Ha

ve the Most Fun Baby Shower, Ever!

Hosting a baby shower can seem easy…until you realize that you have to come up with games to play!

The best games get people laughing and talking with each other. The worst are bogged down in rules that confuse people and make them spend more time trying to figure out what they are supposed to do than actually enjoying themselves.

Party hosts are always nervous about games that just don't get the party started they way they would like. It doesn't have to be so nerve wracking to figure out the best way to entertain your guests. There are a lot of fun games you can play at your baby shower, whether you've invited five people or 50 people.

Icebreakers!

If you've invited a lot of people who don't know each other, then you're probably having nightmares of people just sitting around in silence. Help get people to mingle, talk and meet new people by beginning your party with one of these games.

• Hello, My Name Is…: For this game, you'll want to make name tags for each guest. But, instead of putting the guests' names on them, write down the name of someone famous, living or dead. It could be Nicole Kidman or it could be Shakespeare. When your guests arrive, place these nametags on their back so that they can't see who they are. Your guests then have to go and talk with the others guests, asking them questions about 'who they are.' But they can only ask yes or no questions! The first person to correctly figure out who they are is the winner!
• Ban the Baby!: In this game, your guests will receive some sort of marker or tag that they can easily attach to their clothes. Stickers or clothespins work well. Guests have to refrain from saying the word baby - not an easy thing to do at a baby shower (you can make the rule apply for the whole shower or just for a certain amount of time)! If they do slip up, then another guest can take their marker. The person who has the most markers at the end gets a prize. You'll be surprised at how quickly strangers will grab at each other when a prize is involved! If the majority of your guests are women, then you can change the game to keep the women from crossing their legs (something that most women do without even realizing it) instead of banning the word baby.
• Who is That?: This game can be used as an icebreaker or as an on-going game throughout the party. Ask guests to provide you with a picture of themselves when they were a baby. Stick the pictures with a number beside them onto a poster board and put it somewhere were all the guests can see it. If you have invited a lot of people, you might want to create a couple of posters and post them in different places. Your guests then have to go around to each poster and write down who they think each baby is. If they really want to win at this game, they'll have to make sure they get a good look at every guest.

A Gift And A Game in One!

Here's two great baby shower ideas in one. Buy the hilarious game Who's Having This Baby Anyway? for the mom-to-be and play it at the shower. It's guaranteed to provide hours of laughter, offer interesting pregnancy and labor tips and can get your guests relaxed and involved. After, mom takes the game home where she can play with dad-to-be!

Celebrity Games

Games that involve celebrities are often a good choice because people usually have the same knowledge about them. These games can be played by small groups, where guests can enjoy the game individually, or for large groups, where guests can be divided into groups.

• I Know Who That Is!: For this game, you'll need to get ready in advance of your party. Go through any magazines or newspapers that you have and cut out pictures of famous people. It can be movie stars, athletes, or even political figures. Paste them onto a poster board and have your guests try to name all the famous faces. Try to have at least two poster boards with at least 10 pictures on each. And be sure to keep a master list of who these faces belong to so you know who the winner of the game is!
• Baby Boom: For this game, players will need to list as many names of babies born to celebrities within the last year. If you want to make it really tough, then have the players come up with a famous baby name for each letter of the alphabet. You might also want to set a time limit to make it more fun.
• Baby Boom 2: In this game, you will provide your guests with a list of famous moms. Players will then have to come up with the name of the celebrity baby. You could also provide the names of the baby, so that players just have to link the two.
• TV Babies: Give each of your guests (or each group) a piece of paper with a list of television shows on them. You can use both current and older shows to get everyone's brain thinking. For each show, players have to name the children on the show (their character's name, not their real names). For example, if you had "The Brady Bunch," the answer would be Cindy, Jan, Marsha, Bobby, Peter, and Greg.

Gift Giving Games:

If you want to liven things up a bit when it comes time for the mom-to-be to open her gifts, here are some games that will have guests anxious for her to get to the next gift.

• Bottles, Booties, BINGO!: This is a fun version of bingo that your guests play while the future mom is opening up her presents. Just before she starts opening the gifts, hand out blank bingo cards to your guests. In each square, have your guests write down one present that they think the guest of honor will be receiving. You can make a free square in the middle, if you like. As the gifts are opened, guests cross out each correct answer they put down. They first one to get a line, wins!
• Timed Gift: If the bingo game seems like too much work, then here is a simpler game to play while the presents are opened. All you need for this is a timer and some cheap prizes. Let your guests know that you will set the timer for a certain amount of time (say, every two minutes if you have a small gathering; five minutes if it's a bigger group). When the timer goes off, whomever's present the mom-to-be is opening wins a prize. Keep resetting the timer until all the presents are opened.

Child's Play

Here are some other games that are fun to play.

• Pin-the-Diaper-on-the-Baby: No, this is not some strange form of child cruelty. It is basically Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, except you will need a large picture or cut-out of a baby and a few cut-out diapers. Or, you could use real diapers to make it more fun. Blindfold your guests (one at a time), spin them around a few times, and then let them try to get that diaper on the baby.
• What Brand Is It?: Test just how product-savvy your guests are with this game. Clip out some advertisements of different well-known brand products. Cover up the logo of the product and then paste the advertisements on to a poster board. Your guests then have to figure out what brand each product is just by looking at the container. The player with the most correct answers wins!
• Muffets and Mice: Before the baby shower, try to think of as many nursery rhymes as you can. Then, write out a line from each nursery rhyme. At the shower, hand out the list of lines from the nursery rhymes and see if your guests can come up with the matching title for each line.
• How Long are they Pregnant?: This one will involve some research but it shouldn't be too hard to find the information. Come up with a list of animals that you can give to your guests. Your guests then have to guess how long each animal is pregnant for. You can make them randomly guess or you can make it a multiple-choice quiz. The mom-to-be might not feel so bad about her pregnancy (average length, about 270 days) when she learns that an elephant is pregnant for 640 days!

After you've decided which games to play, buy some baby-themed prizes and let the good times roll!

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Visit the forum to find out which games other women enjoyed playing at their baby shower