Food

• Feasting is a big part of Diwali celebrations, with snacks and sweets taking an especially important role in the menu. You can make or buy traditional Indian sweets such as karanji, a coconut-stuffed pastry, or chiwada, made with nuts, chillies and roasted chickpeas. Another popular Diwali treat is badaam paak, a type of almond fudge. If you don't feel up to making traditional Indian sweets and do not live near a store selling them, serve fruit and nuts, as well as more easily available desserts like cakes and pies.
  
  

Decorations

• Hindus invite Lakshmi into their homes by lighting oil-filled lamps and by using colored rice flour to decorate the floors of their courtyards with ritual designs known as rangoli. You may wish to replicate the feeling of abundant lights by placing candles on tables, shelves and mantelpieces. If you lack an entire courtyard to decorate, or the local weather in your area during Diwali does not favor outdoor art projects, you might want to purchase some colored sand at an art supply store and create designs on top of newspapers placed on a counter. Depending on your degree of artistic skill and ambition, you can make a simple design built of shapes, including squares, triangles and circles, or create traditional Hindu motifs such as lotus flowers, elephants, dancers and birds.
  
  

Gambling

• One Hindu story says that the goddess Parvati played dice with her husband, Lord Shiva, on Diwali, and decreed that all who gambled on this day would receive financial blessings throughout the coming year. You may want to host a card game for your friends during this holiday, or, if you don't play cards, add a gambling element to a board game like Scrabble or Monopoly. You can take Diwali celebration to a casino, or have your entire office go in together on tickets for a lottery game with a multimillion dollar prize.
  
  

Beauty

• To honor Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and beauty, Hindus put on their best attire, purchasing new outfits when budgets permit. You can purchase a beautiful sari, or use the day as an opportunity to put on some of the dressier items in your closet that you rarely get a chance to wear. To further the theme of self-adornment, you might want to hire an artist skilled in mehndi body painting (temporary henna tattoos) to come and decorate the guests' bodies with elaborate Hindu designs.