Family Games

After the success of our original Minute to Win It family fun night and our Dollar Store Minute to Win It, I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas edition. I chose some Minute to Win It Christmas games. It was so much fun! Whether you’re planning a large holiday party or a small family gathering, these games will bring laughter and fun. (You can also check out our Thanksgiving Minute to Win It games for your Thanksgiving holiday gathering.)

I’ve purposely chosen games that share some of the same supplies. This helps keep it simple to plan and more affordable.

Most of the supplies needed can be purchased at the dollar store. You probably already have many of them in your home. Throw this together at the last minute and still manage to impress.

Use our Minute to Win It Christmas Edition printable decoration kit to make things even easier! 

Minute to Win It Christmas Games:

You can play these games individually or as teams. If you play as teams, be sure to come up with awesome team names to add to the fun!

I’ve added videos of most of the games below to give you a better idea of how to play them. My kids and our neighbour had so much fun trying out all the activities.

Face the Gingerbread Man:

Supplies needed:

• small gingerbread men (at least one per person)

Begin with a gingerbread man on each person’s forehead. The players have one minute to get the cookie into their mouth using only their facial movements. This is a great game to play in a large group. Everyone can play at the same time or you can play head to head.

Snowman Stack:

Supplies needed:

• large marshmallows (6 for each player)

Each player has one minute to stack three marshmallows on top of each other twice to create two “snowmen” using only one hand.

This is an easy game to complete within the time allotted. I included it because it is nice to have a game that younger children can easily play.

If you’re playing these Minute to Win It Christmas games in teams, choose the youngest players to complete this challenge. Even toddlers should be able to do well at this.

If you are playing with only adults, you may want to skip this challenge or increase the difficulty by requiring players to stack the marshmallows using only their mouths.

Reindeer Nose Dive:

Supplies needed:

• 1 inch red pompoms
• ribbon
• petroleum jelly

Tie a red pompom onto the end of a ribbon. Make one of these for each player. Place petroleum jelly on each player’s nose. The player starts with the other end of the ribbon in their mouth. They then have one minute to attempt to swing the ribbon and land the pompom onto their nose and stick there. No hands are allowed to be used in this challenge.

Christmas Cliffhanger

Supplies needed:

• ten Christmas cards

Place 10 Christmas cards in a row on a table close to the edge. You want to set them up so that they form a tent. Blow the cards gently to move them across the table. The goal is to have one card hang over the edge of the table without falling off. Each player has one minute and ten tries to reach the objective.

Candy Cane Catch

Supplies needed:

• garland
• candy canes

String garland up between two chairs with the seat facing out to create a clothesline-type effect. Give each player a handful (or small bowlful) of candy canes. Have the player stand on the chair and drop candy canes, attempting to have them hang on the garland. You can have another player on the opposite chair playing at the same time.

You can either give the point to the person who hangs a candy cane first or see who can hang the most in one minute.

Jingle Bell Clock

Supplies needed:

• craft stick (wide or narrow depending on age and ability of players)
• jingle bells (6-8 for each player)

Have each challenger place a craft stick in their mouth and line the jingle bells across the stick in one minute or less. For young children, use the wider craft sticks. To make it more challenging for adults, use regular sized popsicle sticks. You can also vary the size of the jingle bells to create more difficulty.

Snow Shovel

Supplies needed:

• bowls
• plastic spoons
• 1 inch white pompoms or cotton balls

Give each player two bowls, one with fifteen white pompoms and a plastic spoon in it. Once the clock starts, the players have one minute to transfer the pompoms (snowballs) into the empty bowl using only their mouth and the plastic spoon. This game is quite challenging, so for younger kids, start with less pompoms or cotton balls in their bowl.

Bobbing for Candy Canes

Supplies needed:

• bowl
• wrapped candy canes

Fill a bowl with wrapped candy canes for each player. Challengers place one candy cane in their mouth and attempt to hook the candy canes in the bowl and transfer them to the table. The goal of the game is to move 5 candy canes out of the bowl. The time to beat is one minute.

Peppermint Twist

Supplies needed:

• uncooked spaghetti noodles (one per player)
• Christmas Life Savers or similar peppermint candy (six per player)

Set out one piece of uncooked spaghetti per person. Place six holiday edition Life Savers or similar peppermint candy with a hole in the center on their side so that the hole is facing the contestant. The player must pick up all the candy using only the spaghetti noodle in their mouth. They must stack all six candies onto their noodle in under one minute.

Snowball Run

Supplies needed:

• plastic spoons
• 1 inch white pompoms or cotton balls
• buckets or large bowls

Place two buckets or bowls at the far end of the room. Lay out white pompoms at the other side of the room and give participating players a plastic spoon. This game works with groups as a relay or with two players racing against each other. Each of the players places a white pompom (snowball) on a plastic spoon and races to place it in a bucket across the room. The player or team to fill the bucket with the most “snowballs” in one minute wins.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Supplies needed:

• Christmas wrapping paper
• household items
• oven mitts

Before the event, wrap some small boxes and cans with holiday wrapping paper. Have each player put on a pair of oven mitts. See how many gifts players can open in one minute while wearing oven mitts. This is quite a funny one to watch!

As you can see from the video, one of our daughters found the game too difficult and used her mouth to open “gifts”. In case it wasn’t clear in the instructions, using your teeth is not allowed!

White Christmas

Supplies needed:

• toilet paper rolls

One person stands still while the other wraps them in toilet paper. This game is best player head to head against another two player team. The team that completely uses their toilet paper first wins. It’s fun to see what method the teams come up with to do this quickly.

These Minute to Win It Christmas party games are great for office parties, family get togethers, holiday parties with friends, or even winter birthday parties.

You can easily adapt the games for all ages from preschoolers to grandparents.

Set the mood by having Christmas music playing in the background. Use holiday decor as your decorations. This means that the lights and tree that are already in the room are all you need!

Pop some popcorn, put out some drinks, set out a few appetizers, print out the game cards and party kit, and it’s time to play. I’m sure the whole family is going to love these Minute to Win It Christmas games!
Looking for more creative ideas for family fun or resources to help you connect with your child? Join our free 5 Days to Better Family Connection email series.

Check out our other Minute to Win It games and easy family games:

Minute to Win It Build Edition (contains bonus Christmas challenges)

Minute to Win It Family Fun Night games 

Dollar Store Minute to Win It 

The Flour Game 

The Bag Game 

Almost everyone of all ages loves playing with building blocks. This fun Minute to Win It Build Edition combines Lego or other building blocks with the challenge of trying to beat the clock.

The way Minute to Win It style games work is that each game is designed to be done in under a minute. These ones all involve building challenges. And as an added bonus, there are some fun Christmas themed ones too which makes this the perfect family activity for during the holidays.

Our family loves Minute to Win It games. In the video below, you can see our Minute to Win It Christmas Edition games. We pretty much use any reason to play these kinds of games though. Camping, Thanksgiving, or just for fun!

This Minute to Win It Build Edition also makes a great birthday party idea. Just add some decorations and food and you’re all set. 

Decorations:

The great thing about these particular Minute to Win It games is that the decorations are kind of already done for you. Just sprinkle some Legos here and there. If you want to take it up a notch, you can add brightly coloured balloons, napkins, and tablecloth.

Food:

While you can of course just set out some popcorn or chips, if you want to go with the theme, you can use some of these fun ideas:

• building block candy
• Lego shaped yogurt snacks
• Easy Lego cupcakes
• Building Blocks Cake

Prizes:

Prizes are certainly not necessary as this is just fun to play, but if you want to offer prizes to the winners, some cute ideas that would go along with the theme are:

• Lego minifigures 
• bag of building blocks
• small Lego set

Minute to Win It Build Edition:

One of the things I like the most about Minute to Win It games is that they use supplies you likely already have on hand or are very inexpensive to get. Another benefit is that they work for a wide range of ages. If you want to play as a family, grandparents and parents can join in with the kids.

These particular games do involve building blocks which can present a choking hazard to young children, so adult supervision is recommended. 

Supplies needed:

• classic Legos or similar building blocks
• Minute to Win It Building Challenge Cards (download them here)
• one minute sand timer or timer on a phone or watch
• a glass
• box or bucket

How to Play:

1. Print out the challenge cards on card stock. 
2. Set out the building blocks.
3. Each person or team draws a card and has to complete the challenge on the card within a minute. The directions for each game is written on the card.

Players or teams can go one at a time or you can do a head-to-head style of play where two players or one person from each team attempt to complete the challenge at the same time and the first to complete it correctly is the winner of that round. That adds some competition.

The Christmas themed cards (there are 12 holiday challenges) can be used along with the regular game cards or on their own. Get your free printable Minute to Win It Build challenge cards by entering your email below. You will also be entered into our email series 5 Secrets to Powerful Family Connection. 

Check out some of our other Minute to Win It Games:

Minute to Win It Family Night

Christmas Minute to Win It

Minute to Win It Dollar Store Edition

This is such a fun party game! The Saran Wrap game is great for all ages. It can be played at holiday gatherings, office parties, birthday parties, or even in the classroom.The great thing about this game is that everyone is a winner as each person is able to keep the prizes that they unwrap. There will of course be some people that end up with more treats that others, but that’s all part of the fun!

In case the ball doesn’t make it all the way around the circle, you can keep a few prizes to the side to give to anyone who doesn’t end up with a treat.

Saran Wrap Ball Game:

Supplies needed:

• 1-5 packages of Saran Wrap or Glad Cling Wrap (you want to use brand name plastic wrap for this to ensure that it sticks to itself)
• candies and small treats (there’s a list of prize ideas below)
• optional: a large prize such as cash for the center
• dice

How to make the Saran Wrap ball:

1. Begin by placing the best prize on some of the plastic wrap. Wrap it around the prize and continue to wrap around.
2. Continue wrapping the plastic wrap around to create a ball and every few layers, add a candy or treat and continue wrapping.
3. Continue wrapping until the ball reaches the desired size. You can make a smaller ball for smaller groups using just one roll of Saran Wrap or make a larger ball for a big group or to make the game last longer using two or three rolls. You want to ensure you make the ball large enough that each person will get at least one turn to play.

Hint: If you want to make it more difficult to unwrap, you can periodically cut the plastic wrap and then start wrapping the other way with the next piece.

How to play the game:

1. Have all the players sit in a circle.
2. Give the ball to the first person. In our house, the house rule is that the youngest player goes first always. 
3. That person can begin to unwrap the ball, keeping every treat they unwrap as they go. 
4. In the meantime, the person to their left rolls the dice and continues to roll until they roll doubles. 
5. Once they roll doubles, the ball passes to them and the dice passes to the person on their left. 
6. The game continues until the entire ball in unwrapped with the last person being able to keep the prize at the center of the ball. 

Saran Wrap Ball Game Variations:

• For Christmas, you can use red and green cling wrap to add more of a holiday feel. Choose holiday treats such as Christmas mini erasers, small candy canes, and stickers.
• Choose prizes according to the theme of your party.
• Use this game as a way for party goers to fill up their treat bag at a birthday party.
• Instead of having the person to the left roll repeatedly until they get doubles, you can have them roll only once and then pass the dice if they don’t get doubles and have everyone roll one time each turn. The person who rolls the doubles gets to “steal” the ball and so on.
• In this variation, if a 7 is rolled, the direction the ball passes in is reversed.
• Add some gag gifts to the ball. This adds a funny twist.

What prizes can I put in the Saran Wrap ball?

Here are some ideas of what you can include in your Saran Wrap ball:

• candy (mini sizes as well as full size)
• small toys such as those you would put in a treat bag
• cash (bills and/or coins)
• gift cards or gift certificates
• makeup or lotion samples
• stickers
• costume jewelry
• movie tickets
• bouncy balls
• small fidgets
• face mask packets
• mini Kleenex packs
• scrunchies or hair ties
• craft supplies
• action figures
• toy cars
• items from Toobs like plastic animals

This activity doesn’t have to cost much to put together. You can look for sales on small candies the day after Valentine’s Day or Hallowe’en or right after Christmas or you can purchase things at the dollar store. 

Sign up for our email series 5 Secrets to Powerful Family Connection for other great ideas. 

You may also be interested in these party game ideas:

Minute to Win It Games

The Flour Game

The Put Away Scavenger Hunt

Moms…you are going to love me after reading this! It’s so easy to do and costs nothing. No planning ahead required. The Put Away Scavenger Hunt is my go-to for turning grumpy days around. We have been doing put away scavenger hunts for at least a decade now and they never seem to get old. I usually just do them on an ordinary day with my own kids to change the mood, but I’ve also done them in place of an Easter Egg Hunt or as a birthday party game. It’s always a big hit.

Our family really enjoys scavenger hunts such as our photo scavenger hunt, sensory scavenger hunt, or Opposite Day scavenger hunt.

The Put Away Scavenger Hunt:

Supplies needed:

• random items you already have around the house
• a prize. This can be candy, a full Easter basket, party treat bags, or something like staying up an extra hour at bedtime or getting a free pass on chores.

How to play:

1. To set things up, choose one item you will give your child to start with. In this example, it will be the spatulas. Set this item aside.
2. In the place where this item should go, place another item that doesn’t belong there. (In this example, a fidget toy was in the drawer where the spatulas should be.) 
3. Continue to do this with items around the house.
4. In the place where the last item should go, put the prize.
5. To play, hand your child (or children) the first item to put away. 
6. When they discover something in that location that isn’t where it should be, have them put that away and so forth.
7. In the last location, they will discover their prize.

To give you an idea of how this works, I’ve taken pictures of a sample Put Away Scavenger Hunt to walk you through.

• spatulas handed to child
• spatulas get put away in the kitchen drawer
• fidget toy where spatulas should be
• fidget toy put away in its place
• keys where fidget toy should be
• key ring put back on its hook
• dishcloth where keys should be
• dishcloth put in its drawer
• decorative “R” shouldn’t be there
• in the place where the “R” belongs, an expanding ball sits
• expanding ball put where it goes
• toilet paper discovered there

• toilet paper put back in its cupboard
• shoes discovered there
• shoes replaced near shoe rack
• decorative sailboat sits on the floor
• sailboat replaced on dresser
• remote control shouldn’t be there
• remote placed back in the living room and some treats are discovered in its bowl!

Put Away Scavenger Hunt Tips:

• For older kids, place items in a way that has them running all over. I put an item upstairs and the next one downstairs and the next outside and the next on the main floor and then next in the garage. That way, it’s more challenging, lasts longer, and gets in some exercise for them.
• If you’re hiding large prizes like treat bags for a birthday party or Easter baskets, the dryer is a great place. Just put dryer balls in the second-last place and when the kids go put them away, they will find their prize. The garage is another area we’ve used to end the game if it was a larger prize. 
• Add some humour. My kids think it’s hilarious if I put a pair of underwear in like a kitchen drawer or something. Be sure it’s clean underwear of course, but this always makes them roar with laughter!
• Toothbrushes, books, kitchen utensils, photo frames, pencils, candles, and oven mitts all work great for this game. 
• This scavenger hunt is a fantastic teaching tool as it helps kids learn where things belong and how to put things where they go. Think of this as a skills development activity for chores!
• Kids can also participate in setting this up for siblings which helps with critical thinking as they plan ahead to which item will go where. 
• Adult supervision should be used of course and your child’s age and abilities should be considered when you choose what to hide where.

Let me know how your family enjoy this. 

If you’re looking for similar activities, you can download our free printable Outdoor Scavenger Hunt. Just enter your email address below.

You may also be interested in:

Outdoor Sensory Scavenger Hunt

Photo Scavenger Hunt