9 Halloween "Minute to Win It" Party Games

Halloween parties feature fun decorations, inventive food and guests dressing up in a variety of Halloween costumes. Coming up with entertainment for your guests can be tricky though, especially when you try to think of games that are a little more interesting than bobbing for apples.

Fortunately, the game show "Minute to Win It" was based on great games that you can play with affordable, easy-to-acquire supplies. Each game takes a minute or less to complete. This means that your guests can play lots of different games without a lot of prep work on your part...plus, the games are loads of fun to play.

Dress up as a game show host yourself, put together a list of supplies (and don't forget the stopwatch!) and get ready to have a ball at your upcoming gathering with the following Halloween "Minute to Win It" games.

Frankenstein

Perfectly named for the season, Frankenstein challenges players to carry yardsticks that have batteries balanced on either end. The game is so named because you'll have to walk like Frankenstein's monster in order to pull it off. 

Dizzy Mummy

When you were a kid you may have played a game in which your friends wrapped you in rolls of toilet paper, and at the end of the game, you looked like a mummy. This is basically the same idea, except that you're doing the job solo, and you only need to use one roll of toilet paper to complete the task. There's very little setup involved in this game, and if you ask guests to bring their own rolls of toilet paper you won't need to stock up on supplies either. 

Johnny Applestack

Bobbing for apples is not only overdone, but it can be messy -- especially if you have guests who wear face paint as part of their costumes. Eschewing that activity doesn't mean you have to skip the apples altogether, however. In Johnny Applestack, your guests will have to stack five apples to create a freestanding tower. It's very similar to Nut Stacker This one is also easy to set up and the supplies are pretty inexpensive at this time of year. 

Matchmaker

What's Halloween without candy? This game uses colored candies and plastic cups, tasking players to sort the candies by color. It sounds easy enough (and the rules are pretty straightforward), but the trick here is that the candies themselves are hidden under plastic cups, and they have to be sorted into other cups that are placed at random locations around the room. 

Hanky Panky

In Hanky Panky, players must pull all of the tissues out of a full box, but they can only use one hand and they must end up with an empty box in one minute or less. Now I can tell that you're thinking, "How exactly is this a Halloween game?" Well, it isn't really, but you can make it one by picking up those tissue boxes that are decorated with ghosts and haunted houses and little green monsters. Voila!-- a simple party game that sticks with your theme. 

Bite Me

The name suggests vampires, but this game actually uses paper bags of different sizes, challenging the players to move them from one place to another using only their teeth. It sounds easy, but you can make the game as difficult as you'd like by changing the sizes of the bags and the height of the podiums they're picked up from and dropped off at. Make this a Halloween-themed game by using trick-or-treat bags, seasonally decorated gift bags, or plain paper bags stamped with (or stickered with) Halloween motifs. 

Stick the Landing

In Stick the Landing, players toss partially-filled water bottles and must land them on a table right side up. The bottles must make at least one full rotation in the air before they land. Save up your empty water bottles for a few weeks before the party, then refill them for the game and add some orange, black, green and purple food coloring to the respective bottles to make them look festive. 

Paper Dragon

Paper Dragon is a little like Dizzy Mummy in that it involves wrapping yourself in paper. In this game, however, you're wrapping both your arms in colored streamers by grabbing one end of a roll in hand and then spinning your arms around like an Olympic swimmer gone bonkers. To make this game work for your Halloween gathering, use black and orange streamers. 

Candy Elevator

Candy Elevator is a little bit more involved in both the setup and gameplay than the others on this list, but it's a lot of fun and it involves candy. In this game you'll be pulling an "elevator" made of pencils and kite string, and loaded up with Halloween candy, using a pulley that goes over your ears. The ultimate goal is to eat the candy, of course. It sounds weird but try it--the opportunity for hilarity is too great to pass up here. 

Even More Games!

There are loads of Halloween "Minute to Win It" games that you can make into seasonal party games. Just use your imagination to come up with themed supplies, seasonal names, or throw in some candy. Your guests will enjoy playing something new and you'll end up looking like a creative genius. Check out the complete list of Minute to Win It games and choose the ones that will suit you, your theme and your guests.​