Baby showers are a joyous occasion and they can be even more fun if you plan some party games for your guests.
Shower games can help break the ice and help your guests feel involved in your baby’s future. Here are a few time-tested baby shower game favorites.
- Don’t say “baby.” Each guest that arrives gets a safety pin and the instruction not to say the word for the duration of the shower. If they slip up, the person who notices can take their safety pin. The person with the most pins at the end of the shower wins.
- Guess the date. Expectant moms are given a due date but only five percent deliver on that exact date. Rather than being the only one to wonder when baby will arrive, get everyone involved. Make a poster board size calendar, which features the weeks before and after the due date. Have everyone guess what date the baby will arrive and write their name on that date. Once the baby is born the person who came closest to the actual date will receive a gift.
- Sprinkle bottle battle. Give each player or team of players a bottle filled with sprinkles and an empty bottle. See how quickly and efficiently the person or team can put the contents of one bottle into the empty bottle. This game can be judged on speed or who winds up with the most sprinkles.
- What a beautiful baby! Ask guests to come with a picture taken of them when they were babies. Place the photos on a wall or large bulletin board with only a number to identify them. Have each guest make a guess on which baby turned into which adult. The person with the most correct answers wins.
- What is this mush? Baby food is meant to be bland, so grown-up palates might find it hard to discriminate between one blend and another. Before guests arrive, empty a few jars of baby food into closed containers without labels. Blindfold the guests, open the jars and give them a spoonful of each variety to sample. Guests must correctly identify what they tasted. The person with the most correct guesses wins. This sounds easier than it is.
- How big is that belly? Give guests some string and scissors and ask them to guestimate the circumference of the expectant mom’s belly, then cut the string to that length. When everyone has cut their string, measure the expectant mom’s circumference and compare it to the guesstimates. Whoever gets closest to the actual size is the winner.
- Pin The Baby On The Mommy. In this variation of Pin The Tail On The Donkey, a photo of the expectant mom can be blown up to poster size or the party planner can draw an outline of a pregnant woman on some poster board. Before the shower, hang the photo or picture on a door or wall. Cut out pictures of babies and give blindfolded guests some adhesive tape. After they are spun around and sent roughly in the right direction, let them try to place that baby image on the photo’s baby bump. The closest try wins.
- Cupcake baby. Bake cupcakes for the party. Top them with a tower of whipped cream. On one of those cupcakes, use the whipped cream to hide a tiny plastic baby doll. Some versions of this game ask you to insert the plastic doll into the batter. While that may heighten the surprise, plastic toys can melt at the temperatures required to bake cupcakes. Hiding them in whipped cream is safer. Before dessert, tell shower guests that the person who gets the cupcake baby will be the next one expecting. It’s the equivalent of throwing the bouquet at the wedding.
Have fun!
Joan Vos MacDonald has written about health and fitness for newspapers, magazines and websites. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the author of two books on health-related topics, "Tobacco and Nicotine Dangers," for young adults, and "High Fit Home," a design book about fitness and architecture. She lives in upstate New York near her children and grandchildren.