The game show Minute to Win It gave us all kinds of fun games that we can play at home, and their special Christmas series of episodes offered up a holiday theme for a bunch of these games. They're perfect for Christmas parties, school games to play in the classroom, or any other holiday gathering. Here's how to play all of the Minute to Win It Christmas games. Remember, all of these games must be completed in one minute or less.
1. Christmas Ball
courtesy NBC
Christmas Ball is based on the regular Minute to Win It game called Egg Roll. To play, you must use a gift-wrapped box (about the size of a shirt box) as a fan to move a round Christmas ornament across the floor and into a marked square. The box must not touch the ornament while the game is in play. You can vary the distance that the ornament must be fanned depending on the age of the people playing.
2. Christmas Ball Conveyor
Christmas Ball Conveyor is played with two people. They stand, facing each other, at a distance to be determined by how difficult you wish the challenge to be. A ribbon is wrapped around both players' waists, creating a loop surrounding them both. The first player has a bowl with Christmas ornaments on hooks as well as a small Christmas tree beside him. To play the game, the first player hooks an ornament on the ribbon. The two players must then spin in tandem in order to move the ornament all the way around the ribbon, ending up back with the first player, who must then hang it on the tree. Make the game more difficult by requiring more ornaments to be transferred around the "conveyor."3. Christmas Cliffhanger
Set up Christmas Cliffhanger by placing ten open Christmas cards in a row on a table, close to the edge. Stand cards horizontally so they look like little tents. Then, stand at the opposite side of the table. The object of the game is to blow on the cards to move them to the very edge of the table so that one of them is left hanging over the edge without falling off. You have one minute and ten cards to accomplish your task.4. Christmas in the Balance
Christmas in the Balance is played in pairs. Place an empty wrapping paper tube on a table or on the floor, and balance a yardstick on top of the tube. Each player has five Christmas tree ornaments of equal size and weight. Standing on opposite sides of the yardstick, players must work together to hang all five ornaments on their side of the yardstick without toppling the structure. If the structure falls the game is over. We recommend plastic ornaments to avoid a mess.5. Christmas Jingle
Based on the game Spoon Tune, Christmas Jingle requires a bit of prep work before playing. 11 glasses must be filled with varying amounts of water, tuned so that they play the notes of the first line of the Christmas song Jingle Bells when tapped with a metal spoon. Place the prepared glasses in random order on a table. To play the game, the contestant must rearrange the glasses in the proper order to play the song.6. Deck the Balls
Deck the Balls is another game for teams of two. Using an empty wrapping paper tube, the first player uses suction from his mouth to lift an ornament with the tube, and transfer it to the second player. The second player must receive the ornament in the same fashion (with a wrapping paper tube and suction), and then hang it on an awaiting string (hung in a clothesline fashion). To win this game, players must hang three ornaments in this method in a minute or less.7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
Courtesy NBC
To set up Do You Hear What I Hear, take seven gift-wrapped boxes of the same size and place small jingle bells in each of them. Boxes should contain the following number of bells: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35. Place the closed boxes on a table. To play the game, the contestant must arrange the boxes in order by the number of bells they contain, from smallest to largest. Contestants can pick up and shake the boxes, but they must not look inside.
