*This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my small business…at no extra cost to yourself!

Looking for something fun to do at your next get together? I’m sharing eight “Minute to Win It” games to play with a few people or a crowd—they're perfect for all ages to bring the fun and keep everyone involved.Even if you’re not a game person, you will have fun playing these games!

We had a change in our usual New Year's Eve plans, so I asked my sister, Ashley, if she and her family would want to get together instead. Luckily, their normal plans changed as well, so we decided to plan a NYE get together. With my nieces and, let’s be honest, my hermit tendencies, an evening in was what I had in mind. I didn’t have any plans beyond fixing some appetizer type foods, but my sister is the fun one (and incredibly gifted in party planning), and she put together a game night for us.We had so much fun, I think this might need to be our new New Year’s Eve tradition!

I’m pre-warning you that I wasn’t going to blog about this, so the pictures aren’t the best quality. Also, we were all in our comfies (I’ve been living in thissherpa) and it was nighttime, so hopefully you can look beyond the pictures and still see how much fun we had playing the games!. I shared our festivities over on Instagram and had a ton of DM’s about them, so I’m rounding up the details for you—your next party will be a hit!

The first thing you’ll need to decide is how many games you want to play. Our get together started at 5 PM on New Year’s Eve and we wanted to play a game every hour on the hour—the goal was to keep the nieces entertained so they wouldn’t get restless. *Spoiler alert: they still got restless...* We ended up playing 8 Minute to Win It games and they were all so much fun!

The best part of the games is that you could possibly have most of the supplies you need already on hand and the rest can be found at Dollar Tree. We had a score board made on a piece of poster board, but you could just as easily keep score on a piece of paper. My sister added a twist to keeping score, trying to keep it light and less competitive with the girls, giving everyone opportunity for different levels of points, based on whether they passed on playing, participated, or won the game. She tried to alleviate the fighting between my nieces too by not having prizes, but my mom was fun and had equal numbers of Target gift cards for them to share when the games were all done. I mean...I would have taken a Target gift card, but I guess it was ok for the kids to get them...

In addition to the poster board, Ashley also separated all the games intosmall gift bagsand wrote the time that we’d play each game on them. This was a fun, special touch and made it easy for the girls to pick out which game we’d play next.

You’ll also need a timer of some sort, since each game is supposed to last one minute. We used our phones, but if you can, have a couple of phones so you can run a timer and still be able to take pictures and videos—you're going to want to document this!This digital kitchen timer would be perfect and great to get double use out of it!

Okay, now...let the games begin!

This game was so much fun...and I’m not just saying that because I dominated.

What you’ll need:

-Flat-bottomed container - a 9”x13” baking dish would work! (I’ve had my eye on theseThyme & Table Stoneware RectangularBakers)

-A pair ofchopsticksfor each player. Since we ended up playing this as pairs, you could get by with only two sets of chopsticks.

-Kix cereal. My sister ended up getting some red hots hearts instead and I thought they were so cute! Would be fun to choose something themed for your party or holiday.

-Paper cups

How it works:

Place the container with Kix (or candy) in the middle. Each player has their own pair of chopsticks and a paper cup. The goal is to use the chopsticks to get as many pieces of Kix cereal into the paper cup. Whoever has the most in their cup at the end of the minute, wins.

I was terrible at this game! One tip...apparently, it’s ok to hold your bowl still.

What you’ll need:

-2 paper bowls per person

-Large marshmallows-you can pick how many you want each person to have to “shovel”

-Plastic spoons-each player will need their own

How it works:

Each player will have two bowls in front of them, with the marshmallows in one. Players will put the end of spoon into their mouths and try to “shovel” the marshmallows from one bowl to the other. Whoever gets the most marshmallows from one bowl to the other in a minute, wins. Again...you can hold onto the bowl while you play-helps out a ton!

This was probably my favorite game!

What you’ll need:

-Small paper plates

-Smarties-it doesn’t matter how many you play with, but make sure each person has the same number.

-Straws

How it works:

Each player will have two paper plates in front of them and will need a straw. Place equal numbers of Smarties on one of each player’s plates. Using the straw, suck the smarties to the bottom of the straw and transfer them to the other plate. Jason got “smart” and figured out how to pick up two at a time! Whoever gets the most from one plate to the other in one minute, wins.

You will seriously want to record and take pictures of this game. We had more fun looking at them after than playing the game itself!

What you’ll need:

-Sandwich cookies-any kind will work, but I would pick your fave so you can enjoy them after the game!

How it works:

Each player places a cookie on their eye and tries to work it down to their mouth without using their hands. If the cookie drops to the ground, you’re out. You could time this game to see who does it the most quickly...if you want to determine a winner. Don’t judge me, butTHESEare one of my favorite sandwich cookies!

We had to move this game to our basement, since this would have been a smorgasbord for Cooper, our corgi!

What you’ll need:

-Paper cups-each player needs one

-Mini marshmallows-you can choose how many each person gets or just kind of eyeball to make sure they’re even (no one is going to get all of them in the cup...).

How it works:

Each player will place their cup on a table and then standing back, players toss the marshmallows into their cup. Whoever gets the most marshmallows into their cup in a minute, wins.

While we didn’t really do prizes, it would be fun to give the winner of this game all the pennies when it’s done!

What you’ll need:

-Pennies! Two rolls ($1) would probably be enough, if just two people play at a time.

How it works:

Each player stacks pennies, making a tower. The hard part is that you can’t straighten the pennies as you go. If your stack falls, you’re out. Whoever has the most pennies in their stack after a minute, wins.

This game was another of my favorites! It’s fun, plus the noisemakers make it extra silly.

What you’ll need:

-Paper cups

-Noise maker party blowers

How it works:

We played this with one person going at a time. Set the paper cup on the table (top down) and push it from one end of the table to the other by blowing the party blower noise maker. Whoever does this in the least amount of time, wins.

Honestly, this was my least favorite of the games, but it was because it’s harder and I wasn’t good at it. Also...it was midnight, and I was tired. Yeah...that was really the reason. Who enjoyed this game the most?? Cooper! We might need to get some balloons for him to play with more often—supervised only of course.

What you’ll need:

-Balloons

How it works:

We played by having each person go individually. The goal is to keep three balloons in the air for as long as you can. I think the longest anyone kept the balloons up was 17 seconds—Jason was the clear winner! To make the game a little more kid-friendly, you could change it to two balloons...much more manageable.

When you plan a fun game night, you need delicious snacks to keep your energy up! My sister is an amazing baker (and party planner extraordinaire) and made these pretty sugar cookies for our party. Eating low carb like I am? You’ll love these Keto Shortbread Cookies!

Clearly I’m a fashionista in this pic…but I do love this sherpa! Want to shop more of my outfits and home decor? You can always Shop My Instagram Posts!

You can pick and choose any of these games to play and can switch up the order to work best for your party. The only real goal is for everyone to have fun! To be honest, I don’t always love group games like this—think baby or bridal shower games. I think it’s because I don’t like cutesy or overly silly. These were just easy and fun, though, and I’m so glad that we played them!

Having a family game night for New Year’s Eve helped us to make such good memories. I hope that you’ll consider putting together some Minute to Win It games for your next get together!If you decide to host a family or friends game night, share a picture in your Instagram stories and tag me when you do! You can find me on Instagram at @hilaryprall.