Baby Shower Activities and Games

What to do at the baby shower

Baby showers are fun gatherings usually consisting of 4 main activities: socializing, eating, playing games and the best one of all, opening all those baby gifts! Lasting on average 2 to 3 hours, it's always a good idea for the host to outline a schedule of activities ahead of time so that the pace of the party remains steady.

Planning Details

The beginning of the baby shower is a good time for socialization. Most of the guests will want to greet one another and talk with the mother-to-be to find out the details of her pregnancy.

Food is always expected at a baby shower and it need not be elaborate. It's just got to be planned. Finger foods are easiest and guests can eat throughout the shower, with a special time, usually towards the end, devoted to eating the cake.

Baby shower games are fun and there's no end to the game options, either. Practically any game can be revamped to make it appropriate for a baby shower. If the guests are a fun group, plan on playing several different baby games. Just be sure to decide about 3 weeks prior to the shower the games that will be played because the host will have to make sure she has plenty of game pieces and necessary supplies. And she'll need a prize to award the winner of each game, too!

Guessing the circumference of the expectant mother's belly is a traditional game that's played at most baby showers. A simple game involves filling a baby bottle with jelly beans or q-tips and having each guest guess how many the bottle contains. There's also baby Bingo, baby tic-tac-toe, pin the pacifier on the baby, and so many more.

If games don't seem appropriate for the group, for whatever reason, plan a group project instead. When the project is finished, it'll be given to the guest of honor as a way to remind her of this special occasion. Some project ideas include scrapbooking, quilting, making a video documentary, or making something like a hand-painted floor mat or wall hanging that the expectant mother can use in her home. Creating an advice book is easy. Just get a notebook full of blank pages and pass it around to each guest. On a separate page, each guest writes down a bit of parenting advice and signs the page.

If men are invited, plan the baby shower as more of get-together, perhaps an outdoors BBQ. The guys can prepare the food and assemble the baby gifts as they're opened while the women sit back and have fun!

Saving the Best for Last

Opening the baby gifts is definitely the highlight of the baby shower (at least from the mother's point of view). Be sure someone is in charge of writing down a list of gifts and the guest who gave each. Save the bows, too so that when it's all over, the guest of honor can be crowned with a crazy bow hat!