Planning and hosting a baby shower isn't an activity the interest many people. The whole affair kind of gets a bad rep, right? But the trick is to know your party guests and to give the mom-to-be a party she will love. Skip tradition, serve pizza rolls instead of tiny sandwiches, and have some baby shower games to play that no one will roll their eyes at.
I know — you're already rolling your eyes. Look, shower games get a bad rep, too. But they are a great way to break the ice at a party and it's always fun to see who lets their competitive side out. You know the kind of baby shower you want to host (or have, if you're the mama with the bun in the oven), so choosing baby shower games to play doesn't have to mean boring your guests and turning the party into a snooze-fest.
Choose some of the more traditional games or a unique spin on a crowd favorite, but definitely find one of these baby shower games to play at your next celebration. Grab a few small gifts to give the winning player, like a nice bottle of hand lotion or a set of pretty notecards, and you'll have everybody ready to play.
1Parents-To-Be Trivia Game
I'm not the best party host in the world, so when I had to plan my older sister's baby shower, I was stumped on games. But one that I thought was fun and easy was a little trivia game. Have the parents-to-be give you five facts each from their childhood — this parent was terrified of the ocean as a kid, this parent's favorite TV show was Alf — and write them all down on a paper. Print out baby pictures of each parent and stick to a popsicle stick or bamboo. Each guest gets one baby picture on a stick each, and as you read out the childhood stories, the guests have to decide which parent's story it is by holding up the picture. Most right wins!
2Guess The Poop
It's a classic, but with the right crowd, it can be a favorite. Pick your favorite candy bars and melt them a bit so they're still semi-solid. Put each of them in a diaper, wrap it up, and pass it around for people to guess what kind of candy it is. It looks totally gross to hold open a diaper and sniff its contents and test the consistency of what's inside, but hey. Parenthood is gross.
3Baby Gift Bingo
Each guest gets a bingo card and writes out the gifts they think the parents will receive, one in each box. Diapers, wipes, pacifiers, baby monitor, etc. As the mom-to-be opens her gifts, guests get to mark it off on their card and try to score five in a row for bingo!
4Musical Diapers
Have your guests stand in a circle with one of them holding a diaper between their knees. Turn on some music, and the diaper has to be passed from person to person using only their knees to take it and hold it. The person still holding the diaper when the music stops is out.
5Price Is Right
Pick up a few supplies you know the parents-to-be will need like a pack of diapers, a bottle of baby shampoo, a set of bottles, receiving blankets, etc. Write down the price of each item on the front of a card and the item name on the back. Have guests try and figure out which item corresponds with which price.
6Blindfolded Diaper Change
You'll need a couple of baby dolls and stuffed animals for this one, but it can be hilarious. Give each guest a doll, a diaper, and a blindfold. Tie the blindfold over their eyes and let them try and change a diaper on their baby. Bonus points if you include a sleeper they have to stuff their baby back into, and even more points if it's a snap-button sleeper and not a zip-up set.
7Celebrity Baby Name Or Not?
We all know celebrity baby names can be kind of out there, so turn those monikers into a game. You can offer up your guests a long list of names, some that are actual celebrity babies like Pilot Inspektor, Apple, and Bronx Mowgli, but also include some made-up names you've created. Have guests try to decipher which ones are celebrity babies and which ones are totally made up.
8Guess The Baby Food
Pick up a few jars of baby puree, remove the label, and let guests try to figure out the flavor. Put a few easy ones in the mix, like banana or applesauce, but be sure to get something a little harder to decipher like sweet potatoes and corn or pureed chicken and rice.
9Bowling For Baby Bottles
Pick up some cheap baby bottles, fill them with beans (or candy if you want them to also act as favors), and set them up like bowling pins. Use a small ball, like a tennis ball or a kid's bouncy ball, to knock them over. This is a fun game that can be played even while other guests are eating or talking.
10Blindfolded Pacifier Game
Nobody's a parent until they've had to find a pacifier on the floor in complete darkness. Blindfold a guest, hand them a pacifier, and then make them drop it. See who is the quickest at finding it as they paw all over the ground. Make it even harder by forcing them to hold a baby doll while the other guests cry and scream at them. Ah, motherhood.
11Children's Book Test
Using classic children's literature, come up with a list of passages from the books, character descriptions, and even a few photocopied illustrations for your guests to figure out which children's book these things all came from. Like "I live in Paris with eleven other girls and Ms. Clavel takes care of us." Make up a test of sorts to see how well they know their children's literature.
12Name That Baby Tune
Any song with the word "baby" or "babe" in the title can make this list like "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and "Baby Boy." Shuffle the songs on a playlist and play only the first few seconds to your guests. The players all have to write down the name of the song and the artist. Whoever gets the most right wins.
13Stroller Obstacle Course
Time for some serious stroller skills! Set up an obstacle course in the party area using anything you can think of — patio furniture, chairs, boxes, yard toys, wagons, bicycles, plants, lawnmower, etc. Time your guests as they push a stroller, with a baby doll in it, around the obstacles and through the entire course. The one with the best time (and the baby still in tact) wins.
