Diwali Party Games Printable: 6 Games to Print at Home

You want Diwali party games you can print in the afternoon, hand out after dinner, and run without anyone downloading an app. Here are six printable Diwali party games, what each one needs, and which of them you can make for free.

Four of the six cost nothing but paper. For a charades round, open the Bollywood movie generator and copy its titles onto slips before the first guest rings the bell.

What makes a Diwali party game work on paper?

A printable game works when one person can run it and everyone else only needs a pen. That rules out anything with a board, a scoring app, or rules longer than one page.

It also has to survive the Diwali room, where the youngest player is nine and the oldest saw Sholay (1975) in a theater. If you have to explain the scoring twice, the samosas win.

6 printable Diwali party games

Each game below says what you print, how many people it suits, and whether you make it yourself or buy it ready.

1. Diwali music bingo

Music bingo is the printable game that handles the biggest room. Every guest gets a card of song titles, the host plays songs, and people mark what they hear. Nobody has to sing, act or know the film, which is why it works while half the family is still arriving.

Play it tambola style and one set of cards gives you several winners: first five marked, any line, four corners, full house. The room keeps playing after the first prize, which matters when forty people are holding cards.

Building the cards by hand is the slow part. The Diwali Music Bingo printable on Etsy has 200 unique cards and a 100-song party playlist on Spotify and YouTube. It is a paid download. For how a round runs from start to finish, read our guide to Bollywood bingo.

2. Badly explained filmi plots

Badly explained plots is the printable game that starts the loudest arguments. One person reads out a film's story described as flatly and literally as possible, and everyone else works out which film it is. Three examples, written for this page:

• Sholay (1975). Two small-time crooks are hired by a retired policeman to deal with a bandit, and one of them spends a worrying amount of time on a water tank.
• Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). A man follows a woman across Europe to her own wedding, then refuses to elope because her father has not said yes.
• 3 Idiots (2009). Three engineering students spend ten years looking for a friend who was using somebody else's name the whole time.

Writing forty of these takes a full evening. Badly Explained Filmi Plots, Diwali Edition is that evening already done: 40 plots with a hint for each, a host card, cut-out cards and a housie version, in both standard paper sizes. It is also a paid download.

3. Dumb charades title slips

Dumb charades is free to print and needs nothing but paper slips and a bowl. Write one film title per slip, fold them, and let each player draw one. The real work is choosing titles that are hard enough to be fun and easy enough to finish.

Take them from a random film title generator rather than your own memory. Left to themselves, every host writes the same ten films, and nobody is surprised by the third round. For a ready list, try these family-friendly Diwali charades picks.

4. Diwali taboo cards

Taboo cards are free to make and suit a group of six to twelve. Each card has a word to describe and three words the describer is not allowed to say. Print a sheet, cut it up, and play in two teams with a one-minute timer on a phone.

Diwali words make good cards because everyone knows them and nobody can describe them without the obvious word. Try describing a diya without saying clay lamp, wick or festival. There is a ready Diwali taboo word list if you would rather not write your own, and Guess Karo deals the cards on screen.

5. Survey showdown answer sheets

A survey game in the style of Family Feud prints as a simple answer sheet per team. The host reads a question, each team writes its guesses, and points go to answers that match what most people said.

A good Diwali question is "Name a sweet you would find in a Diwali gift box". Kaju katli tops the list, and someone will always fight for soan papdi. Desi Showdown has the questions and ranked answers ready, so the host only prints blank sheets and reads.

6. Find the guest who

Find the guest who is the free printable for the first half hour, when people are still standing in separate clusters. Each guest gets a grid of descriptions and has to find someone in the room who fits each one. It makes relatives who have not spoken since last Diwali ask each other questions.

Eight squares to start your grid:

• Made rangoli this year
• Has already eaten more than five pieces of mithai
• Arrived after the puja started
• Can make chakli from scratch
• Has lost money at teen patti tonight
• Is wearing something borrowed
• Has watched a Diwali release in a theater on opening day
• Knows who sent the biggest box of sweets

First person to fill a row wins. I would not give a prize bigger than the last piece of kaju katli.

Which printable game should you play first?

Start with find the guest who, move to music bingo once everyone has eaten, and save charades or badly explained plots for when the room is loud enough to argue. That order follows the energy of a Diwali evening rather than fighting it.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best printable Diwali party games for a large group?

Music bingo is the best printable game for a large group, because every guest plays at once from their own card. Tambola-style prizes keep the room playing after the first winner. Badly explained plots also scale well in host mode, where one person reads and teams write their answers down.

Are there free printable Diwali games?

Yes. Dumb charades slips, taboo cards, survey showdown answer sheets and find the guest who all cost nothing but paper. The charades generator and Desi Showdown supply the titles and questions, so you only print blank slips or sheets and fill them in.

Which Diwali games work for kids and adults together?

Music bingo and find the guest who work best across ages, because neither needs film knowledge to win. For charades, choose recent hits the kids have actually seen. Badly explained plots works in mixed teams, where the grandparents know the old films and the cousins know the new ones.

What paper do printable party games need?

Plain printer paper is enough for bingo cards, answer sheets and grids that get used once. For cards you want to keep, like taboo cards or a cut-out plot deck, thicker card stock survives being shuffled and passed around. Print at full size rather than fit to page so the cards cut cleanly.

How do you play Diwali games without printing anything?

Run charades straight from a phone and play survey rounds out loud, with the host keeping score on paper. There is a full list of Diwali party games that need no printer, from card-table alternatives to games for young adults.

Print the grid first. By the time the last aunty has found someone who made rangoli, the room is ready for bingo, and the next charades title is one tap away.