Our neighbour Christie introduced our family to the Bag Game years ago and it is always a hit. This game requires exactly one item and can be played anywhere. It can be played with large groups or small groups and with people of all ages. It seriously does not get simpler or better than the Bag Game!
We have played the Bag Game both outside and inside. We once played it with an empty cereal box because we didn’t have a paper bag to use. It is a great boredom buster on a snow day and an even better ice breaker at group events.
As long as you have a paper bag, this game costs nothing and couldn’t be simpler to set up. We always save paper bags now from stores or take-out at restaurants just for this purpose.
Our family loves this activity. There is always much hilarity that ensues as everyone stands around watching the person whose turn it is. There is laughter and cheering. Sometimes, there are some attempts to distract the person, especially when it comes to siblings!
How to Play The Bag Game
Materials needed:
- paper bag or cereal box
Instructions:
- Place an empty paper bag on the floor.
- Standing on one foot, each player must take a turn to retrieve the bag using only their mouth.
- Once the bag is successfully retrieved, that player tears off the piece of the bag that their mouth touched.
- In this way, the bag slowly gets lower and lower to the ground.
- Once a player’s raised foot touches the ground or one of their hands touches the ground, they are eliminated from the game.
- The last person remaining in the game is the winner.
You will want to play this in a fairly large area so that everyone has room to manoeuvre. We have found that everyone develops a bit of their own style in this game. Some put their other leg way up high and use it as a counterbalance. Some crouch low to the ground with their whole body while others bend their upper half down. One of our sons places one foot on top of the other before crouching down.
The Bag Game Variations
For younger children or those with mobility issues, you can play the game exactly the same way but allow both feet to be touching the ground.
You can choose to have some players be allowed this exception while others play with the traditional rules of the game.
Another variation is to allow each player three strikes per turn or per game wherein their raised foot or one of their hands can touch the ground twice without that player being eliminated.
We have a large family and we enjoy finding activities that we can all do together. This has quickly become a favourite.
You’ll notice from the blurry pictures that this is an active game with a lot of movement. There can be some pretty funny contortions, particularly when the bag gets down really low. There have been times in our competitive family when all that was left of the bag was a single piece of paper laying flat on the ground and our son managed to retrieve it!
The Bag Game is an easy activity for large groups with a variety of ages and abilities. It can be played at youth groups, camp, family reunions, Christmas parties, birthday parties, retirement celebrations, or in a classroom.
Read our other fun family games:
For the decorations, I used our 
Chocolate Unicorn. All that’s needed for this game are chocolate cookies. Each player gets 10 cookies with the goal of stacking them on their forehead. The resulting stack must remain in place for 3 seconds.
Breakfast Scramble. To set up for this game, you will need to cut the front of a cereal box into pieces. Depending on the size of the cereal box and the age of the people participating in your Minute to Win It challenge, you can either cut the box in 8 or 16 pieces. The goal of the game is to reassemble the puzzle within a minute.
Elephant March. To prepare for this game, put a tennis ball in the end of a pair of panty hose or put a tennis ball in each leg of a pair of panty hose. Set 8 cups up on the floor to create a walkway. To play, the player must put the panty hose on their head and knock over all the cups by swinging their head from side to side. This is a pretty funny one!
This is a great recipe for kids to prepare themselves or cook with you. They only require 3 ingredients and a few minutes to bake.
The fairy wands are now ready for eating. We served ours with tea in our good tea cups for a special treat. My girls thought this was the best snack ever! I know it’s not the healthiest snack, but when you make something yourself, you know exactly how much sugar is in it (or in this case, on it) unlike buying packaged snacks.
For kids with autism and attachment issues due to adoption, eye contact can feel threatening. This activity promotes eye contact and safe physical touch in a fun and relaxed way.
Now it is time for everyone present to write words about that child in their body tracing. That child also writes positive words about themselves on their paper. Writing something positive about themselves was hard for some of our kids to do, but once they were able to write one thing, the rest seemed to come more easily.
It’s impossible to retrieve the candy without getting a face full of flour making this part quite funny! It’s also funny to see the attempts to retrieve the candy with minimum flour-face-coverage.
