Baby Shower Games - Phoenix,AZ

I was at a shower where we played "Estimated Time of Birth". You get those plastic babies that you buy at the craft store and freeze them into ice cubes. Then, each person gets a cup with their baby ice cube and writes on a card the time they think their baby will be "born". The person closest to their time wins. I've also been to showers where the play a Price is Right game with baby products. For instance, how much does a pack of diapers cost. Whoever gets the most without going over the actual price wins.

My favorite baby shower game is called a bead ceremony. Every woman gets to pick a bead, and then you go around in a circle stringing the beads on a wire and saying something positive about the mama-to-be - a wish for her birth experience, a fun memory, a bit of encouragement ("You're going to be such a great mom"), a bit of wisdom, or just a word ("Joy - for the joy this baby is going to bring to your family"). The only rule - no advice-giving and no horror stories! The mother can get the beads made into a necklace to wear during her birth (and afterwards) that remind her of the good wishes, prayers, and love of her friends and family. This was such a lovely, meaningful thing for me, much removed from the usual silliness of shower games.

My office threw me one about 10 days ago and the most fun was trying to figure out who was who in the baby pictures. The lady that threw it had everyone email her a baby picture. We also usually play pictionary at the baby/wedding showers. This time they tried it with the same idea only using play-doh instead of markers.

We filled bottles with jelly beans corresponding to the colors I wanted to decorate the nursery (pink and brown in my case), and then everyone had to guess how many jelly beans were in there, and whoever was the closest without going over won the jelly beans.

We also played all of the games listed below.

I had over 60 people at my shower, and it would have been way too hard to stop the party for everyone to participate at one time, so these worked great.

An alternative to the baby food jar game is mashed up chocolate candies in diapers and you have to guess what kind of candy it is! Gross but definitely funny!

I have also seen people get in teams and have to drink water out of a bottle, and see which team can suck the fastest!

Congrats on the baby!

I went to a shower with a lot of people. They passed out bingo cards with the spaces blank (the center was labeled Baby, and was a free space). You had to fill in the spaces yourself of what you thought she was going to get for gifts. Of course you knew what you got the person, but you don't know when she'll open it. It kept everyone interested. We got candles and plants for gifts. Also, they passed out index cards for us to write advise/tips for the1st time mom and we read them to her.

Guess the size of mom-to-be belly. Pass around a ball of yarn and a pair of scissors. Have everyone cut off the length they think will fit around and after everyone has cut theirs have them wrap it around and the closet without going over wins.A great laugh when many are really long, usually there is one or two people that are very nice to mom to be and have short strings.

Guess the baby food- without opening the jars, so just based on color. I wouldn't big a big fan of tasting, so this worked well. Think there was usually one meat and then some fruits and veggies and maybe one that was mixed. I know there are many variations of this game.

Everyone has a safety pin or paperclip and if you hear anyone else say "baby" you get to take theirs. The winners has the most clips at the end and you can get one back even if you don't have any. This can go on for the whole shower.

Those are the main ones that have been done at the showers I have been too. If you google for baby shower games I'm sure plenty of lists will come up. Have fun and congrats on your little one.

At my sister's baby shower a few months ago, we played several games, but the one that I actually thought was fun was where the hostess had taken 6 baby items and placed them in a paper lunch sack and stapled the bag shut. The bag got passed around and everyone had to write down on a piece of paper what they thought the item in the bag was. It was fun to see the different responses, and how even if you are a mommy you still guess wrong on some items!!! Hope you have fun at your shower!!! :-)

p.s. the items that she used were a spoon, a pair of baby nail clippers, a bottle of Mylecon (you could use tylenol), a rubber duckie, a pacifier, and bottle nipple.

We had alot of old grouchy people at my shower so we didnt play many games but one we did do was a queastionare(sp?) about me and my husband. Mostly couple questions, like how to spell our insane crazy last name, what we were naming our daughter and a few personal queastions like where we went to highschool, what was my maiden name, fav colors, stuff like that. My mom and his mom wernt allowed to play! We also had string and people cut the string to how big they thought my belly was! That one was alot of fun! A few people most have thought I was having twins! Good luck!

At my baby shower, we played a cute one where you had to guess the babyfood. They passed out tastes of unlabeled babyfood, and each person had to write down their guesses, and then the one who was closest to correct got a gift. Another cute one was to take the name of the mother and father and then everyone had to come up with a baby product for every letter in the name (they could be brand names like Avent or just products like bottle or diaper). It was timed, and whomever got the most (duplicate letters could not be duplicate products) won the prize. I thought both were fun, cute, and clever. I HATE the sniff-the-candy-bar-in-the-diaper game, and thought these two were much more pleasant.

I recently went to a shower and one of the games they had was lables that were put onto your back all dealing with events/items associated with weddings. An example would be wedding vows, batchellor party, flowers, dj, cake ect... You had to ask yes no questions of shower guests to figure out what you were labled with. If you guessed the item correclty you would get another lable and repeat the process until time was up. It was fun. I think they gave a 3 min. time limit and it got eveyone talking at once.

hope you have fun

Have you considered a Blessingway instead? Baby showers are cute, but they do nothing to really honor the mama-to-be and the incredible journey she will be taking through labor and parenthood. Plus, nobody really likes baby shower games and most moms really don't want to open all those gifts in front of everyone. It's not too late to make some changes to your shower and pull off a beautiful and meaningful Blessingway. Instead of games, take guests through some wonderful rituals like making a birth blessing bracelet, or bringing prayers for you and baby (and even hubby). There are so many things you can do at a Blessingway that will feel right for YOU. Just google Blessingways and you will get oodles of info and inspiring ideas. A book I LOVE and use all the time is called MOTHER RISING. THE BLESSINGWAY JOURNEY INTO MONTHERHOOD by Cortlund, Luck, and Miller Watelet. This book can't be found in a bookstore and is usually ordered. Look on Amazon.com or call used bookstores (If you are near Tempe, Changing Hands MIGHT have it).

Have fun and best wishes in your labor, birth, and parenting journey.

A.
mom of 4. Birth and Parenting Mentor
www.birthingfromwithin.com

www.babyshower101.com

It will help you out tremendously! Good Luck and Have Fun!!!

My favorite game to do is "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant". You tape a picture of a crying baby under one of the seats beforehand. Then, at game time, you announce: "Have you ever seen the show, "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant"? Then you make up a statistic, based on the number of shower attendees. If you have 20, then you say, 1 out of 20 women doesn't realize she's pregnant until she gives birth! And right now, one of you is unsuspecting that you are actually expecting!" Tell them to peer under their seats to see if the picture is under their chair.

We played it last weekend actually, and one of the "older" ladies ended up with it! She laughed so hard! We gave her the "about to pop" prize. It contained popcorn, movie theater candy and a free video rental.

Have a blast, and congratulations on your new baby!