New Year’s Eve Minute to Win It Games

One of my favorite things to do with a big group is play minute to win it games, inspired by the Minute to Win It game show! This we played for our Christmas party games and are planning to play again with different games and a different group of people for New Year’s Eve next week. You could try out one of these games or play them all, whatever works for you! 

Depending on the number of guests, there are three different ways you can play these games. You choose. No matter which way you choose, I guarantee they’ll still be fun. 

• Style #1: Man vs. Clock – In this version, one player will be trying to beat the clock for each game. So for instance, they will have to try and get all of the sprinkles from one bottle to another within a minute (hence the Minute to Win It). If they do, they win a prize. If not, let someone else have a shot. If you go with this style, I recommend choosing a different person for each game.
• Style #2: Head to Head – In this style, you’ll pick two players for each game who will going head to head against each other playing a game rather than trying to beat the clock. So you’ll give each person a bottle and see who can get the sprinkles from one bottle to the next first. The first person to finish wins the prize. Again, rotate through pairs for each game, repeating players as necessary.
• Style #3: Team Competition – In this style, you’ll split your group into two (or 3 or 10 depending on the number of guests) teams. For each game, teams must choose one player to compete head to head in the game with the other teams. So for instance, each team will be given a bottle and the first team to finish will receive 10 points, the second team will receive 5, etc. This works best if you have quite a few people and is a good way to get everyone involved cheering for their team. If you have a lot of people but not a lot of space, try heats where Team A competes again Team B, Team C competes against Team D, and then the winners of the two heats plays against each other for the points. 

Note: If any of these challenges seem to easy or too hard for the group you’re playing with, feel free to adjust slightly. For instance, if you have an extremely coordinated group for #1, make them catch 10 or more. If you’re going to play all of these games, here are all of the things you’ll need to play that you might not already have at home. I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. If you buy something via one these links, I’ll make a small commission with no additional cost to you! 

• cotton balls or pom poms
• New Year’s Eve tiaras
• traffic cones
• champagne glasses
• confetti
• ping pong balls
• Minute timer
• chocolate kisses
• balloons
• jingle bells
• gift boxes
• handheld mirror
• large bucket of sand
• Plastic letters
• party hats
• Plastic champagne glass
• straw
• colored masking tape
• cookie
• fortune cookies

And if these games aren’t your style, click below for four free printable 2016 trivia games I made just for New Year’s Eve!

New Year’s Eve Minute to Win It Games

#1 – Don’t Look Back, Just A Head (2 Players)
Give one player a bag of cotton balls or pom poms and give the other player (from the same team) a small bowl or basket and instruct them to hold it on top of their head. For the game, player 1 must toss cotton balls or pom poms over their head without turning around and looking back and their teammate must catch the cotton ball in the basket, still on their head. Teams must catch 5 to win.

#2 – Sort Through 2016
Write 2016 on a piece of paper 10 times then cut out the numbers so you have a bunch of 1s, a bunch of 2s, a bunch of 0s, and a bunch of 6s. Put all of them in one bowl and mix them up. Put the bowl with the numbers in the middle of a table. Put four smaller bowls at the four corners of the table if it’s a large table or put them in four places around the room. Assign each bowl a number – 1, 2, 0, or 6. Player must sort the numbers in the large bowl into the smaller bowl within the time limit selecting only one number at a time and they MUST sort the number they selected (can’t put it back to do all 1s, all 2s, etc.).

#3 – Pop the Confetti
Fill five balloons with confetti, sprinkles, or Fruity Pebbles per team/player. Player must pop all five balloons in the allotted time using just their hands (so no teeth, feet, bum, etc.) while wearing heavy winter gloves.

#4 – Tiara Toss
Setup traffic cones, poles, weighted champagne glasses, or anything else that you could use to toss a ring around. Give a player three New Year’s Eve tiaras and have them stand behind a line you create with masking tape. Players have to toss tiaras from behind the line to try and ring the tiara around the cone or stick. Player must ring three tiaras in the time. 

#5 – Name that Celebrity
Write down a list of celebrities who were in the news a lot in 2015. If you’re stuck, check out these 2015 New Year’s Eve trivia games and just grab the names from each of the games. Player must put that celebrity’s name on their forehead like the game Heads Up and their team must give them clues (no names) to get them to guess the celebrity on their forehead. Once they’ve guessed the celebrity, they can move on. Player must guess five celebrities correctly in the minute or whoever can get the most correct in a minute. 

#6 – Ball Drop
Player must stand a on chair and attempt to drop ping pong balls into a bowl (or cup) on the ground behind the chair. Player must successfully land three ping pong balls into the cup (without it bouncing out) before the time expires. 

#7 – Midnight Kiss
Before the party, write out 12:00 (or midnight) on five small slips of paper and tape those slips of paper on the bottom of five chocolate kisses. For this game, lay out 50 chocolate kisses, including the five with the 12:00 on the bottom, on a table with the bottoms facing down. Player must go through and select one kiss at a time, trying to find one with a 12:00 on the bottom. If it has a 12:00, they are done. If it doesn’t have a 12:00, player must eat the chocolate kiss before choosing another. 

#8 – Keep Up Your Resolution (1 player) 
Blow up three balloons per player and write a typical resolution on each of the balloons (e.g., lose weight, work less, meal plan, etc.). Player must keep the three balloons in the air for the full minute to win or time how long they keep them up and the person who keeps them up the longest wins. This game works best in a large space if you’re playing with multiple people at once or have one player play at once. If you’re going to have multiple people play at once, I recommend using different colors. 

#9 – New Year’s Eve Countdown
Fill up 10 boxes with jingle bells, 10 in one, 9 in one, 8 in one, and so on so every box has a different number of jingle bells in it. Player must shake the boxes and put the boxes in countdown order (10 to 1) based on how many bells they think are in the box – 10 on the left and 1 on the right. Player must finish ordering in a minute and get it correct to win. If you are playing with multiple teams, first player to get the correct order in the fastest time wins. This game works best with gift boxes or other boxes that have tops you can just take off so you can reuse them again and again. 

 #10 – Reflection Race
Setup an obstacle course of objects like cones, toys, confetti poppers, etc. on the ground from one line to another. Player must scoot themselves on a towel from the start line to the finish line going around the objects and then back from the finish to the start line to complete the challenge. But wait, it’s not that easy. Instead of going forward, player must hold a handheld mirror and scoot backward using just what they see in their mirror reflection to move. 

 #11 – The Sands of Time
Player must search through a large bucket of sand to find letters to spell out Auld Lang Syne before the time runs out (or the quickest). Plastic letters like these ones would be perfect. 

 #12 – Hats Off
Put three party hats like these ones on a pedestal or table. Player must bounce (they have to bounce, not roll or throw) ping pong balls at the table and attempt to knock off all three party hats before the time runs out. Use party hats that are nice and light like these paper ones. 

#13 – Toast to Toast (2 players) 
Have two players from the same team stand on one end of the room and have a bucket on the other end of the room. Give each of the two players a champagne glass (plastic ones like this work fine) and give one player a ping pong ball. Or if you’d rather use champagne glasses, you can use small bouncy balls like this instead. Players must stand facing one another (can stand as far apart as they’d like) and must make their way from the starting line to the end line by passing the ping pong ball from one person to the other, tossing it (NOT dumping it into the other person’s glass) from one glass and catching it in the other glass. (No hands allowed except for holding the glass). Players can move as much as they’d like down the path each play but if the ball drops at any point, the team must start over. 

#14 – Black Eyed Pea Blow 
Player must use just a straw to blow a dried black eyed pea from one end of the room (use colored masking tape to mark the line) to the other (cross another masking tape line). 

#15 – Face the Future Cookie 
Player puts a cookie on their forehead and to win the game, must move the cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. If a player drops the cookie on the ground, pick it up and try again. If the cookie breaks, get a new cookie and start over. If you want to make it even trickier, use fortune cookies. 

#16 – A Shakin’ New Year’s Eve
Attach an empty tissue box (the long rectangle ones like this work best) to a belt, rope, or velcro that you can attach to someone’s waist. Fill tissue box with ping pong balls and tie around someone’s waist (with Kleenex box opening facing out). Player must shake their booty to get all of the ping pong balls out before the time runs out. 

Other Things to Make Your New Year’s Eve Party Rockin’ 

New Year’s Eve Movie (with everyone famous ever)
New Year’s Eve Photo Booth Props
New Year’s Eve GIANT Decorations (because small ones won’t cut it)
Mini Gold Top Hats
New Year’s Eve Party Kit (hats, noisemakers, boas, glasses, etc.)
New Year’s Eve Bottle Labels (perfect for sparkling cider!)