Planning a party and want your guests talking to each other from the first minute instead of scrolling their phones? Anyone can play birthday bingo, it needs no props and you can tailor it to the birthday person and their friends. Here are square ideas for a party at any age and a guide to making your own birthday party bingo.
Why play bingo at a birthday party
Birthday parties often bring together people from different parts of the birthday person’s life – family, school friends, colleagues, neighbors. Bingo gives them a reason to start chatting while keeping the birthday person at the center of the party. Guests also learn plenty of things they didn’t know about the birthday person and about each other.
Three ways to play birthday bingo
1. Event bingo
Guests watch what happens at the party and mark the squares: a balloon pops, someone sings off-key, the birthday person gets emotional. The game runs on its own all evening and suits bigger parties.
2. Icebreaker bingo
Squares describe the guests (“Find someone who…”), so players have to ask each other questions. The person who matches signs the square. Ideal when guests don’t know each other.
3. Birthday person bingo
The squares are facts, stories and habits of the birthday person. A host reads them out in random order, or guests ask around to find who knows each story. Great for milestone birthdays full of memories.
Birthday bingo square ideas
What happens at the party
- Someone sings “Happy Birthday” off-key
- The birthday person blows out all the candles at once
- A balloon pops
- Someone tells an embarrassing story
- Someone mentions the birthday person’s age out loud
- A gift is wrapped in newspaper
- Someone eats two slices of cake
- Someone gives a toast
- The birthday person gets emotional
- Someone forgot their gift at home
- A guest shows old photos
- Someone says: “You haven’t changed a bit!”
Icebreaker squares: find someone who…
- …was born in the same month as you
- …knows the birthday person from school
- …traveled over 100 km to the party
- …has the same hobby as you
- …can whistle
- …has been on vacation with the birthday person
- …has known the birthday person for over 20 years
- …is wearing the birthday person’s favorite color
Squares about the birthday person
- Someone knows the name of the birthday person’s first pet
- Someone mentions the birthday person’s favorite food
- Someone remembers the birthday person’s first job
- A childhood story about the birthday person is told
- Someone imitates the birthday person’s favorite saying
- Someone knows who the birthday person’s first crush was
- Someone brings up [a shared trip or event]
Bingo for every age
Kids’ birthdays
For kids, choose the smaller 4 × 4 card and short, fun squares: someone makes a funny face, someone hops on one leg, a balloon floats away. You will find plenty more ideas in our article Bingo for Kids.
18th and 21st birthdays
A younger crowd will love funny squares full of in-jokes and shared memories: someone tells a story from a school trip, someone loses their phone, someone starts karaoke. Add inside jokes only your group will get.
Milestone birthdays: 30, 40, 50 and 60
Milestone birthdays are full of memories, so squares about the birthday person’s life work well – first car, wedding, kids, an old nickname. Add a few tongue-in-cheek squares too: someone says “at your age…”, someone complains about their back, someone mentions retirement. Just make sure the birthday person finds it as funny as the guests do.
How to make birthday bingo
- Open the bingo card generator and choose a card background.
- Write a title such as “Peter’s Birthday Bingo” and add the age and party date as a subtitle.
- Fill in the squares using the ideas above or the Birthday party tips in the editor. Personal squares are the most fun.
- Choose the card size – 5 × 5 for adults, 4 × 4 for kids or a quicker game.
- In the free space in the middle, write something like “Happy Birthday!” and choose the gift icon.
- Set the number of cards to match your guest list, download the PDF and print it.
Prizes for the winners
The prize doesn’t have to be big – a chocolate bar, the first slice of cake, a bottle of wine or the right to choose the next song will do. At a milestone birthday, the winner can also get an “honorary task”, such as giving a toast to the birthday person.
Tips for great birthday bingo
- Ask someone who knows the birthday person well to help. The personal squares will be more accurate and funnier.
- Mix easy and harder squares so the game doesn’t end in five minutes – or last all night.
- Write more squares than fit on one card. Every card will then be different.
- Hand out the cards at the door. Icebreaker bingo helps the first guests to arrive, who don’t know anyone yet.
- Keep the cards. Filled-in cards signed by the guests make a lovely keepsake of the party.
Need more ideas for the party? Take a look at our indoor birthday party games for kids or read why a birthday crossword makes a great personal gift.
Make your own birthday bingo
Birthday bingo livens up a party at any age, and you can make it in minutes. Create your own bingo on ElisGrid – set up the squares and design in a live preview and download your cards as a printable PDF.