Traditional and fusion Diwali sweet and snack recipes that are categorized by difficulty level. Plus tips on creating Diwali dessert boxes to gift during the holidays!
What is Diwali?
Diwali or Deepavali is the late autumnal festival of lights which marks the triumph of good over evil. Every year the dates of this festival change because the holiday is based on the lunar calendar. A big tradition during the Diwali season is to hand out mithai, or sweets and snacks, to friends and neighbors. When I was a kid, my mom would have a whole production line to make yummy desserts that she would hand out during the holidays. This tradition is very similar to handing out cookie boxes during Christmas time.
Diwali dessert and snack recipes
I've curated a list of Diwali dessert and snack recipes to add to your Diwali boxes. Each of the desserts are categorized by:
- Recipe Difficulty - How easy it is to make them in terms of time and technique . In general, easy recipes will take <30 mins, medium recipes will take 30 mins - 1 hour, and hard recipes will take 1+ hour.
- Advanced Prep: How early you can prep the dessert in advance and tips for advanced prepping the dessert.
- Shelf life - How long the dessert lasts at room temperature and does it need refrigeration.
- Ease of transportation - How easy it is to transport, carry, or ship the dessert.
Making Diwali Dessert boxes
Before you start making gift boxes, you need to organize yourself and decide your game plan. So here are the steps you should take and questions you should ask before making your Diwali boxes:
- Determine your budget and time constraints. Your budget will help you decide how many boxes you will make and your time constraint will help you figure out how many desserts you will make or buy.
- Pick desserts to make based on difficulty or buy them. Based on your answer to 1, pick the desserts or snacks you plan on making based on difficulty. To make this easier, I've categorized all of my Diwali sweets and snacks recipes below by their difficulty level. If you are low on time, don't worry about making all the desserts, but rather curate a box with your goodies. I've listed my favorite small business South Asian brands down below if you need inspiration.
- Buy Diwali packaging containers for sweets and snacks. Now that you know what you will be making, make sure to order your boxes and bags to package your boxes. Identify desserts that are difficult to transport. Liquid-y desserts (gulab jamun, payasam) need special packaging. I've included my tips for packaging boxes down below.
- Schedule and make desserts. It is best to make a schedule of the different desserts/snacks you plan on making and spread the work over many days. Once your plan is in place, then make the desserts with the recipes I've listed!
- (Optional) Add cute Diwali cards to your boxes. Make your Diwali box feel extra special by adding a card with the recipes you have or one that explains what Diwali is all about. I have some sample cards for inspiration down below.
Tips for packaging Diwali boxes
Boxes and packaging
Here are the boxes, bags, and deli containers I've used in past years to package my Diwali boxes. The bags are great for popcorn/mixture/murukku and the deli containers are for liquid-y items like gulab jamuns. I also add a layer of parchment paper at the bottom of the boxes to absorb any moisture!
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → Diwali cards
One thing to make your Diwali gift boxes stand out is to add Diwali cards. For my Diwali sweets box, I designed a card that had all the sweets contained in the box with descriptions of them. This is simple to create on your computer and then get printed out at your nearest drug store. You can also opt to buy a Diwali card and add a personal note to give your well wishes for the holiday. I even include QR codes so folks can replicate the recipe if they'd like! Drop a comment if you'd like me to make these designs available for you to print out!
Desserts and gift to buy
I get it, the holidays are a time when things get busy and there isn't a lot of time. Some of my favorite South Asian brands to support and buy from for holiday boxes are:
- Madhu Chocolates
- Doosra Snack Mix
- Disapora Co - Add their chai masala to your box!
- Cumin Club
- Chutni Punch
Thanks for reading! I hope this guide was helpful as you make your own Diwali sweets and snacks for the holiday. Drop a comment and let me know if you have any questions or share your boxes with me @moonriceshri.
June
I was fortunate enough to receive one of these gift boxes and ALL of the treats inside were absolutely delicious! I liked the Murukku and the Khajur Burfi the most! 😋. I am going to attempt to make Khajur Burfi, the Cornflake mixture and the Kesar Peda on my own (The other 2 treats, while wonderfully delicious, are a bit intimidating for me to try at this point!)
Shri Repp
Ahh this makes me so happy to hear! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. I'm so excited for you to try the treats out.
Priyanka
Love the idea of Diwali gift box with these snacks. I’m going to try it this year for my friends and neighbors this year. What software did you use to design your card? It looks very pretty
Shri Repp
Hey Priyanka! Thanks for the lovely words. I used Canva to design my card but honestly you can use any software - even Word. It was simple as taking shapes and filling them with color. Ex: Kaju katli was just a bunch of diamonds stacked inside each other! Hope that helps and happy diwali!
Bell
Nice ideas for diwali festivals.Beautiful product.Empty Gift Box for Diwali