Popular Baby Shower Games and Ideas

When it comes time to host a baby shower, selecting baby shower games is one of the most fun and enjoyable elements of the planning. Naturally, you want your party to be a success but where do you start? You've gathered a special group of family and friends to celebrate the mother-to-be or parents-to-be and the new baby. An ice breaker to help everyone get to know the guest of honor and each other better is a great idea. Games can also be used to focus attention on the guest(s) of honor, enliven the atmosphere and stimulate conversation. With a little bit of planning, personalized and interactive games or activities can make a baby shower a memorable and meaningful event for everyone. The following are some ideas to help get you started.

Be Creative with Household Items

Although there are a number of excellent places online to look for baby shower game ideas, the best starting place may be your own pantry, closet or laundry room. For example, you can:

7 Fill a small bowl with dry rice. Add about twenty-five small, safety pins and mix. Blindfold a guest and have her try to pick out as many pins as she can. Continue with each guest, keeping track of how many pins each guest has found. Whoever finds the most pins wins.

• Hand out clothes pins to each person as they enter the party. The object of this game is to not cross your legs to honor the mom-to-be who also can't cross her legs. When someone is spotted crossing their legs, guests should take that person's clothes pin. Or play a version of this game by picking a word that no one at the shower can say like 'cute' or 'baby'. Every time someone is caught uttering those words, they get their clothes pin taken away. At the end of the shower, whoever has the most clothes pins wins.
• Hang the Laundry: For this game, you'll need a clothesline, a laundry basket with baby clothes in it, a baby-sized doll and a cell phone. Ask your guests to hold the baby, have the phone to their ear and pin the baby clothes on the line. All of this must be done without dropping either the baby or cell phone! Definitely a great icebreaker!
• Measure Mommy: Pass around a skein of yarn and a pair of scissors. Each guest is asked to cut a length of yarn to the size they think will perfectly fit around the expectant mother's waist. Each guest will then, in turn, have a chance to try the yarn around the mother's waist to see how they measured up. The closest match wins.

Interactive Word Games

Baby Charades:

This is another great baby shower game idea that doesn't require any extra materials. It is also a fun game for co-ed showers:

• Like traditional charades, the person who acts out the word is not allowed to say anything, spell anything out with their fingers, or point toward any object in the room. The first team to guess the correct word gets the point.
• Some baby-related ideas to act out:
  • Middle of the night feeding
  • Changing a diaper
  • Fussy baby
  • Burping baby
  • Highchair feeding
  • Tasting baby food and realizing how bad it really is

Word Scramble:

For Word Scramble, choose ten to fifteen baby-themed words and scramble the letters. Make enough copies for each guest to have one. Set a timer for five minutes, and award the guest who solves their scramble first with a small gift.

Mother's Name:

Another word game is Mother's Name. This game uses the mother's first, middle and last names. Make enough copies for each guest with her name at the top of the paper. The object is to come up with as many baby-related words a possible. Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes. Whoever has the most words wins!

Prizes

It's a good idea to have at least one prize for each game or activity along with a few extras in case of ties. Some prize ideas include: flowers or centerpieces used to decorate the shower, a bottle of wine or champagne, a cute picture frame, note cards, gift certificates, a box of baby themed petit fours, candles, or special soaps and lotions. These are just a few ideas to help spark your creativity. If you would like more ideas for baby shower games and prizes, there are web sites like beau-coup.com that can not only provide tips for baby shower games, but wonderful baby shower gifts and favors as well.