue, scissors, blue tack, gold glitter, jello, conversation hearts, marshmallows, and a Nerf gun.
29. The Heart of the Matter
Place one conversation heart candy in the center of each of several paper cupcake cups and fill each cup with jello — the “matter.”
Place the jello in the fridge to set. Each kid gets a cup of jello and has to “get to the heart of the matter” without using their hands.
The first player to uncover and eat their candy heart is the winner.
30. Hole in the Heart
Cut out a big heart from a piece of red cardboard and cut a saucer-sized hole in the center. Use string to hang the heart from a light fixture.
The kids get five marshmallows each, stand behind a line, and toss their marshmallows through the hole.
Whoever gets the most marshmallows through the hole wins the game.
31. Shot Through the Heart
Cut out six small red paper hearts. Number the hearts from one to six for points, and stick the hearts on the wall in a circle, with one smaller heart in the center for a bullseye — worth 10 points.
Using a Nerf gun, each child gets three attempts to shoot the hearts, getting points for each heart they hit.
The winner is the player with the most points.
32. Heart Hunt
Hide conversation heart candies around the room for the kids to search for. The winner is the child who finds the most hearts in one minute.
33. Heart of Gold
Draw the outline of a heart on a piece of paper and make one copy for each child. Supply glue and gold glitter. The kids try to cover the entire heart with glitter in one minute.
The player who covers their heart the fastest is the winner.
34. Heart in the Right Place
Make a life-sized paper cut-out of a human body and stick it to a wall. Give each child a small red paper heart with a blob of blue tack on the back.
Blindfold one kid at a time and let them stick their heart in the right place on the body.
The winner is the kid who places their heart closest to the correct spot.
Thanksgiving Minute to Win It Games for Adults & Kids
Play these minute to win it games for loads of fun on Thanksgiving.
You need tinfoil pie dishes, candy pumpkins, whipped cream, spoons, turkey basters, paper cups, pumpkin seeds, chopsticks, markers, and balloons.
35. Pie Face
You need one pie dish for each child. Place five candy pumpkins in each dish and cover the entire dish with whipped cream. With hands clasped behind their backs, the kids have one minute to find all the candy pumpkins in their dish, using only their mouths.
The player who finds all five pumpkins the fastest is the winner.
36. Pumpkin and Spoon Race
Give each child a teaspoon and a candy pumpkin. They have to walk across the room holding their pumpkin in the spoon.
The first kid to reach the finish line without dropping their pumpkin is the winner.
37. Baste the Turkey
Draw turkeys on paper cups. Line up the cups at one end of a table. Give each child a turkey baster to blow their cup across the table with. Players aren’t allowed to touch the cup with the baster.
The player whose cup reaches the end of the table first is the winner.
38. Pass the Pumpkin Seeds
Each kid gets a small bowl of pumpkin seeds, an empty bowl, and a pair of chopsticks. Players must transfer the seeds from one bowl to the other using chopsticks.
The player who transfers the most seeds in one minute is the winner.
39. Flying Turkeys
Give each child an inflated balloon illustrated with a picture of a turkey. Without using their hands, players must keep their balloons in the air for one minute, only by blowing on the balloon.
The winners are the players who successfully keep their balloons afloat.
Easter Minute to Win It Games
These are some fun Easter-themed minute to win it games to play on Easter.
You need chocolate eggs, regular eggs, spoons, pudding, small bowls, plastic eggs, and a small basket.
40. Egg and Spoon Race
Give each child an egg and a spoon. Depending on how much mess you can tolerate, use raw eggs, boiled real eggs, plastic eggs, or chocolate eggs.
The kids must get to the finish line while balancing the egg on the spoon without dropping the egg.
The player who reaches the finish line first wins the game.
41. Egg on Your Face
Give each child a chocolate egg in a bowl, covered with pudding. With their hands behind their backs, the kids must eat their eggs.
The winner is the first to finish their egg.
42. Hide and Hunt
Divide the kids into pairs and give each pair a chocolate egg. One kid hides the egg and the other has one minute to find it.
If the egg is found, the finder keeps it. If not, the hider keeps the egg.
The winner is the player who has the most eggs in the end.
43. Egg Head
Each child gets a chocolate egg and must walk across the room while balancing the egg on their head. If a player drops their egg, they have to start again.
The kid who reaches the other side of the room first without dropping the egg wins the game.
44. Eggs in a Basket
Fill a bowl with small plastic eggs and put the bowl at one end of a table. Place a small empty basket at the other end of the table.
Each player must toss as many eggs as possible into the basket in one minute, the winner being the kid who gets the most eggs into the basket.
Minute to Win It Games for Kids at School
Here are some fun minute to win it games for kids to play with their classmates at school.
Ensure that you have marshmallows, straws, colored paper, and scissors.
45. Marshmallow Puff
Divide the kids into two teams, placed at opposite ends of a table, and give each team a pile of marshmallows. Draw a line across the center of the table. Give each child a straw to blow the marshmallows across the line with.
The winning team is the one that gets the most marshmallows over the line in one minute.
46. Matching the Opposites
This game is for two players. You need two pieces of paper in different colors, cut into small pieces. Write a word on one side of each piece and the antonym to each word on a different-colored piece. Jumble up all the words and let the two kids match the opposite words.
The winner is the one who matches the most words in one minute.
47. Memory Game
Use two identical sets of cards. Mix the cards, face down, on a table, and have the players take turns flipping over two cards each, trying to match up the pairs.
The winner is the one who has the most card pairs after all the cards have been used.
48. Roll It Up
Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair a roll of toilet paper and an empty toilet paper tube. One kid unrolls the toilet paper while the other rolls it up onto the empty tube.
The pair that finishes first wins the game.
49. Jumbled Sentences
Write sentences on a piece of paper and cut the words into individual pieces. Jumble all the words up on a table. The kids must unjumble the words to make sentences.
The kid who has the most sentences when all the words are used wins the game.
How to Play Minute to Win It Games for Kids
Play minute to win it games in three ways:
- Individual players — One player tries to complete a task in a set time frame, scoring according to how long it takes to complete the task
- Pairs — Two players either play against each other or compete against other pairs, scoring points or completing a task in a set time
- Teams — Groups compete against each other in teams by scoring points or racing against each other
Here are examples of scorecards for teams and for solo players. Adapt these according to the number of games, teams, and players:
| Teams: | Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 |
| Game 1 | ||||
| Game 2 | ||||
| Game 3 | ||||
| Game 4 | ||||
| Game 5 | ||||
| Game 6 | ||||
| Game 7 | ||||
| Game 8 |
| Players' Names | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 |
| Player 1 Name | ||||
| Player 2 Name | ||||
| Player 3 Name | ||||
| Player 4 Name | ||||
| Player 5 Name | ||||
| Player 6 Name | ||||
| Player 7 Name | ||||
| Player 8 Name |
Minute to Win It Game Supplies
Many of the supplies for minute to win it games can be found around the house, but there are some games that require specific items. If you’re planning a game night, prepare in advance by buying the necessary supplies.
The most commonly used items in minute to win it games are:
- Plastic or paper cups
- Paper plates
- Bowls
- Straws
- Ping pong balls
- Marshmallows and other candies
- Balloons
- Markers
- Blindfolds
- Toilet paper
- Tissues and tissue boxes
There is so much fun to be had with these fun minute to win it games for kids. They are full of sweets, treats, and a lot of laughs! Check out these other fun ideas for your next kid’s party!
Let us know in the comments your favorite minute to win it games! Happy Gaming!
