Mummy Wrap Game: Rules, Teams & Judging

• 5–12

  Ages

• 6+

  Players

• Indoors

  Where

• 10–15 min

  How long

The mummy wrap game needs almost nothing — toilet roll, a stopwatch, and a child willing to stand still — which is exactly why it's become a Halloween party fixture. Two or three children wrap a fourth from ankle to forehead against the clock, and what looks like a simple race turns out to reward teamwork over speed almost every time: the team that divides the job properly, one wrapping legs while another does arms, beats the team of three children all fighting over the same roll.

What follows is the version that actually holds together for the mummy to walk around and show off afterwards, not just the seconds it takes to judge — the roll counts, the judging criteria, and the cleanup that stops your living room looking like the aftermath rather than the party.

Part of the appeal is how visual it is. Musical chairs and tug of war reward speed and strength that not every child has in equal measure; the mummy wrap game rewards whoever can organise a team fastest, which is a completely different skill and gives quieter, more methodical children a genuine chance to lead. It also produces the best photographs of the whole party, which is not nothing.

How to actually judge it

Judging is where most families wing it and most games end in an argument. Agree the criteria out loud before the first roll of paper comes off the tube: coverage, how much of the mummy is actually hidden; neatness, whether there are long trailing ends dragging on the floor; and durability, whether the wrap survives the mummy taking ten steps and raising both arms. Have one adult judge every team to the same standard — a parent judging their own child's team is the fastest way to end the game in tears that have nothing to do with the toilet paper.

Where it goes wrong

The most common failure isn't a bad wrap, it's running out of paper. Two full rolls per team is the reliable minimum — one for the torso, one for everything else — and even that goes fast once children realise more wrapping means a better score. Keep two or three spare rolls within reach rather than making a team stop mid-round to fetch more, which kills the momentum for everyone else watching. The second failure is the mummy themselves: standing still for ninety seconds is a genuinely hard ask for a five-year-old, so let the youngest mummies fidget a little and mark them on coverage rather than stillness.

Run it back to back with bobbing for apples or pumpkin bowling for a full Halloween run of games that between them need almost no shopping beyond apples, pumpkins and toilet roll — and if you'd rather someone else referee the judging and keep score, a party entertainer will happily run all three back to back while you actually get to watch.

What you need

• Toilet roll — two full rolls per team, plus two or three spares
• A stopwatch or phone timer
• A judging criteria card (coverage, neatness, durability) — optional but useful
• Space for each mummy to stand and take a few steps once wrapped

How to play the mummy wrap game

1. 1Split into teams of three or four, and give each team two full rolls of toilet paper — one roll wraps a torso, the second does arms, legs and head.
2. 2Choose one child per team to be the mummy; everyone else on the team is a wrapper.
3. 3On "go", wrappers have ninety seconds to wrap their mummy from ankles to forehead, leaving the eyes, nose and mouth clear so they can breathe and see comfortably.
4. 4When time's up, everyone stops wrapping exactly where they are — a half-wrapped ankle counts against you.
5. 5Judge each mummy on coverage, neatness and whether the wrap actually holds together when the mummy takes a few steps.
6. 6Swap roles and run a second round so every child gets a turn being wrapped.

Variations