Diwali party games for family: cards, Tambola and games for every age

Updated 2026-09-28 · Mandli

After the puja, the diyas and the second round of mithai, the patte come out. In a lot of homes, Diwali night means a card party, and often that means teen patti with small stakes. That's a tradition many families enjoy, and this guide isn't here to tell anyone off.

But every Diwali there's someone left out of that table: the kids, the nani who doesn't like betting, the cousin who is saving for something, the guests who don't know the rules. So here are Diwali party games for family where everyone can sit together and play for points instead. Scores still matter, trash talk still happens, and the next morning nobody's wallet is lighter.

We've mixed the classic card games, Tambola, Antakshari and a few board games for mixed ages. You can play most of them with a real deck. If you'd rather not shuffle and count, Mandli, our free party-games app, deals the cards, keeps the hidden hukum and adds up the points, and it is points only, always.

1. Tambola (Housie), the family favourite

If your family has one game everyone knows, it is Tambola. Everyone gets a ticket of 15 numbers in 3 rows, the numbers from 1 to 90 are called one by one, and people race to claim Early 5, the lines, the corners and Full house.

On paper you need tickets, a caller and a lot of 'kaunsa number bola?' In Mandli, each player gets a ticket on their phone, the app calls the numbers with the old rhymes (22 is 'Do bataakh, baais'), and it checks every claim. A claim made before the numbers are called blocks you from that claim for the rest of the game. The host can slow down the calls or pause for chai.

For a festive twist, Housie Theme Nights changes the calls to Bollywood, Cricket or Shaadi lines. Up to 50 people can play in one room, so the whole khandaan fits.

2. Dehla Pakad (Mendikot) for the serious card players

This is the card game for the uncles who take cards very seriously. Four players, two teams, partners sitting opposite. The aim is to capture the tens, the dehlas. The team with 3 or 4 tens wins the hand. With 2 tens each, the team with more tricks wins.

Mandli plays the Band Hukum style: after the first 5 cards, one player hides a card face down, and its suit is the trump, but nobody else knows it until someone can't follow suit and opens it. Winning all four tens is a Mendikot, and winning all 13 hands is a Bawan. Watching a Bawan happen at 1 am is a Diwali memory by itself.

3. Satti (Sevens), easy enough for everyone

Satti is the game you can teach a 9-year-old in two minutes. All 52 cards are dealt. The player with the 7 of Paan (hearts) starts. On your turn, you either put down another 7, or add the next card to a row already on the table, going up from 8 to King or down from 6 to Ace.

If you can play, you must, and that's where the strategy is: holding back one card can block the whole table. The first person to empty their hand wins. It's calm on the surface, but the dadi holding the 6 of Hukum knows exactly what she is doing.

4. Teen Do Paanch (3-2-5) for exactly three

When three people are left at the table and everyone else has gone to burst crackers, play Teen Do Paanch. It uses 30 cards, 10 each. Every hand, the three players have targets of 5, 3 and 2 tricks, and the targets move around each hand. The player with the target of 5 picks the trump after seeing their first 5 cards.

The fun part is the carry-over. If you made more than your target, next hand you pull a card from whoever fell short and give one back. Mandli plays a match of 3, 6 or 9 hands.

5. Gadha Laut and Machhli Pakdo for the kids' table

Kids love a game where someone ends up as the loser with a funny name. In Gadha Laut, the Hukum ka Ikka starts, and everyone must follow suit. If you can't, you drop any card, that's a thulla, and whoever played the biggest card of that suit picks up the whole pile. Empty your hand and you're safe. The last person holding cards is the Gadha.

Machhli Pakdo is the desi Go Fish. You ask someone for a rank you already hold ('Badshah hai?'). If they have it, you take all of them. If not, you hear 'Machhli pakdo!' and draw one. Four of a kind makes a machhli.

6. Bluff and Rang Milao when you want noise

Bluff is pure acting. Play 1 to 4 cards face down, claim a rank ('Teen Badshah'), and dare the next person to call it. If you were lying, you pick up the pile. If you were honest, they do. Families with a known drama-baaz will enjoy this.

Rang Milao is a colour-and-number matching game with our own deck: match the top card by colour or number, use action cards like Chup! and Do Le, and shout 'Mandli!' when you're down to one card. It works from 2 to 10 players, so the little ones can join the grown-ups.

7. Antakshari after dinner

No Diwali is complete without somebody starting 'Baitho sab log...' and the whole room joining in. Antakshari needs no props. Sing a song that starts with the last letter of the previous song.

If the family gets competitive about whose turn it was, let the app hold the letter and the score. Each singer gets 30 seconds, and the rest judge with Sahi gaaya or Galat. Every 5th turn is a special round: sing any song of a named star, or just hum a tune for others to guess. Split into two teams, mummy's side against papa's side, and it gets loud quickly.

8. Games for mixed ages

When the room has a 6-year-old and a 76-year-old, pick games where luck does half the work:

• Ludo: every Indian family owns a board, and everyone knows the rules. Online, the app rolls the dice, and the rest of the room can watch.
• Saanp Seedhi: pure luck, perfect for the youngest players.
• Carrom: the colony-clubhouse favourite, now with aim-and-flick on the phone.
• A Sawaal Jawaab quiz on Bollywood, cricket, India GK or khana, where grandparents often beat the teenagers.

If some relatives are in another city this year, send them the room link on WhatsApp. They can join from their phone browser, no app or login needed, and talk to everyone on the voice chat inside the game.

How to keep a card party fun without money

• Keep one running points table for the whole night. In Mandli, scores carry across games in a room, so the leaderboard builds itself.
• Give the winner a harmless privilege: they get the last kaju katli, or they pick the next game.
• Give the lowest scorer a harmless dare: sing the next Antakshari song, or serve the next round of chai.
• Switch games every 20 minutes so nobody sits out too long.

None of this needs a rule about money. Most people forget to ask once the game is fun.

Sawaal jawaab