How to Play the Candy Bar Game: a Fun Party Game for All Ages!
How to play the candy bar game. If you’re looking for fun group games with candy, this is the best one! It’s fast moving, fun, and everybody loves it! Plus—you get lots of candy!
I’m always looking for easy and fun games to play at birthday parties for my kids. Especially now that I’ve got teenagers, I want some party games that will keep them entertained but that aren’t too juvenile for their cool teen status, either.
This is not the unwrap the candy bar game, which I played often as a teen. This one also involves dice and candy bars, but you aren’t forced to eat chocolate until you’re sick!
Once upon a time, one of my friends brought this super fun candy bar game to a church activity. We had a ton of fun playing it as a bunch of 30-50 year old women, but it’s perfect for all ages. In fact, it’s great for family parties where you actually do have all ages attending.
We played it at my daughter’s 13th birthday party a few weeks later, and those girls had an absolute blast with it!
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How to play the candy bar game
What you need to play the candy bar game:
- A large assortment of candy bars—at least one candy bar per player, but having several extra makes the game more fun! (Make sure they are all different kinds—that’s what makes the game fun!) (If you are thinking ahead enough, this candy bar variety pack is a great deal!)
- Dice (we used the colorful dice out of our Tenzi game)
- A timer (you can use your phone, but we like to use our favorite timer that we use for everything)
Basic rules of the candy bar game:
- Everyone sits in a circle
- Candy bars are placed in the middle of the circle
- Set a timer for five minutes and start a set of dice around the circle
- Each person rolls the dice once and passes them on to the next player
- If doubles are rolled, that player takes a candy bar from the pile in the middle of the circle or steals one from another player
- When the timer goes off, each player gets to keep whatever candy bars they have collected
Additional rules you can add to the candy bar game
If there are a lot of people playing, you can use a second (or even a third) set of dice. Simply start each pair at opposite sides of the circle and it will help your candy bar game move faster. We used two pairs of dice at my daughter’s birthday party because there were 11 girls playing.
To make the game more interesting, you can also do doubles and sevens. If the dice add up to seven (3+4, 2+5, 6+1), then you can also pick a candy bar. This is also a helpful rule to add if there are a lot of people playing because it ups the chances of winning a candy bar.
How does stealing work in the candy bar game?
Stealing makes the game truly fun—without the option to steal the game would be a little boring!
For instance, if someone rolled doubles and the candy bar they wanted was no longer in the middle, they can steal it from the person who has it in front of them. The person who loses the candy bar does not get to choose a new one—they just lose it and hopefully will get a chance to steal it back when they roll doubles!
Stealing ups the stakes of the game in a super fun way and sometimes people find clever ways to hide the candy bars they have—though there are always those who are even more clever who keep track of their favorites and know exactly where they are, hidden or not!
You can also really tell which candy bars are the most coveted as they change hands pretty often before the end of the game!
Related: 8 Ways to Make Your Kid’s Birthday Special
| Above: The candy bar game in action—I was having too much fun watching them to think about getting a good photo! |
While the girls were playing at the birthday party, they felt like that five minutes was a total eternity! The Reese’s Peanut Butter cups were wanted by everyone and changed hands about a hundred times amidst shrieks of laughter.
When the game ended one girl had collected five candy bars! (She was very kind and gave her extras to those who had none, but that is certainly not a requirement!)
The candy bar game is now a staple at all of our teen and tween parties. It is always a huge hit, because who doesn’t love a game that is fun, fast paced, and has the possibility of earning you lots of chocolate?
Variations on the candy bar game:
If you don’t want to contribute to more sugar addictions, you can certainly replace the candy bars with other small gifts. For instance, teen girls would love nail polishes or other health and beauty type items that are easily purchased at the dollar store. Younger kids would like small toys. It would even be a fun way to run a book exchange for your book club!
The possibilities are endless, but when it comes right down to it, we like the candy bar version best.
Even though it only takes five minutes, it’s a super simple game that everyone will love! I can’t wait to play it again at our next party—whenever that will be!
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wonderful
This is a good idea in theory, however it fails to consider children with food allergies. Also if a child didn’t win any candy while their friend had 5 candy bars I can’t imagine they would be happy. Just my thoughts.
Those are both valid points. Having played this game many, many times with kids, I think both concerns are quite easily resolved.
1. Food allergies: If you are a conscientious party host, you will already be aware of food allergies and can purchase candy accordingly. My daughter has Celiac, and if she rolls doubles she simply doesn’t choose a gluten-containing candy. You can steal and there are always plenty of options. Read more about birthday parties for kids with allergies.
2. We have played this game numerous times when someone doesn’t win any candy. Often other children will kindly give them some. Other times they won’t. It’s part of the game, and if that is laid out clearly at the beginning I think you’d be surprised how accepting the kids are of how it ends up.