These Minute to Win It Games are perfect for all ages – challenging enough for older children and adults, but easy enough for little kids to join in the fun! Perfect for birthday parties!

Minute to Win It Games & Birthday Party

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We recently celebrated my son’s 9th birthday with a Minute to Win It birthday party, and it was a TON of silly fun! These 10 Minute to Win It games were perfect for all ages (we had guests from ages 4-60 playing these games, and everyone had a blast!) – challenging enough for the older kids and adults, but still easy enough that the younger children could play as well. Great family fun!

How to Throw a Minute to Win It Party

Minute to Win It Party Invitations

First up, you’ll need party invitations! We found some great invitation choices (clockwise from top left): 

• Minute to Win It party invitations by Candles and Favors
• Minute to Win It Invitations by Cherry Digital Design 
• Minute to Win It Invitations by Babadoo Stationery
• Minute to Win It Invitations by Bee’s Knees Design Shop (in boy or girl colored designs).

There were actually a LOT of great choices – check out ALL of the Minute to Win It party invitations here!

Minute to Win It Party Decorations

Next up, party decorations! My favorite way to decorate for birthday parties is to choose a color theme and then match my party supplies to those colors. It’s a quick and easy way to make everything look clean and coordinated! The classic Minute to Win It Game Show colors are red, white, black, and blue, but any color combination can be made to work! You can find lots of Minute to Win It Party printables available in an assortment of different color palettes.

How do you play Minute to Win it Games? 

Minute to Win It games can be played and scored in several different ways and can be adjusted depending on the size of your party group. Typically, games are played individually at smaller parties (around 6-8 guests) and in groups at larger parties.

In individual games, the player will try to race the clock (set at one or two minutes depending on the age of the party guests and the difficulty level of the challenge), and points will be awarded based upon whether or not the challenge is completed before time runs out. For these individual games, we usually opt to have players score 5 points if they complete the task on time, 0 if they do not.

For larger parties, challenges are completed head-to-head in smaller groups with 3-5 players at a time competing to beat the clock. The timer is set, and points are awarded based upon whether or not the player is able to complete the task before the time runs out. We like to add extra bonus points for the player who finishes first, so we typically score as follows: 5 points if you finish first (or collect the most, etc.), 3 points if you complete the challenge, and 0 points if you do not. 

In the end, the points are tallied, and prizes are awarded to the top finishers.

MINUTE TO WIN IT PARTY GAME SUPPLIES:

With just a few supplies, you can play all ten of these fun games and more! Check out the very bottom of this post for more Minute to Win It games that you can play with these same supplies!

• Stopwatch or phone with a stopwatch function
• Round Sandwich Cookies (1 per person)
• Pennies (25 per player; 2-3 players compete at a time)
• Plain M&M’s (25 per player)
• Plastic Drinking Straws (1 per player)
• Small Paper Plates (6)
• Bounce Off Party Game
• Multi-Colored Ping Pong Balls (LOTS!)
• Red and Blue Plastic Party Cups (number needed will vary depending on if players play individually or head-to-head)
• Plastic Spoons (1 per player)
• Small Plastic Bowls (6)
• Bamboo Skewers (1 per player), snip off any sharp ends
• 5/8″ Hex Nuts (5 per player; 2-3 players compete at a time)
• Square Tissue Boxes (2-3)
• Adjustable belt or long length of wide ribbon (2-3)
• 9″ balloons (at least 6 + a few extra in case of accidental popping!)

Note: you can skip the tissue boxes and belt and buy this pre-made “Twiggle” set for Junk in the Trunk instead! 

Fun Minute to Win It Game Ideas

COOKIE FACE:

This is a great game to kick off the party because all of the players can compete at the same time (or you can break it down into several rounds of game play). Each player places a cookie on their forehead, and the goal is to get the cookie into your mouth using only your facial muscles in under 1 minute. No hands! This is tougher than it looks!

STACK IT UP:

Players must move 25 pennies into a single stack in under a minute using only one hand (number of pennies can be increased for older children and adults as desired). This game works well with 3 players competing in each round of play.

SUCK IT UP:

Players place a straw in their mouth and use suction to transfer a pile of 25 M&M’s from one plate to another in under one minute. Only one hand may be used to hold the straw. Everyone gets to eat their candy when the round is finished! This game also works well with 3 players competing in each round.

PONG TAC TOE:

Pong Tac Toe was one of our guests’ most favorite games – some of the adults even asked if they could do play it twice! We used three trays from the game Bounce-Off Party, and assigned one to each of the three players. Each player had one minute to bounce ping pong balls down the length of the table and into their tray – 3 in a row (in any direction) wins! We recommend assigning one color of ping pong balls to each player to keep things easy-to-see. 

Note: Bounce-Off Party appears to have been discontinued – it’s still available, but pricey! You can substitute for any other version of Bounce-Off and have players share the game board. Bounce-Off Rock ‘n’ Rollz looks super fun!  

STACK ATTACK:

Players must stack up a pile of cups and then place them back into a single stack in under a minute. The original Minute to Win It version of this game calls for 36 cups to be stacked, but we reduced the number of cups for the children. Each child stacked 21 cups, and we discovered that this was the perfect number that resulted in exactly half of the kids being successful. Challenging, but not too challenging! Two players competing in each round works well and allows enough space so that any falling cups won’t accidentally knock over your competitor’s stack, too!

SCOOP IT UP:

Using nothing but a spoon in your mouth, transfer six ping pong balls from one bowl to another) in less than one minute. No hands! Hands are only allowed if you drop the ping pong ball, and then they can be used to place the ball back into the original bowl for another transfer attempt. 2-3 players compete for each round of play.

MOVIN’ ON UP: 

Each player starts with a stack of 25 red cups with one blue cup at the top of the stack. Start by moving the top blue cup to the bottom of the stack, and continue moving cups from the top to the bottom until the blue cup is back at the bottom of the stack again. Again, we modified this from the original adult version of the game that calls for 40 cups, and found that 26 cups was a great amount for the kids to work with. 2-3 children per round of competition works well.

NUTSTACKER:

Thread five hex nuts onto a wooden skewer. Using only one hand on the skewer, stack up all of the nuts in under one minute. Since this game requires the table to stay as still as possible, only two players compete per round.

JUNK IN THE TRUNK:

This game was another crowd favorite! To prepare for this game, empty a tissue box, and use an Xacto knife to make two slits into the bottom of the box. Thread an adjustable belt or wide ribbon through the two slits to create a tissue-box-on-a-belt. Removing the thin plastic barrier from the tissue box opening will make game play easier (for younger children) or keep it intact for more challenging play.

To play the game, strap the tissue box onto the player’s back, and fill it with 6-8 ping pong balls (we used 6, but 8 would be appropriate for older children and adults). Shake, shimmy, jump, and dance around until all of the balls have fallen out of the tissue box. No using your hands and no laying down! This game is hilarious to watch in action!

DEFY GRAVITY:

Using only one hand, players must keep two balloons from touching the ground for one minute. For a more challenging game, increase the amount to three balloons per player (and use different colored balloons for each player to make it easy to differentiate!). No holding the balloons!  2 players per round of competition worked well to give the players ample space to move their balloons around.

Want even MORE Minute to Win It game ideas? Check out this video and click for more info!

MINUTE TO WIN IT GAME PRIZES:

I used heat transfer vinyl from Expressions Vinyl in white, bright red, sky blue, metallic gold and metallic silver to create our “gold medal” and “silver medal” grand champion prizes. Aside from the two grand prize winners receiving their special “Champion” shirts, each player also received a blue prize ribbon and a goofy “prize money” necklace. 

The birthday boy was super happy to be one of the grand prize winners, and they both loved their shirts!

Everyone had a blast playing these fun Minute to Win It Games – they really were some of the best games for kids ever! All ten games took twelve kids about an hour and a half to complete, and it felt like the perfect amount of time to hold everyone’s attention and interest. This was an incredibly fun party, and it was actually quite inexpensive to host, too!

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