15 Christmas Minute To Win It Games – for Kids, Teens, and Adults

Just in time for the holiday parties. These are the best Minute to Win It Games for Christmas. They are simple Christmas Games that are easy for kids to do yet challenging enough for adults to enjoy them. Super Fun Kid Friendly Minute To Win It Games with a Winter and Christmas Theme for Christmas, New Year, and Winter parties.

Super Fun Christmas Themed Minute to Win It Games for Kids, Teens, and Adults

Over the past month, the kids and I have tested out a slew of Minute To Win It Games, and we’ve picked our favorites to share with you all. When I was an elementary school teacher and then a room mom, Minute to Win It Games were always a fan favorite. Like these Fun and Easy Minute to Win It Games, and Over 13 Minute to Win It Games to check out. Now, with my growing kids, family, and friends, these Christmas Minute to Win It Games are always a big hit!

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What are Minute To Win It Games?

A while back the network NBC hosted a game show called Minute To Win It. Contestants tried to complete challenges in under 1 Minute. When they completed the challenge correctly, they were able to advance to the next level.

Games started out as low-level games and moved to higher-level (more difficult) games. The players were there to ultimately win a cash prize.

Some challenges were played out with one player and some were played with two people.

Today, most people play these fun and hilarious games at birthday parties, group events, Christmas celebrations, Thanksgiving holidays, and church functions

How to Play Minute to Win It Games

One Player at a Time Version for Small Groups

A player will go up against the clock. Tasks must be completed in under 1 minute. If they perform the task in under one minute – you can award a certain number of points.

Tasks too hard to complete – If another player goes after the participant, then they can compete to see who does the most in under 1 minute. The player that does the best, will get some points but not the full amount for completing the task.

Team Member vs. Team Member from another team – for Medium groups

Playing with Large Groups –

Points are awarded in order of completion. Players from each team will compete against each other and points are awarded in order of completion times. The first team to complete the task earns 5 points, the second team to complete it earns 3, and the third team to complete the task earns 1 point.

Zero points are awarded if the task is not completed

Scoring Minute to Win It Games –

• The first team to finish gets the most points – let’s say 3 points for their team
• The second team to finish gets 2 points for their team
• The third team to finish gets 1 point for their team
• Everyone else gets zero points

Here’s what a scoreboard might look like at the end of the night for a Minute To Win It Team Competition

Using a (affiliate link) big whiteboard is an excellent way to keep track and see how the game is progressing.

Starting Minute to Win It Games

Once the game is set up, and the instructions are explained, the timer should be set to 1 minute and the host yells go. Players have one minute to complete the task. If they mess up, the timer does not stop. They have to start over and try again and still try to complete the task under the 1-minute timer

Prizes for Minute to Win It Games – Ideas

1. The pride of winning the game
2. A candy bar
3. A trophy
4. A ribbon – homemade or ordered
5. Money

Difficulty Levels for Minute to Win It Games

Games are ranked 1-5 meaning easy, medium, hard, extreme, and nightmare

FAQs

Game 1

Snowball Fight

Difficulty Level – 2

Players – 2 players are needed per team

Supplies Needed

For this game…you’ll need – a bag of mini marshmallows – divided, a plastic spoon

How to Play

Pair off into teams of 2 – each on opposite sides of the table. Give 1 player a heaping pile of mini marshmallows and a plastic spoon. When you yell go, players must try flinging mini marshmallows from a plastic spoon into their teammates’ mouths. Teams with the most successful catches – win!

Video

In the video below, players catching the marshmallow should be sitting in a chair, unlike my son (cheater) in the video below…

Variation

Use large – not giant – marshmallows. Throw them to people sitting in chairs across the room. When they catch one in their mouth, they spit it out onto a plate as a collection of how many they successfully caught. In the end – count the marshmallows on the plates to see who won

Game 2

Avalanche! (Also called Junk In the Trunk)

Difficulty Level – 2

Supplies

• empty tissue boxes
• pantyhose or bungee straps
• 1 bag of mini marshmallows per player

Setting Up:

• thread long bungee or pantyhose to a tissue box.
• *My tip to you would be to find tissue boxes with the dispenser hole centered at the top. I did not and the kids had to basically do backbends to get all of the marshmallows out.
• Strap the tissue boxes to the player’s waist – with the box on the backside
• When you’re ready to go, fill the boxes with an entire bag of mini marshmallows

Playing

• Players in under 1 minute must shake the marshmallows out of the box

Video

Game 3

Build A Snowman – (Also called Sticky Balls)

Difficulty Level – 2

Supplies

• ping pong balls (1 package per team)
• double-sided tape that is safe for your table surface

*I found the tape in the Craft Adhesive section of Wal-Mart. The tape is not the scotch tape clear version. It was removed from my table without damaging it. I’ll leave a link below for some removable double-sided tape. 

Setting Up:

• Place a long strip of double-sided tape on the end of a table
• Place the ping pong balls in a bowl at the opposite end
• When you’re ready, set the timer for 1 minute – players should try to line up 3 ping pong balls next to each other by blowing them across the table and controlling where they go so they line up and stick to the tape

Notes:

• *This is a lot of fun and really takes strategy. They have to control the amount of air they blow out and the direction in which they blow the ball. You’d be surprised at how many times the ball will blow right off of the table without sticking at all. It will take a couple of tries for the kids and adults to get just the right angle and pressure

More challenging variation

• *Make this game more challenging by placing the tape on the far end of the table – giving the ball more space between the starting line and the tape will make it harder to control it and follow it along with your hot air

Video

• *For younger kids, you could accept 3 anywhere on the tape, for older kids and adults, you can be firm on making sure the balls are right next to each other or even touching each other 

Top Amazon picks for this game

(affiliate links)

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Game 4

Snowman Stack (Marshmallow Chopstick)

Difficulty Level – 1

Number of players – one per team

Supplies

• marshmallows and chopsticks 
• *For younger kids, use the giant campfire-sized marshmallows, for a more challenging game – use mini marshmallows (they are super hard to stack without toppling over), for a just right in-between challenge – use the normal large-sized marshmallows

Instructions:

• In under a minute, players will have to stack 3 marshmallows on top of each other without toppling over

More Challenging Variation

• This is my husband trying to stack a tower of 3 mini marshmallows. It’s harder than it looks

Game 5

Santa’s Beard

Difficulty Level – 2

Number of players per team – 1

Supplies

• Whipped Cream (it’s easier if you get the squeeze bottles)
• about 30 gumdrops per plate
• plate
• bowl

Setting Up

• place the gumdrops on the plate and cover up with whipped cream

Playing

• Only using their mouths, players will need to locate the gumdrops under the whipped cream and transfer them into the bowl that is waiting in under 1 minute
• *We started off with 14 gumdrops per player – it was too easy for my kids. It might be a good amount for younger kids, but to make it more challenging – the more the better

Game 6

Candy Cane Fishing

Difficulty Level

• Original version 4
• Updated version 2

Number of players – 1 per team

Supplies

2 packages of Candy Canes

This game is harder than it looks, but everyone wanted a turn at this

Instructions

• Pile the candy canes up
• Players will need to use 1 candy cane as a hook. With the candy cane in their mouth – curved section at the bottom…
• With hands behind their backs, they will have to pick up as many candy canes as possible and transfer them to a given area in 1 minute
• The team with the most transferred candy canes wins. Honestly, it might just be one

Video

UPDATED Variation FOR A LESS FRUSTRATING GAME for younger players –

This version – Level 1 or 2 (easily enjoyable for kids)

Changes Made

The difference is that we set the candy canes in a bowl. This gives the player a little bit of leverage and they can truly compete with getting as many candy canes over to the plate in under 1 minute as they can to beat the other team.

Video

Game 7

Go Shovel the Snow

Difficulty Level – 2

Players per team – 1

Supplies

• 1 heavy bowl and another bowl (it doesn’t have to be heavy – a paper plate can be substituted)
• 1 dozen cotton balls that have been pulled apart

Instructions

• Players must transfer all of the cotton balls or marshmallows from the heavy bowl to the other bowl in under 1 minute. The player with the most transferred wins this round!
• *I say to use a heavy bowl as your base for a reason. We started out with 2 styrofoam bowls and nobody could scoop from them. It kept tipping over. Live and learn.

Variation for younger kids

an easier alternative would be to use mini marshmallows and a spoon

Video

Game 8

Do You Hear What I Hear?

difficulty level – 1

Number of players per team 2

Supplies

• 5 gift boxes
• 15 Jingle Bells

Setting Up

Place jingle bells into boxes as follows, in box 1 – 1 bell, box 2- 2 bells, box 3 – 3 bells, box 4 – 4 bells, box 5 – 5 bells

Put the lids on the boxes and place them on a table

Mix them up so players do not know how many bells are in the boxes

Instructions

2 players from each team are needed for this game

When you are ready, set a timer for 1 minute

Players should shake the boxes next to their ears and listen

Then, number the boxes in order of 1-5 bells

Game 9

Hung With Care

Difficulty level – 2

Number of players – 1

Supplies

• 5 candy canes – with the wrapper left on
• thin string about 1 MM in width

Setting Up

Tie a string from one object to another about eye level with the participants – making sure it is nice and taut

How to Play

In one minute – Players will have to balance 5 candy canes from the tips onto the taut string so that they balance

Variation

To make this really difficult unwrap the candy canes

Game 10

Reindeer Nose Dive

Difficulty level -2

Number of players – one per team. You could also do team vs. team

Supplies Needed

• string
• red pom-poms – small to medium in size
• vaseline
• reindeer antler headbands

Setting Up

You’ll want to cut strings so that they are about chest level from mouth to chest. Mine were about 1 foot long

Tie one end of the strings around the red pom-poms

Playing the Game

Players will have to hand the string from their mouth and motion their heads up and down quickly until the pom-pom sticks to their nose

Tips

Our headbands were starting to shake off, so we re-did the game with everyone holding their antlers onto their heads

Game 11

Christmas Ball

Difficulty level – 2

Number of Players – 1 per player

Supplies Needed

• Sturdy Christmas Paper Plates
• Mini Shatterproof Christmas Ornaments
• Boxes – like shoe boxes or priority mailboxes

Setting Up

Place the boxes so that they are opened at one side of a cleared-out room

Place ornaments (one per team) on the other side of the room

Hand players a plate

Playing

In under one minute, players will have to fan their ornaments into their box waiting on the other side of the room

Game 12

Candy Toss

Difficulty Level – 1

Number of players – 2 per team

Supplies

• Christmas Candy
• Cups – 2 per team
• Chairs – one per player

Setting Up

Fill one cup per team full of an equal amount of Christmas Candy

Set chairs across from each other about 3 feet apart

Place filled cups on one chair and an empty cup on the chair opposite it

How to Play

When ready, players should throw candy to their partner who will try to catch it in the cup

If candy falls onto the ground, the player throwing will have to throw it again until it is caught

Game 13

Christmas Nutstacker

Difficulty Level – 2

Number of players – 1 per team

Supplies Needed

5 Hex Nuts – I found a bag of hex nuts at Menards. Their dimensions are 7/16 – 14

Candy Cane

Setting Up

Unwrap the candy cane so that it will fit into the center of the nut

Set out the candy cane and 5 nuts on the table

How to Play

Stack 5 nuts in under one minute

Variation

Making it more difficult – Have players hold a plate to stack the nuts onto

Game 14

Christmas Straw Race

Difficulty Level – 1

Number of players – 1 per team

Supplies Needed

Pom-Poms – 10 per team (each team should have a different color, preferably Christmas colors)

Long table

Paper Straws

Tape – one that is safe for your table surface

Setting Up

Place a piece of tape at the end of the table going straight across for the finish line

On the opposite end, place 10 pom-poms per team and a straw

Playing the Game

Players will have to blow the pom-poms across the finish line using their straws to blow them

Expert Tip

Use one color of pom-pom per team so you can easily see who won

A new rule that we made up after this became a problem. Players can only run up and down their side of the table. No going on the other team’s side or you might get in their way of playing the game

Game 15

Christmas Chop-Stack

Level of difficulty – 1

number of players per team – 1

Supplies Needed

• Paper plates
• Skewers – we tried chopsticks but they were too wide. You might be able to pull them off with the round pretzels or the pretzel twists
• Christmas Pretzels

Setting Up

Place an even amount of Christmas pretzels on the plates

Playing

Players will need to stack all of the pretzels onto the skewer – The first to get them all wins

That’s it for now! I hope you have enjoyed our Minute To Win It Games for Christmas. I’ll be back next year to add even more Minute to Win It Games to this post. Until then, check out the links below…

Let’s Hang Out

I’d love to see more of you. You can always find me on Pinterest and on my Facebook Page Cooking Up Fun. Come by and say hello, and if you want Follow along for more fun ideas and delicious recipes.

More Minute-to-Win-It Games You’ll Enjoy

~Melissa – Kid Friendly Things To Do