DIY Winter Bingo

Winter calls for beanies and boots, cosy evenings snuggled up on the sofa, and – of course – bingo! Whether you’re looking for some fun games to pass the time during the cold indoor months, or you’d like to play bingo with your friends and family at Christmas, we’re here to help you execute some wonderful winter bingo games!

Here’s our step-by-step guide.

Choose your theme

The winter holidays are the most festive season, and DIY bingo is a great way to celebrate. The fun thing about themed bingo is that you can use pictures instead of numbers. There are a number of great themes to base your bingo card symbols on during this season – it’s your “call”. Here are some of our favourites:

• Winter wonderland – Bring the magic of winter alive with glittery white and silver cards, filled with polar bears, snowflakes, igloos, ice skates, mittens, hot cocoa, and of course, snowmen.
• Christmas – Your cards could have a red, green, and white colour scheme, and symbols could include Father Christmas, reindeer and elves, roast turkey, Christmas trees, wrapped presents, and so on.
• Christmas treats – From gingerbread men to sugar cookies, mince pies and yule logs, this is a scrumptious theme that’ll get everyone in the mood for dinner and dessert!
• Christmas carols – Choose everyone’s favourite Christmas carols, from Jingle Bells to Silent Night. This theme is bound to get everyone singing along!

Make your bingo cards

Start off by deciding whether you’ll be playing the traditional 90-ball bingo, which uses a 9x3 card layout, 75-ball bingo, which uses a 5x5 card layout, or another version of your choice. This may be determined by the theme you’ve chosen, of course (can you name 90 carols?)!

To make your own cards, you’ll need:

• A laptop or PC
• A printer (you could alternatively go to a print shop)
• Scissors
• Paper trimmer (optional)
• Laminator (optional).
• You have two choices when it comes to making your own cards. The first is for those traditionally-minded kitties who enjoy the whole process and involves designing your cards from scratch. The second option (for those of us who like to cut the corners in DIY), is to use a bingo card generator, which you can find online. This option allows for easy, customisable cards without all the effort of making your own from scratch. With these online generators, you’ll just need to choose your template, customise your design, print the cards and cut out the numbers or symbols.

If you’re making your own, though, here’s how to do it:

• Open a new document on your computer – Word doc, Google docs, Pages, or whichever program you are most familiar with.
• Select “Insert'' and create a table the size of the card you chose earlier. Evenly space all the squares on your table.
• Next, add a few cute images, some colour, and cute decorations to the space surrounding your grid, then copy and paste as many cards as you’ll need (and maybe a few extra) on subsequent pages.
• Now it’s time to put your symbols or numbers on the cards. If you’re using a 9x3 grid, fill 15 random spaces, making sure each row contains five random symbols, and if you’re using a 5x5 grid, fill all the spaces with symbols.
• Leave a “free space” block in the centre if you’re intending to play the 75-ball version on a 5x5 grid.
• Print the cards on either paper or a thin cardboard, and if you’d like to reuse them, get them laminated.
• Be sure to print copies of all of the symbols, too, for the caller. These should be slightly larger than the symbols for the cards so that the caller can hold them up during the game.

Bingo equipment

Other than bingo cards, you’ll need markers, a cage and “balls”. For the markers, you could use green and red M&Ms (Christmas style), mini marshmallows, or another treat for some snacks along the way (although your guests will have to wait for someone to get a win before they can start nibbling them)!

The cage and balls don’t have to be flash: they can be as simple as making cardboard cutouts of your symbols and tossing them in a bag, which you’ll give a good shake before each call. If you’re a real bingo enthusiast and host regular games, it’s probably worth buying a bingo set, which you can purchase for £10 to £25 on Amazon.

How to play

1. Give each of your guests a bingo card and some bingo markers.

2. The caller will randomly choose one image (or number) at a time, calling and showing each one, and allowing enough time for guests to locate it on their cards.

3. Players will mark any matching symbols/numbers on their card with their markers.

4. The first player to get a winning line or pattern (depending on the version you’re playing) shouts “Bingo!” and wins the game – and presumably a lovely prize, too!

Plan your party

Whether you’re hosting a special winter bingo party, or would just like to add some bingo games to your Christmas dinner or New Year’s Eve party, planning is essential. If you’re simply adding bingo to your party, all you’ll need to do is make bingo cards to match the theme. But if you’re throwing a special bingo-themed party, there’s even more fun to be had with bingo-themed treats, music, decor and more!

Make sure you cover all the following aspects for a kittylicious bingo party:

• Guestlist and invitations
• Food and drinks
• Decor and music
• Bingo prizes.

Enjoy online bingo and slot games at Kitty Bingo

Of course, you and your friends can always play bingo online, in which case you should choose a trustworthy bingo site such as Kitty Bingo to take care of everything for you. That way, all you need to do is decide on a time, gather some snacks, show up to the online bingo game, and have fun!

What’s more, if you need a break from all the holiday banter, you can also go for a solo game of Slingo bingo or online slots once you register with us.