Diwali crafts and activities for kids
By Steve Hicks · Updated
🪔 Diwali is on Sunday, 8 November 2026. See every Diwali project
These Diwali crafts and activities for kids cover lamps, rangoli patterns, garlands, a sweet treat and a little science for the festival of lights. There are ten projects for ages 4 to 12. The shortest take 40 minutes and the longest an hour and a half. Several need an adult close by for the oven, the hob or sharp cutting.
Most of what is needed is already in the kitchen or the recycling: flour, salt, rice, food colouring, egg boxes, a kitchen-roll tube, foil and string. A few projects use felt, tissue paper or mirror card. Battery tea lights appear again and again, so have a handful ready. Real candles are never used. There are more ideas sorted by material on the make-with pages.
1Salt-Dough Diya Lamps
Small bowl-shaped lamps are pinched from a dough of flour, salt and water, baked until hard, then painted in bright colours and finished with sequins or gems. Battery tea lights sit inside, never real candles or oil. Children see how slow baking dries the dough. An adult handles the oven, and salt dough is not for eating.
2Rainbow Rice Rangoli
Rice is shaken in bags with food colouring and vinegar, dried, then spooned into a flower pattern drawn on black card. A rangoli is traditionally made at the entrance to a home during Diwali to welcome guests and good luck. Ages 4 to 8 practise pinching, pouring and repeating patterns. Cover clothes and surfaces, as the colouring can stain.
3Egg-Box Marigold Toran
Egg-box cups are trimmed into wavy petals, painted orange and yellow, and threaded onto string with green paper mango leaves hanging between them. The finished toran goes across the top of the front door to welcome guests. It takes about 50 minutes and practises cutting, painting and a repeating colour pattern. An adult should poke the holes in the flowers.
4Stitched Felt Diya Garland
Five felt lamps, each with a yellow and red flame, are sewn with running stitch and fixed along a metre of ribbon. Children aged 7 to 11 learn to thread a needle, tie a knot and sew a simple stitch. Sequins or buttons become the jewels. Use a large blunt-ended embroidery needle and supervise the sewing closely.
5Pink Coconut Barfi
Coconut barfi is a sweet, fudge-like treat often shared with family, friends and neighbours at Diwali. Condensed milk, desiccated coconut and cardamom are heated gently until thick, layered plain and pink, then chilled for 2 hours. Children measure, watch the mixture thicken and cut equal squares. An adult must do all the cooking on the hob. Contains milk.
Battery tea lights serve the salt-dough diyas, the rice rangoli, the floating boats and the film, so a small supply goes a long way. Start the dough or the dyed rice early, as both need time to dry. More seasonal round-ups are in the guides.
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