I am hosting a baby shower for my niece, and am looking for some new ideas for games. Tired of the same ones that you play at every shower you go to...ie bingo, guess baby foods, what's on the tray etc. Any ideas would be appreciated.
My friend did a game that included making a grid up of 10 by 5 squares on a piece of paper. Fill in all the squares with some odd thing. (went skinny dipping, fell out of a tree, chased by a bull, etc... Ask the mommy to give you a list of 10 or so odd things SHES done or had happen to her and include them. Try to pick other things that people may actually have had happen to them (ask a couple of the guests for lists of 5 or so each they did and include yours).
Everyone gets a copy. Then THEY have to try to figure out who did what with in a 5 minute time. The trick is, You can only ask each person one question at a time. So If I ask person A did you.... I have to go to person b and ask them a question BEFORE i go back to person A...
I learned my sis in law went skinny dipping this way. :-)
After 5 minutes everyone sits back down and you go thru and ask who do you think did.... See what answers you come up with. Its fun and you learn alot.Then the person who got the most right wins.
AND- take a bunch of safety pins (normal ones not diaper ones) count out 10 or so and mix them in a small bowl with rice. Blindfold people and they have 20 seconds to find as many pins as possible. Its funny how similar metal can feel to rice.
Not long ago, our church had a baby shower for me and we played the funnest game!! It was a baby match game. We matched words like twins, triplets, epidural, mommy's belly after birth, etc. For the person who matched them there was a candy or candy bar prize. The person who matched triplets got a 3 musketeers bar. The person who matched epidural got lifesavers. Contractions was a good and plenty box. Mommy's tummy after birth was a bag of jelly bellies. All the prizes had something to do with the words that were matched and some of them were hilarious!! You can probably find it on the internet. It was lots of fun!
At my baby shower we did a diaper game. Every one was split in to teams of 3 or 4. One person was chosen to be "diapered". They rest of the team then wrapped toilet paper on the person to look like a diaper. When time was up (I think it was like 3 or 4 minutes) I picked the best looking diaper and each person on the team got a prize. Every one seemed to really enjoy it. Have a great shower!
I just threw a shower and this is what we did. I set up a Jepordary board about the mom and the guest had to come up with the answers...there were lots of laughs! Another game I did was match the animal with it's babies name for example, a cow has a calf, or a lion has a cub. You can find the answers online if you need help. We also had to make a baby out of playdoh, however, the person making it was blind folded, then the mom to be got to keep all the playdoh as a gift. The last game I did was just sort of a fun thing. The guest were split into groups for the whole shower and each group had to come up with a question the new mom would have about the baby or how to mother. They would write the question down and then pass it to the next group. The group that recieved the question, can't look at it, but has to come up with an answer. This one got tons of laughs because you would get questions like, how often to I change the diapers and the answer was try burping them and rocking them. The more creative your guests are the funnier the answers get.
My favorite was a book that was passed around for baby advice. Each guest wrights down the tips. I pulled mine out not to long ago to read again.
Amy H
We had a good time playing name that tune with songs that included "baby" or something like it in the title. There was a point awarded for the correct title and a point for the artist who sang it. We used songs from all eras. It's pretty easy to search for and download these songs. All were entertained and challenged! Good luck and God Bless!
Karen,
Here are a couple of things that I just happend to see in an idea notebook I had.
1 use cloth diapers as napkins at the shower, then launder them and give them to the new mom for burp cloths (or diapers if she is using cloth)
2 Buy a package of newborn disposable diapers and at the shower open them up- give everyone a permanant marker and let them write words of encouragement, helpful advice, or their own funny baby story on the diaper itself (the outside of the diaper) and bag them all up when everyone is finished. The idea being that the new mom can only read them one at a time at each diaper change after the baby arrives.
3. Have a frozen casserole shower (if the expectant mother has already had a lot of gifts or if this isn't her first baby and she doesn't need much). Everyone brings a casserole already frozen, with the recipe (bring lots of coolers to store the food until it can be put back into a freezer)
Good luck and have fun
OK, not a game idea, but a nice idea nonetheless.
Urge guests to bring books instead of cards with gifts. Have them write whatever they would have written inside the card on the inside cover of the book. It's a great start to wonderful book collection, and a wonderful keepsake.
we put little tiny plastic babies in ice cubes. the first person to 'break thier water' (ice melts) wins.
If you are having a smaller baby shower this game idea would work. Put some (uncooked rice) in a bowl or I used an ice cream bucket, sprinkle baby powder over the rice and mix. Buy the smallest safety pins you can find, mix with the rice and baby powder. Have your guest blind folded or close their eyes and then time them to see how many safety pins they can get out of the bucket. It seems like it would be really easy but with the added baby powder it makes the rice and pins feel the same. (Make sure when you add the pins that they are all closed).
I did a baby shower for my niece and a couple of games or activities we did was I boughtlittle plastice babies and froze them in a ice cube and you place them in cups and give them to your guests and the first one to have their baby wins you decide what they can do to make it happen quicker. An activity was i bought beads and string and we made a necklace larger bead was a wish for the mother and the smaller bead was a wish for the baby. the mother is to wear this while in labor so that she has all of you with her. hope this helps.
Why not 'no games'!? I think a lot of people feel the same way as you - tired of the same old games - or any games for that matter! My baby showers were beautiful - and not a game was played! But everyone was given a beautiful momento to take away with them. Just a thought.
name the nursery rhyme
dirty diaper game when you take bite size candy bars and rub it in the diaper and you guess what kind of chocholate it is, kinda gross but fun
you probly can get ideas looking online too
If she hasn't had the baby yet you can play the game where you guess how big her belly is either with string or hour many TP squares around.
I hate to be a party pooper, but I agree with "Trese". People seem relieved when they realize they don't have to play the shower games and just get to visit and relax instead. I would rather take pictures of all the guests and make a photo book for the baby. Just my thoughts....Enjoy whatever you do!!
I would avoid anything that might embarrass the mom to be (i.e the darn TP game, its awful). I would also suggest checking with her to see if she wants games. Two that seem to work well are 1) The Price is Right - where guests have to guess the price of the baby items, such as bottles, Tylenol, diapers, bath soap, and mom gets to take all that "little stuff" home with her. 2) AHHHH - in this game you get some object (a baby dolls, rubber ducky, something) and the guests have to pass it every time anyone, including mom, says "ahh" "ohh" "how cute" or something like that and whoever has it as the last present is opened wins. Have fun!
I hosted a shower for my cousin and we put some small plastic babies in an ice cube tray, filled it and froze them. Then, we handed out straws and the guests had to get the baby out. It was really funny some of the things people did. Another idea is bowling with bottles. Just set up 10 and use anything that will roll to knock them down. Give the guests 2-3 chances and whomever gets the most down wins. Then, the mom will have a start on the bottle collection.
The most memorable shower I went to you were handed paper money (with the face of the mom and dad) upon entering the venue. The shower had a MC with a program, and they auctioned gifts like a commercial break, and you could use the money. You can also play team games those do alot better....like have a household object on each table and come up with a wild way to use it in child rearing as a table, sponsering one person from each table as the spokesperson.
Baby showers that i have been to we have done the diaper with the melted chocolate, the toilet paper game where you use toilet paper to estimate the size of the belly, the pins in the rice but the funniest game to watch is with a big bowl full of cotton balls and you blindfold the person whos turn it is .. you but the bowl of cotton balls on there head and you use a spoon and have them lift as many cotton balls into a bowl that is sitting on there lap whoever has the most cottonballs wins.... the funniest thing is that you cant feel the cotton ball on the spoon because its so light and its just funny to watch . maybe even a scavenger hunt that has to do with babies.. it just wouldnt be a baby shower without games... have fun