Mardi Gras One-Minute Games

Press Pick another game for a Mardi Gras game with its prop list and goal, then start the 60-second clock.

Mardi Gras One-Minute Games

  1. Six Masks Under a ClothYou need: 6 party masks, each decorated differently, laid in a row, a cloth and a host. Goal: study the row for 15 seconds. The host covers it and asks five questions: which mask had the green feather, which was third from the left, which had no glitter. Four right answers win.
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Next step 60 everyday games with household props

How it works

These 32 Mardi Gras one-minute games use bead necklaces, masks, cups in purple, green and gold and a paper king cake. Minute to Win It, a TV show, timed its stunts at 60 seconds; this list is not the show’s.

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From a bag of beads

Bead necklaces holds 8 games, and twenty strands cover them all. Masks and feathers holds 8, most of them played sitting down. Feathers in the three colors come in mixed craft packs.

Cups and a paper cake

Purple, green and gold cups has 8 games for a dozen paper cups. Paper king cake and token has 8: cut a ring from a paper plate into twelve slices and color four in each color. No target has been timed, so change the numbers after one round.

Tips
  • Cut and color the paper king cake before the party. Seven games use the same twelve slices.
  • Bead strands are thrown underhand and only at a post, a broom or a ready catcher.

Questions and answers

When is Mardi Gras?

The day before Ash Wednesday, so the date moves each year. In 2027 it falls on February 9. The games work for any party in the weeks of Carnival before it, or for a classroom on the day.

Why purple, green and gold?

They are the colors traditionally associated with Mardi Gras in New Orleans. On this page they color the cups, the feathers and the slices of the paper king cake, and several games are won by putting the three in the right place.

Is a real king cake used?

No. The cake is a ring cut from a paper plate and the token is paper or a large button, so nothing is eaten. A real king cake hides a small figure, and whoever finds it in their slice wins a prize.

Which games suit a classroom?

Choose More filters in the list, then Easy. Spell KING in Beads, Sort the Plumes, Rebuild the Ring, Two-Tier Crown and Draw a Slice, Crown a King need no throwing. The last takes twelve players to a paper cake.

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All 32 games

Bead necklaces 8

  • Beads on the Branch You need: 10 bead necklaces and a broom held level at head height by two helpers, three steps away. Goal: toss the strands so that they catch and hang over the broom handle, the way beads end up in the trees along a parade route. Four hanging at zero win. The helpers hold still.
  • Catch What the Float Rider Tosses You need: 10 bead necklaces and a partner four steps away, standing on a low step as the float. Goal: the rider tosses the strands underhand, one at a time, as parade riders toss throws to a crowd. Catch seven of the ten before they touch the ground. Hands, arms and an outstretched foot all count.
  • Coil a Bead Rosette You need: 2 bead necklaces of different colors, unclasped. Goal: coil the first strand flat on the table in a tight spiral, like a snail shell, then wind the second around the outside of it. The finished rosette has to lie flat with no bead riding up on another.
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Bead necklaces, continued

  • Count One Strand You need: one bead necklace, which the host has counted beforehand. Goal: count the beads by running the strand through your fingers once, and say the number. Exactly right wins, and within two is a near miss. Mark your starting bead with a pinch, or you will go around twice.
  • Necklaces Over the Chair Corner You need: 10 bead necklaces and a dining chair turned so that one corner post of its back faces you, four steps away. Goal: toss the necklaces one at a time so that they drop over the post and hang there. Three hanging at zero win. A strand that lands on the seat does not count.
  • Pour a Strand Into a Cup You need: 5 bead necklaces and 5 paper cups in a row. Goal: hold a strand by one end above a cup and lower it in, bead by bead, so that the whole necklace ends up inside with nothing hanging over the rim. One hand only. Five strands in five cups win.
  • Spell KING in Beads You need: 6 bead necklaces and a bare table. Goal: lay the strands on the table to write the word KING in capital letters as tall as your hand. Unclasp a strand or double it over as you like. The judge has to be able to read it from across the table.
  • Twenty Strands On You need: 20 bead necklaces in a heap. Goal: put all twenty on, one strand at a time, each lifted over your head with both hands, and none picked up until the last is lying flat on your chest. Twenty on before zero wins. Two strands at once sends both back to the heap.

Masks and feathers 8

  • Decorate It Blind You need: 2 plain paper masks, 6 stick-on gems, 4 craft feathers with a dab of tape on each, and a partner. Goal: wear one mask back to front so that you cannot see. Your partner hands you the pieces, and you stick them on the second mask. At zero the room votes on whether it looks like a face.
  • How Many Plumes? You need: a party mask with a fan of feathers along the top, counted by the host and held up at the far side of the room. Goal: look for ten seconds, then write down how many feathers the mask has. The exact number wins. Three masks and three guesses fit in the minute, and two right out of three is a good round.
  • Masked Waiter You need: a party mask with small eye holes, a paper plate carrying 3 empty paper cups, and 4 chairs in a line. Goal: wearing the mask, weave through the chairs and back with the plate held on one flat palm. A cup that falls off is put back at the spot where it fell. Twice there and back wins.
  • Six Masks Under a Cloth You need: 6 party masks, each decorated differently, laid in a row, a cloth and a host. Goal: study the row for 15 seconds. The host covers it and asks five questions: which mask had the green feather, which was third from the left, which had no glitter. Four right answers win.
  • Six-Feather Fan You need: 6 craft feathers, a craft stick and 3 short pieces of tape stuck ready on the table edge. Goal: lay the quills side by side on the stick so that the feathers spread out like a fan, and tape them down. Hold the fan up and wave it three times. A feather that drops out goes back in.
  • Sort the Plumes You need: about 30 craft feathers in purple, green and gold, mixed in a heap, and 3 party masks lying face up. Goal: sort the feathers by color onto the three masks, one color to a mask, picking up one feather at a time. The judge blows gently across the table at zero, so tuck them in.
  • Straight Face, Feather Nose You need: a craft feather and a partner in a party mask. Goal: the masked partner has to keep a perfectly straight face for 20 seconds while you wave the feather a finger’s width from the tip of their nose, never touching. A smile or a flinch ends the turn. Swap over.
  • String the Masks You need: 4 party masks with eye holes and one long bead necklace, unclasped. Goal: thread the necklace in through one eye hole and out through the other on every mask, then hold the strand up by both ends with the four masks hanging in a row, all facing the same way.

Purple, green and gold cups 8

  • Color-Matched Throws You need: a purple, a green and a gold paper cup held in a row on a tray by a partner two steps away, and bead necklaces in the same three colors. Goal: toss each strand into the cup of its own color. The partner may move the tray to help. One strand of every color in its own cup wins.
  • Elbows-Only Stack You need: 5 paper cups standing mouth down, spread over a table. Goal: pick each cup up between your two elbows, hands clasped behind your neck, and stack the five into one nested pile. A cup that is crushed is swapped for a new one, and the pile starts again.
  • Fingertip Cup Parade You need: one paper cup and a line of five players, each holding one forefinger straight up. Goal: the cup starts mouth down on the first fingertip and is passed from fingertip to fingertip down the line and back. No other finger may touch it. A dropped cup goes back to the start of the line.
  • Flip in Parade Order You need: a purple, a green and a gold paper cup standing mouth up on the table edge, a third of each base hanging over. Goal: flick each cup up from underneath so that it turns over and lands mouth down. They have to be landed in that order, purple, then green, then gold. Start again from purple after every miss.
  • Float on a Tray You need: a tray, 6 paper cups and 2 chairs set six steps apart. Goal: build a pyramid of three cups, two and one on the tray. Lift the tray and parade it in a figure eight around both chairs. The float has to arrive back whole. If it falls, rebuild it on the spot.
  • No Color Twice You need: 9 paper cups: three purple, three green and three gold. Goal: set them out in a square, three rows of three, so that no row and no column has the same color twice. The judge checks every row across and every column down. It can be done more than one way.
  • Tricolor Cup Wall You need: 9 paper cups, four purple, three green and two gold, and a partner. Goal: build a wall three rows high as a pair, every cup mouth down: four purple along the bottom, three green standing on the joins above them and two gold on top. One player may touch only purple and gold, the other only green. It stands for a count of three.
  • Two-Tier Crown You need: 12 paper cups. Goal: stand six cups mouth down in a ring, rims touching. Then balance the other six on top, each one bridging two cups below, to make a crown with two tiers. It has to stand while the group counts to three.

Paper king cake and token 8

  • Close the Ring by Feel You need: a paper king cake ring with 3 of its 12 slices taken out and set beside it, and a scarf for a blindfold. Goal: with your eyes covered, find the three gaps with your fingertips and fit the slices back in, pointed ends to the middle. Say done before the scarf comes off.
  • Crown in a Minute You need: a strip of gold paper long enough to go around your head and as wide as your hand, and a piece of tape. Goal: tear a zigzag of points along one long edge, without scissors, wrap the strip around your head to fit and tape the ends together. Wear it and bow. The crown has to stay on through the bow.
  • Draw a Slice, Crown a King You need: the slices of a paper king cake face down, one for each player, with a crown drawn on the underside of one. Goal: on go, everyone takes a slice and turns it over. Whoever holds the crown is king or queen and leads the room on one lap of the table as a parade, with waving, before zero.
  • Lift for the Hidden Token You need: the 12 slices of a paper king cake laid out as a ring, a paper token and a host. Goal: look away while the host slips the token under one slice. Lift three slices, one at a time. Finding the token in three lifts wins. The host and the guesser swap after every round.
  • Rebuild the Ring You need: a paper king cake: a ring cut from a paper plate into 12 slices, four colored purple, four green and four gold, shuffled. Goal: put the ring back together with the colors repeating all the way around: purple, green, gold. Every slice has to touch its neighbors, and the hole in the middle has to be round.
  • Serve the Whole Cake You need: the 12 slices of a paper king cake in a ring on a tray, a cake server or a spatula, and a plate across the room. Goal: carry the slices to the plate one at a time on the server and rebuild the ring there. Fingers never touch a slice. Six slices moved and placed before zero win.
  • Slices to Order You need: the 12 colored slices of a paper king cake, a spatula, a plate and a partner as the customer. Goal: the customer calls an order, such as two purple and one gold. Lift exactly those slices onto the plate with the spatula and hand it over. The customer tips them back and orders again. Five right orders win.
  • Token Through the Middle You need: a paper king cake ring lying on the floor and 8 large buttons as tokens. Goal: from two steps back, toss the buttons one at a time so that they land in the hole in the middle of the ring and stay there. Two in the middle win. A button resting on the cake is a miss.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors for this page on 2026-10-03 from general knowledge of party and carnival games. We wrote every description ourselves and copied no wording from a television show or from another site's list. Party games are passed around freely, so a game here may be played elsewhere under another name. No other one-minute page on this site is built on these props: bead necklaces, party masks, paper cups in three colors and a king cake made of paper. Craft feathers also appear on the Thanksgiving page, where they are blown, dropped and balanced; here they are sorted, counted and taped. No game shares a name with a game on another page of this site. Each was written to be playable in about a minute. The games have not been stopwatch-tested, so every target (three on the post, seven catches, four right answers) is a starting point for the host to raise or lower. Facts were read on English Wikipedia on 2026-10-03 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras); the colors traditionally associated with Mardi Gras in New Orleans are purple, green and gold, and float riders toss throws such as strings of plastic beads into the crowd (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_New_Orleans); a king cake has a small figure hidden inside, and whoever finds it in their slice wins a prize (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake). Screened line by line for the clean-deck rule: no alcohol, no coins, nothing eaten, and the king cake is paper. This site is not connected with any parade or krewe. Licence: own work