How to run party bingo games for any occasion
Every party bingo game works the same way, whatever the theme. Each player has a card with a grid of squares, usually five by five, and each square shows an item: a picture, a word, a song or a description of a person. The caller has the full list of items and draws them one at a time in a random order. Players mark any item on their card, and the first to complete a line, or the whole card, shouts "Bingo!" and wins.
Two things make it fair. First, every card must show a different selection or arrangement of items, or several people will win at once. Second, the calls must be random. A hat of folded slips works perfectly; for number games, our bingo caller draws 1 to 90 on screen. A list of 30 to 50 items for a 5 by 5 card gives a game of about ten to fifteen minutes.
- Decide the win before you start. A line is quick, the four corners is quicker, a full card is the grand finale.
- Keep the middle square free. It is traditional on square cards, and it gives everyone a head start.
- Read each call twice and keep the called slips in order, so you can check a winning card.
- Plan three or four short games with small prizes rather than one long one.
Printable party bingo cards
To make printable cards, write out your list of items and give each player a 5 by 5 grid with 24 of them chosen at random and a free centre. Our bingo card generator does this for any list: paste your words or emoji, choose the size and the number of cards, and it prints two different cards to a page, with call slips and an on-screen caller. The Halloween card at the top of this page shows the layout; copy its items as a start.
For a traditional number game, the UK 90-ball ticket has its own rules, and making it by hand is fiddly. Our bingo tickets generator prints valid strips of six, ready to cut. The rest of this page is about themed games, which suit parties better, but a proper 90-ball game with the calls is a great finale for a family evening.
Christmas, baby shower and human bingo games
Three party games are so popular that each has its own page, with the full rules, a card maker set up for the occasion and ready-made lists.
- Christmas bingo is the most played party game of the year: 60 festive words, a Christmas Day version with squares for the moments that happen in every house, and film, carol and advent games.
- Baby shower bingo is played while the presents are opened: guests fill a card with the gifts they expect and mark them as they are unwrapped. The page has blank and filled cards and 45 gift ideas.
- Human bingo is the icebreaker for work, school and weddings, where players find someone who fits each square. The page has 115 questions sorted by occasion and a template that prints a different card for everyone.
Halloween, Easter and other seasonal bingo games
Halloween bingo is the second biggest party game after Christmas, and the easiest to theme. Fill the cards with pumpkins, bats, ghosts, witches' hats, black cats, cobwebs and toffee apples, as on the sample card at the top of this page, and call them from a cauldron or a plastic pumpkin. Children love it in a darkened room with a torch for the caller. For older children, use words rather than pictures; for adults, try horror film bingo, with squares for the scenes that happen in every scary film, from the car that will not start to the phone with no signal.
A few ideas make Halloween bingo feel special: mark squares with sweets instead of pens, so the winner has already eaten half the prize; let the winner of each game choose the next caller's costume prop; and finish with a round of "trick or treat" bingo, where the first line wins a treat and the last player to mark anything gets a harmless trick.
Easter bingo uses eggs, chicks, bunnies, lambs, daffodils and hot cross buns, and pairs well with an egg hunt, since each egg found can count as a call. The same card template covers bonfire night, the summer holidays, a sports final or a royal occasion: list 30 things that belong to the day, put them into the card maker, and play.
Hen do, wedding and birthday games
Hen do bingo works best as an evening-long game: squares for things that might happen during the night, from "the bride is given a free drink" to "someone loses a shoe" and "a stranger wishes her luck". Hand out 4 by 4 cards at the start, so the game runs through dinner, the bar and the dance floor, and give a prize at breakfast. Keep it cheerful, and let the bride see the list first: the squares should make her laugh, not blush in front of her mother.
Wedding bingo is placed on the tables for the reception and played through the speeches and the first hour of the evening. Good squares are moments that almost always happen, but not on cue: "the best man mentions a stag do story", "a child dances on the dance floor", "someone cries during the vows", "an uncle takes his tie off". Guests mark them as they happen and bring a full line to the top table. For the drinks reception, human bingo with questions about the couple is a better choice, since it gets two families talking.
Birthday bingo can be built from the birthday person's life, with squares from their school years, jobs, holidays and catchphrases, so the game is also a tribute. For a milestone birthday, a number game with the traditional calls works well, with the guest of honour's age as a bonus square; our bingo calls page has the nickname for every age from one to ninety.
Music bingo
Music bingo replaces numbers with songs. Each card shows 24 song titles or artists, and the host plays short clips from a playlist in a random order. When you recognise a song on your card, mark it. It is popular in pubs and at parties because it rewards knowing music rather than luck alone. Choose a theme to suit the crowd, such as a decade, a film soundtrack or number ones, and keep clips to around 20 to 30 seconds.
Bingo for kids
Bingo for kids is one of the best ways to practise early reading, counting and colours. For young children, use a three by three card of pictures or colours; for readers, use simple words or letter sounds; for older children, try number bingo with sums, where the caller says "six times seven" and players look for 42. Reward every child with something small over the course of the games, so nobody goes home empty-handed.
At a children's birthday party, bingo for kids works best in short rounds of five minutes with a prize for every line. Number bingo with the traditional calls is also a fun way to teach numbers up to 90, since the rhymes and pictures stick. Our bingo calls page has the family-friendly calls for every number.
Zoom and virtual bingo
Virtual bingo works well for families spread across the country, office teams and clubs. The host needs a screen to share and a way to call; players need a card each. Send the cards in advance as a PDF, or tell players to print a strip from our tickets page, then run the game on screen with our caller, which shows each number, its nickname and a board of everything drawn. Ask everyone to stay muted, except to shout their win.
To check a claim, ask the winner to read out their numbers or hold the card to the camera. Keep games short, allow for a few seconds of delay on the connection before calling the next number, and take a break between games for a chat, which is the real point of playing together.
Prizes, and keeping party games fun
Party bingo is at its best with small, silly prizes: chocolate, a paper crown, first choice of the last mince pie. A home game among friends and family, played for fun, is a social game. When people pay to play and the prizes come from what they pay, it becomes gambling, and in Great Britain it is then regulated; if you are planning a fundraising event, check the Gambling Commission's guidance on small-scale games first. This site does not run games or take stakes.
