Hi Ladies, my girlfriend is having a baby and I am looking for some easy and cost effective game ideas to play at her shower. I have the typical ones about not crossing your legs or saying baby, I am doing the diaper cake and the guests have to list the items on it. I am looking for some creative ideas and even 1 or 2 that can be used as a keepsake for her and her family to enjoy or save in her baby book. all ideas are greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance
S.
thank you all for your responses. the baby shower was very nice. I did 3 games. I chose to write a list of 15 questions about the mom to be and the guests had to try to respond. that was fun as they all learned something new about our friend. I made a diaper cake and they had about 20 seconds to look at it and then remember what items were on it. the diaper drawing. every guest who brought diaper got a raffle ticket then a name was drawn for a prize. and the last one I did was had 8 unlabeled jars of baby food and they had to smell them to guess what they were. I wanted to do a baby weight poll but it was a small shower so not sure that it would have worked out too well.
I had 2 other ones that I wanted to do but by the feel I got from the guests they were over the games so we left it at that. thanks again for your responses.
The Price is right is fun....get a bunch of small baby items like pacifier, container of wipes, baby food, toy, onesie, etc. and place on a tray. hold each item up and have guests guess what retail value is....
Then add up total, and guest the closest without going over to grand total wins. Then, the guest of honor gets to keep the items. :)
I went to a baby shower recently where one of the games was guess the type of baby food ... you had to match 8-10 baby food flavors (one or two flavors mixed at most) against another column. We passed the jars around (labels taken off). Made for great conversation. Then the mom-to-be got these baby jars as a little welcome to solid foods.
Cut out a diaper shape from felt (one for each attendee) - small, maybe 2" folded. Put a little spot of mustard inside one of the diapers. As guests arrive, pin a folded felt diaper onto their shirt. After all guests have arrived and it is gametime, have guests open up their diapers. Whoever has the poopy diaper wins a prize.
The best shower game I ever played was at the shower my friend hosted on my behalf. It was a game of "Memory" - matching items together. She had a big board with a grid where everyone took turns uncovering two spots - if they matched, the player got a prize. All the "matches" were pregnancy related - contractions, triplets, epidural, etc. Everyone who made a match got a prize - a candy bar related to the match. So, for example, if you got contractions, you won "Whoppers." If you got triplets, you got a 3 Musketeers bar, etc. Everyone really got into it and loved to see what the next prize would be. I think the idea may be on the web, so you could try Googling it.
The most memorable thing for any I've attended has been:
Have guests write pearls of wisdom (or funny "momisms") on the hineys of diapers, and give them all to mom-to-be. She can read the special diapers only during overnight changes...something to give a grin or giggle when she's exhausted.
(:
Hi S.,
We just had my shower not too long ago and I found this really funny game on-line. We got pacifiers at the $1 store and had a pacifier spitting contest. Whoever 'spit' theirs the furthest one a prize. It was helarious and everyone got into it - competitively! And my grandma won - go figure. Have fun!!
S.
The best thing we did at my baby shower was to ask everyone to share a special tradition from their childhood that they really loved or made them feel special. Then we took a group photo and had everyone write in metallic ink on the matting that goes around the picture a brief wish for my baby based on the tradition they shared. It is a great memento and there were so many wonderful ideas that I wanted to make happen for my son. Good luck!
J.
I did something similar to the video one already posted for my best friend's shower. I called it "He said, She said". We asked questions like: What name did Alex (she) pick for the baby that you hated? What is your favorite name for the baby? When do you think the baby will be born? Who will the baby look like? Will the baby have hair? What will be the hardest part of having a new baby? What will be the best part of having a new baby? etc. The guests had to guess which questions she would get right; the grandmothers-to-be were the judges for any answers that were close.
We also had a pool for the birthdate and birthweight of the new baby, then, after the baby was born, I sent the winner a $5 Starbucks gift card.
I just hosted a baby shower and did a trivia game of "how much a baby costs". Basically I came up with a bunch of ideas and googled the answers...like how much money does it cost to diaper a child for one year, what year was the breastpump invented, etc., etc. It was really fun and everyone learned a lot! It was a little bit non traditional. Look up some baby shower game websites and go from there...they have lots of game ideas you can modify or make yourself. You could make a book of baby advice, that would be a keepsake and it's kinda cute. I've also hosted a literary themed baby shower and there is a ton of stuff to do with that. I made book plates and the guests dedicated some books to the baby and it was really cute. They will be able to keep those for sure. I just made them with my microsoft programs and printed them onto sticky labels. The mom to be really liked it!
I've been to two showers where they decorated onsies, and I just have to say I really hated it! Some people are really creative and theirs turn out great, but the majority of them (especially if kids are present) just don't look that good and although it sounds super bitchy, I wouldn't want to put my kid in! Maybe I'm in the minority, but that activity can be really expensive, adn I think your money would be better spent elsewhere.
At my baby shower, my friends did this one game that was pretty different. I think my friend printed off some ultrasound pictures different baby body parts and guests were suppose to guess what part they are, it's like a matching game actually. On the paper was a list of the body parts and you are suppose to match the ultrasound pictures with it. Not sure if this is a game you want to do but I thought it was pretty different and interesting.
My guests decorated onesies at my shower too! It was my favorite shower and favorite gift! It was so fun decorating them at the shower, thinking how small they seemed... and then having my baby wear them and think about each person that made them was so special! My sister threw the shower for me and bought several white onesies, NB and 0-3month size, and got fabric paint and stencils. Everyone made one and some wrote beautiful messages like "I am loved" with a cute elephant or "rawr" with a dinosaur. My daughter has grown out of the onesies but I am thinking of making them into a quilt so I can preserve them, they are just precious to me.
i'm not a big fan of the silly games, either, but I attended one shower where we played a game where one lady held a stick (broomstick or mop handle) between their legs and had to get it into a toilet paper roll another lady was holding between their legs. HILARIOUS!
At my shower my sister incorporated a neat idea. She video recorded asking questions to my husband and played it back at my shower and had me give what I thought his answers were and then played him answering the questions one by one...it was so fun and memorable that I highly recommend it..I had no idea she had made the recording. the questions were things like name the steps in changing a diaper and how many hours of sleep do you think you will get a night.
Good luck!
You picked my two favorite games. Don't feel the need to do any more games if you don't want to. Love the diaper cake my sister made for me and used it! My sister had people bring something to put in his "time capsule" like a newspaper clipping to show what was going on around the time he was to be born, etc. I received a lot of neat things for that: magazine, front page of the newspaper, Obama pin etc.
She even filled plastic bottles with jelly beans for centerpieces for the tables. I took the bottles home for use later. :) The bottles were inexpensive plastic colored ones at Wal-Mart. She, also, had everyone close to me write a little note to the baby like "your mom has a great sense of humor", I'm your mom's best friend, your mom loves sushi etc. Very cute.
Just a little thing that was done at my baby shower that I appreciated SO much was....Everyone got a raffle ticket for each bundle of diapers brought. The prize was a massage or to our hair dresser something like that but...the diapers helped us out so much and for such a long time. Have fun!
R.
S., I have given many baby showers over the years and the games that are always popular are1. find a baby doll the size of a baby. Dress it and weigh it down a bit get it "offically weighed-- a pedi nurse at Kaier did it " and everyone gets to hold the BABY and guess its weight. The one that is right wins. I also do one where everyone can see the prize and they have to fill out a form with their name and number and what they think the new born will weigh and then we give the prize after the baby's birth. For my daughter in law we had a western theme and had the items in the room as part of the game. We started in the main family room and then moved to another room and had them list the things they had seen and she took home the baby cowboy boots to enjoy and the little saddle as well that I had bought. The next one we are doing will have an island theme so I am coming up with surfboard games.We alwaysask guests to bring a box of pampers and those that do names go in a jar to have one drawn out for a prize, and a story book that they can read to the child.
Have a great time and enjoy visiting ith one another that is the best part of the party!
For a keepsake type of thing, I like the idea of having each guest write down two or three tips for raising the baby. You could give them some nice paper for this and then bind it into a booklet for her to keep. This is an especially good game if this is her first child. The tips don't all have to be really serious. Sometimes a little bit of 'tongue in cheek' humor is a nice addition to this type of thing.
write the baby's name on a spiral notebook, on many pages, and the guests will put what they think each letter means
example
j~~jelly eater
a~~apple cheeks
n~~never stops crying
e~~everything that matters
it turns out really cute, and some people get very poetic, and funny
also, put various names in balloons and at the end let the guests pop them, whoever gets the right name of the baby, wins
and i guess you know all about the toilet paper game right?, guessing the length of mommies tummy with toilet paper squares
its always really funny when someone has like 10 extra squares
One of the sweetest shower activities I've participated in was when guests each took a number (as many numbers from 1 to ??? as there were guests). Then the hostess passed out cards that were blank inside for each guest to write a birthday greeting to the baby for whichever # they got (so if your number was 5, you'd write a "Happy 5th birthday" note, etc.)
And one that I thought was fun and not embarrassing to anyone was a 'clothesline' game where there's a basket of baby clothes and a clothesline and each guest has to try to hang up as many baby clothes as possible for half a minute (or maybe it was a minute, you could choose the time that suits you), while holding a baby doll and carrying on a pretend conversation on the cordless phone wedged between your ear and shoulder.
Have fun!
A few games I have seen are putting different melted candy bars into seperate diapers and the one who got the most right won the prize. also you can do a parent, baby matching celebraty game. List celeb names on one side and baby names on the other and see how many people can get right. Also get different things that are used for a baby ( bulb sucker, clippers, thermometer, etc) put it on a tray and take it to each table for a few seconds and then take it away and have them write as much stuff as they remember on the tray. The one with the most gets the prize. Also you can put M and M's in a jar( maybe boy colors or girl colors) and have everyone guess how many are in the jar. The one to come closest gets the M and M's. Also you can do a word scramble. Write down a few words that are baby related, scramble them and have the guests try to figure out what they are in a certain period of time.
Hope this helps and good luck!!!! And I hope you have fun!!!
Be sure you're girlfriend is not too self-conscious about her belly before doing any of that How Big is Mommy stuff. I carried very small but I know plenty of moms who didn't want to be reminded of how big they were.
I hosted a shower for friend who didn't know the gender of the baby, so we did about a dozen "old wives tales" about figuring it out -- sitting on a spoon or a fork, dangling the ring over the belly in a circle or up and down, etc. I made little betting charts for everyone to keep track, and we all took part in judging how things went. That was our only "game", the rest was just time for the honoree to visit with her friends.
I am NOT a big fan of games so I "forbid" them at my baby shower. Instead, my guests decorated onesies. Markers, puffy paints, etc. will work. I had sizes from 0-3 all the way to 18 months. It was great and I used them for all 3 girls!!! Also, there were cute pieces of "baby paper" for everyone to write down some advice, comments, sayings, etc. I saved them and put them in her baby book.
Easy games....guess how many jelly beans in a baby bottle!
Have FUN!
There were a couple of games that we played at my nieces shower. You can type up baby rhymes and have blanks for people to fill in, you can scramble words on each of these you would set a time limit and see how many answers they can get right. Another game is you can buy some baby items put them on a tray/platter and walk around the room and then put it in another room and once you have left the room then they can try and write down how many items they can remember.
Here is a website with a bunch of baby shower games:
http://www.babyshower101.com/baby_shower_games.html
Good luck choosing your games and I hope the shower goes well!
The baby picture game is fun and also gets those who don't know each other talking. You ask everyone ahead of time to bring a baby picture of themselves and then everyone has to go around and match the pictures with the guests. Also, the gift bingo was fun. You can look on the registry for things that have been purchased to help make the bingo cards.
The game that was the biggest hit at my shower (great for first time mom's or ones who have not had a baby in a long time) was a mom and dad quiz. You put together a list of questions like, How many diapers will you go through in one day or how old will your baby be when she starts sleeping through the night? How old will your daughter be when she is allowed to date? You can e-mail me and I can forward you the questions that were used. Anyway, you ask the mom and the dad before the shower without the mom knowing that the dad has been asked the questions too. Then the game is that the questions are read aloud and everyone has to guess what the mom and dad said. It's funny to hear the different answers and also allows the new mom to be participate and guess what the dad answered -a fun game.
Have fun with it and good luck!
I am somewhere along with CS's response. However, my only game was a football pot...weight and date. The winner recieved a $50 dollar gift certificate to Pappa's Restaurant. Personally, I think the "poop" candy bar diaper ones are gross. I mean, really?
I still have the "football pot" page in her scrap book....its well worth the fifty bucks....
I like anything to do with nursery rhymes or children's stories, but in general I hate games, too. I absolutely would not have allowed someone to guess how big around I had gotten. There are some cute nursery rhyme games where guests have to finish the nursery rhyme. Games that are too focused on the couple can get kind of boring for the guests, and the games are really to keep a large group occupied. For my friends' shower we had everyone self-address an envelope (we bought her thank-yous to match her invitations) and then we drew from the envelopes at the end to use up the prizes. That is nice because the mom-to-be can still send a "thank you for coming" and it is non-competative.
At my baby shower there were two really fun games. One was "How Big is Mommy's Belly?" You take ribbon, and the guests cut a piece that would go around the mom-to-be's waist. They have to guess at how big they think her belly is. Then, she tries them on to see who is the closest.
Another cute game is to buy little jars of stage 1 baby food. Remove the labels and put a number on each jar. The guests then guess what each baby food is.
Baby Bingo is fun and something that stands the test of time. Another one that would be a cute keepsake is the circumference guess. What you need is a ball of yarn or string. Then everybody at the party takes the ball and cuts off what they think is the circumference of her belly. Once everybody is finished you start at the bellybutton and go around her belly til you reach the belly button again and pinch the yarn at where to cut, remove it and then cut it. Holding tip to tip compare with the other cut strings and whoever is the closes wins the prize or accomplishment. The true sized string can be put in the baby book in cute designs and then she will always know the size of her belly at that time.
