Mardi Gras Party Games

Alcohol-free games built on beads, masks, king cake and the parade: press Pick 3 new games.

Mardi Gras Party Games

  1. Body-Only Charades in a Plate MaskThe actor wears a full paper-plate mask with eye holes, so the face gives nothing away. The actor draws a slip with something from a parade, such as a drum major, a float turning a corner or someone catching beads, and acts it with the body only. One minute a turn, teams alternate, and a point for each slip guessed. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: a paper-plate mask, slips and a timer.
  2. Paper King Cake DrawA king cake hides a small token, and tradition gives whoever finds it a job: buying next year's cake or hosting the next party. Here the cake is paper. Fold one paper wedge for each guest, lay them in a ring on a tray and slip a paper token inside one. Each guest takes a wedge and all open at once. The finder wears a paper crown and picks the next game. The token is never put in food. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: a paper wedge for each guest, a paper token, a tray and a paper crown.
  3. Eight-Bead Color Pattern RecallThe host lays eight single beads or bead-colored buttons in a row on a tray, in a mixed order of purple, green and gold, and shows it for ten seconds. Cover the tray. Each team rebuilds the row from its own pile. One point for every bead in the right place. Add two beads to the row each round until somebody gets a row of fourteen right. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a tray, a cloth and beads or buttons in three colors.

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How it works

These Mardi Gras party games are for adults at home or at work, and every one uses the carnival itself: beads, masks, king cake, the parade or its three colors. All are alcohol-free, and nothing is staked.

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Three picks for one evening

Start with Mask games: A Mask for Your Neighbor gives every guest something to wear. Follow with a Bead games pick while people are on their feet, and close at the table with King cake games. Paper King Cake Draw crowns one guest, who chooses what comes next.

What the quizzes state

The fact quizzes under Purple, green and gold quizzes print their answers, so the host needs nothing else. The colors were first named for a parade in 1872. A king cake token goes to one finder, who by tradition owes next year's cake.

Tips
  • Beads here are counters and targets with fixed points. No game trades a strand for a dare.
  • The king cake token is paper in every game and never goes into food.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at a Mardi Gras party with no drinking?

All of these. Bead Lasso Onto Bottle Necks scores fixed points on a tally sheet, and in Doubloon Stomp a card coin is claimed with a foot. No game here involves alcohol, a dare or a stake.

How does the king cake game work without a real cake?

Fold a paper wedge for each guest, lay them in a ring and hide a paper token in one. In Paper King Cake Draw every guest opens a wedge at once, and the finder wears a paper crown and picks the next game.

What do purple, green and gold mean?

The three colors were first named for a New Orleans parade in 1872, and twenty years later the same parade organization gave them the meanings justice, faith and power. Purple is the one said to stand for justice.

Which Mardi Gras games work at the office?

The table games: Name Your Krewe, Shoebox Float Parade by Ballot and every quiz run from a meeting room, and votes go to a float or a mask, never a person. Choose Seated under More filters for more.

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All 32 games

Bead games 7

  • Bead Lasso Onto Bottle Necks Stand six empty bottles in a triangle on the floor and tape a line three steps back. Each player throws five strands of beads, one at a time, trying to loop a bottle neck. The front bottle scores one, the middle row two and the back row three. Points are fixed and go on a tally sheet; nothing is staked. Highest total after two turns each wins the first slice of cake. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: six empty bottles, strands of beads, tape and a tally sheet.
  • Bead Untangle and Sort Before the party, knot twelve strands into a loose ball for each team: four purple, four green and four gold. On go, each team of three untangles its ball without breaking a strand and hangs the strands by color over the back of a chair. The first team with three tidy sets wins. A broken strand costs ten seconds on the clock. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: twelve strands of beads for each team and a timer.
  • Catch the Throws in an Upturned Umbrella At a parade, riders throw beads and trinkets from the floats to the crowd. Here one player is the float and stands behind the sofa with twenty strands. The others stand in a row, each holding an open umbrella upside down, and call for a throw. The float tosses underhand, one strand at a time. Count what each umbrella caught, then change the float. Players: 3 to 10. Time: 10 min. Props: umbrellas and about twenty strands of beads.
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Bead games, continued

  • Eight-Bead Color Pattern Recall The host lays eight single beads or bead-colored buttons in a row on a tray, in a mixed order of purple, green and gold, and shows it for ten seconds. Cover the tray. Each team rebuilds the row from its own pile. One point for every bead in the right place. Add two beads to the row each round until somebody gets a row of fourteen right. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a tray, a cloth and beads or buttons in three colors.
  • One Table Length of Beads Each team gets a pile of strands opened out into single lines. Without measuring against the table, the team lays strands end to end on the floor to make a line exactly as long as the dining table. Two minutes, then hands off. Carry each line to the table and check: the team closest to the true length, over or under, wins. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 6 min. Props: a pile of bead strands for each team.
  • Spoon-to-Spoon Bead Line Teams stand in lines, and every player holds a wooden spoon by the handle. The first player lifts a strand from a bowl with the spoon and passes it to the next spoon, and so on down the line to an empty bowl. Hands never touch the beads. A dropped strand goes back to the first bowl. The first team to move ten strands wins. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a wooden spoon for each player, two bowls and ten strands for each team.
  • Trade Beads for Facts, Two of Each Color Everyone starts with six strands of one color: purple, green or gold. The aim is to finish with two of each. A trade is one strand for one strand, and it only happens after the two traders have each told the other something about themselves that the other did not know. The first player wearing two of every color calls out. Beads are counters here, not stakes: everyone keeps what they end with. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 12 min. Props: six strands of beads for each guest, in three colors.

Mask games 7

  • A Mask for Your Neighbor Everyone gets a blank paper half-mask and asks the person on their left three questions: which of the three carnival colors, feathers or sequins, sun or moon. Then each guest decorates a mask for that neighbor from the answers, in ten minutes. Masks are handed over all at once and worn for the next game. Ribbons, not elastic, so that nothing snaps. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: blank paper half-masks, ribbon, feathers, sequins, markers and glue sticks.
  • Body-Only Charades in a Plate Mask The actor wears a full paper-plate mask with eye holes, so the face gives nothing away. The actor draws a slip with something from a parade, such as a drum major, a float turning a corner or someone catching beads, and acts it with the body only. One minute a turn, teams alternate, and a point for each slip guessed. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: a paper-plate mask, slips and a timer.
  • Decorate the Mask on Your Own Face In pairs, one partner puts on a plain paper mask and picks up a sheet of stickers. With no mirror, they decorate the mask while wearing it; the other partner may guide only with words: higher, left a little, stop. Three minutes, then swap. Masks come off for a gallery on the table, and the room picks the most even one by applause. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: plain paper masks and sheets of stickers.
  • Masked Promenade, Three Ribbons by Ballot Masked guests walk the room in pairs while music plays, once around in each direction. Then everyone gets a ballot with three ribbons to award: most feathers, best use of purple, green and gold, and most mysterious. Votes are for the mask, never the person. The host counts while the next game runs and pins the ribbons on the masks. Players: 8 to 40. Time: 12 min. Props: masks, music, ballots and three ribbons.
  • Match Each Mask to Its Wearer From Memory Everyone puts on a mask and walks a slow lap of the room, looking at who is wearing what. All the masks then go onto one table, mixed up and numbered. Guests write the name of the wearer beside each number, from memory. The host holds up each mask and its wearer claims it. Most right wins; nobody may guess their own. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: a mask for each guest, number cards, paper and pens.
  • Single-Snip Mask From a Folded Sheet Each player folds a sheet of paper in half and gets one continuous cut with scissors: no lifting the blades out and starting again. Unfold. The paper has to work as a mask, with two eye holes and a shape around them. Hold them up to faces in a row; the host picks the mask that fits best, and the room picks the oddest. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: paper and scissors.
  • Twin Masks, Found Without a Word The host has made the masks in pairs: two with a gold star, two with green stripes, two with a purple feather. Guests each take one at the door without looking for its twin. On a signal, everyone finds the wearer of the matching mask without speaking, by walking and pointing only. Each pair then sits together for the next table game. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 6 min. Props: masks made in matching pairs.

King cake games 6

  • The Caller Cannot See the Slices One old way to share a king cake fairly puts the youngest person under the table to name who gets each piece as it is cut. Party version: the caller turns their back. The host points at one paper wedge after another, one for each guest, and asks, who gets this one? The caller names a guest each time. When every wedge is given out, all open together. Whoever holds the token calls next. Players: 5 to 14. Time: 6 min. Props: paper wedges and a paper token.
  • One Rule From the Crowned Guest After a paper cake draw, the crowned guest makes one harmless rule that lasts until the next game ends: everyone claps before speaking, or the word cake must be sung. Guests who forget the rule give the crown-wearer a bow. The rule may not be a dare, may not single out one guest and ends when the host says so. The crown passes at the next draw. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: a paper crown.
  • Paper King Cake Draw A king cake hides a small token, and tradition gives whoever finds it a job: buying next year's cake or hosting the next party. Here the cake is paper. Fold one paper wedge for each guest, lay them in a ring on a tray and slip a paper token inside one. Each guest takes a wedge and all open at once. The finder wears a paper crown and picks the next game. The token is never put in food. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: a paper wedge for each guest, a paper token, a tray and a paper crown.
  • Sort the Cake Sugar by Teaspoon A king cake wears sugar in three colors. Tip a cup of mixed purple, green and gold pom-poms or buttons in front of each player, with three empty cups behind it. Using a teaspoon in one hand only, sort the colors in one minute. One point for every piece in the right cup, minus one for every piece in the wrong one. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: pom-poms or buttons in three colors, cups and teaspoons.
  • Stripe the Paper Cake, Eyes Shut Tape a large paper ring to the wall: the plain cake. Each player gets three paper stripes with tape on the back, one purple, one green and one gold. With eyes shut, and after one slow turn on the spot, the player sticks all three on the ring. A stripe on the ring scores one, and three that do not overlap score a bonus of two. Players: 2 to 14. Time: 8 min. Props: a large paper ring, paper stripes in three colors and tape.
  • Twelve-Wedge Cake Jigsaw Relay Draw a ring-shaped king cake with purple, green and gold bands on poster board, one for each team, and cut each into twelve wedges. Pieces wait in a pile across the room. One runner at a time fetches a single wedge and fits it into the ring. The team whose runner places the last piece finds a paper token taped underneath it and wins the crown. Players: 6 to 16. Time: 8 min. Props: two poster-board cakes cut into twelve wedges and a paper token.

Parade games 6

  • Doubloon Stomp Doubloons are the coins thrown from floats, and collectors tell of claiming one by covering it with a foot. Cut thirty doubloons from gold card. Players stand in a ring with hands clasped behind their backs. The host tosses a few doubloons into the middle at a time. A coin belongs to the first foot placed flat on it; no hands, no sliding, no kicking. Count coins at the end. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 6 min. Props: about thirty card doubloons.
  • Living Float Tableau Each team of four or five draws a float theme in secret: a garden, the circus, a storm at sea. Two minutes to plan, then the team climbs onto its float, a rug, and freezes in a picture of the theme. The other teams get three guesses. The team scores when it is guessed, and so does the team that guessed it. Players: 8 to 30. Time: 12 min. Props: theme slips and a rug.
  • Name Your Krewe A krewe is a social club that puts on a parade or a ball for Carnival. Each table has ten minutes to found one: a name, a parade theme, a crest drawn on a paper plate and a signature throw made of paper. No real krewe's name may be used. Tables present in thirty seconds each, and the room votes for the krewe it would most like to ride with. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: paper plates, paper and markers.
  • Plate-and-Straw Parasol Twirl-Off Each guest gets a paper plate, a straw or a chopstick and a tray of craft scraps in purple, green and gold. Ten minutes to make a small parasol: cut a slit, overlap the plate into a cone, fix it to the stick and decorate it. Parasols are twirled in a row for the judges, who award most colorful, best fringe and best twirl. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: paper plates, straws or chopsticks, tape and craft scraps.
  • Second-Line Follow-the-Leader In New Orleans, the second line is the crowd that follows a brass band, dancing along with parasols and handkerchiefs. Party version: put on brass band music, hand every guest a paper napkin to wave and line up behind a leader. The leader struts a route through the rooms with one step or wave of their own, which everyone copies. On each new tune the leader goes to the back. Players: 5 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: brass band music and a paper napkin for each guest.
  • Shoebox Float Parade by Ballot Each pair gets a shoebox, colored paper, foil, tape and a theme drawn from a hat: under the sea, the kitchen, outer space. Fifteen minutes to build a float on the box. Then the floats are pulled along a table-top route on a string, one at a time, with a spoken introduction of ten words or fewer. Everyone votes on a slip for best build and best idea. Players: 4 to 24. Time: 25 min. Props: shoeboxes, colored paper, foil, tape, string and voting slips.

Purple, green and gold quizzes 6

  • Carnival Calendar Quiz Tables write their answers. 1. On which date does the New Orleans Carnival season begin? January 6, Epiphany. 2. What is that day sometimes called locally? Twelfth Night. 3. Mardi Gras is the last day before which season begins? Lent. 4. Which day follows Mardi Gras? Ash Wednesday. 5. How many days before Easter does Mardi Gras fall? Forty-seven. 6. So is the date the same every year? No, it moves with Easter. Players: 2 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and pens.
  • King Cake Quiz, Hands Up The host asks; the first hand up answers. 1. With which feast day is a king cake first linked? Epiphany. 2. In Louisiana, from when until when is it traditionally served? From Epiphany to the end of Carnival. 3. What is hidden inside? A small token, often a plastic baby. 4. What does the finder traditionally owe? Next year's cake, or the next party. 5. Which three colors of sugar go on top? Purple, green and gold. Players: 2 to 40. Time: 6 min. Props: none.
  • Parade Words Match-Up Write six words on cards and six meanings on others; tables match them. Krewe: a club that puts on a Carnival parade or ball. Throw: anything tossed from a float to the crowd. Doubloon: a coin thrown from a float. Second line: the crowd that follows the band, dancing. King cake: the ring-shaped cake with a token hidden inside. Fat Tuesday: what Mardi Gras means in English. Players: 2 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: twelve cards for each table.
  • Six Carnival Statements, Gold Card for True The host reads six statements; guests hold up a gold card for true or a purple card for false. 1. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday: true. 2. It falls on the day after Ash Wednesday: false, the day before. 3. The carnival colors are purple, green and gold: true. 4. The colors were first named for a parade in 1872: true. 5. They were given the meanings justice, faith and power twenty years later: true. 6. Purple is the color said to stand for justice: true. Players: 2 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: a gold card and a purple card for each guest.
  • Thirty Seconds of Purple Things The host calls one of the three colors and starts a thirty-second timer. Each table writes as many things of that color as it can: plums, amethyst and eggplant for purple. Read the lists aloud. An answer on more than one list is crossed out everywhere, and each answer that only one table wrote scores a point. Play all three colors. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: paper, pens and a timer.
  • Which Came First? Five Carnival Cards Give each table five cards to put in order, earliest first. The answer: gifts were first handed to a New Orleans parade crowd in 1871; the three colors were named in 1872; the colors were given their meanings in 1892; strings of glass beads were being thrown from floats early in the twentieth century; the aluminum doubloon appeared in 1960. One point for each card in the right place. Players: 2 to 40. Time: 8 min. Props: five cards for each table.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors for a Mardi Gras party of adults at home or at work, held anywhere, in our own words; player ranges and times are our estimates. Every game is alcohol-free, beads are counters or targets with fixed points and nothing staked, no game trades a bead for a dare, and the king cake token is always paper and never in food. Where a line says party version, the tradition comes first and the adaptation is ours; the page does not speak for New Orleans or its krewes. Traditions stated as fact were checked on 2026-10-03 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Mardi_Gras, Mardi_Gras_in_New_Orleans, King_cake, Krewe, Mardi_Gras_throws and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line_%28parades%29; and against The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum, on the history of throws: https://www.hnoc.org/publications/first-draft/throw-me-somethin-mister-history-behind-new-orleans-mardi-gras-throws. Licence: own work