Baby Shower Game Ideas

“What a Mess!” Race with Baby

You’ll need 1 baby doll for each player, a diaper bag (or something similar) and a paper grocer bag filled with random items (a laundry basket with clothes would work, too), basically the items any new mom would be carrying on a day to day basis that would have her arms full. Create racing lanes for each player to have a race. In each lane drop 5-10 baby objects like bottles, pacifiers, small toys and bibs randomly from start to finish.

Each player will gather at one end of their racing lane holding their baby in one arm, the diaper bag over their shoulder, and the grocery bag or laundry basket in the other arm. The objective of the game is for each player to run down the lane, bend and pick up the objects on the ground, putting them in the diaper bag, all while carrying their “baby” and laundry/groceries. The person who collects all the baby items and get to the end of their lane first wins.

For larger parties you can have teams. The first person runs and picks up one item, runs to the end, then returns to the start. They then pass the baby, the groceries, and the diaper bag to the second team member to run the race and pick up one item, etc, until all the team members have gone. First team to pick up all their items and finish the race wins.

While it may sound easy, every person who has ever had a child knows this not to be the case. Don’t be surprised when you see some women trying to put the baby in the grocery bag! This is against the rules, but it is hillarious to watch the craziness. This game can be a little bit of a workout so make sure your guests are up to the action.

“Poop It!” Game

This one is really yucky but the expressions on your guests’ faces are going to be worth the trouble. Get as many diapers as you have guests. Stain each diaper with a yucky smelling food or any kind of goop that doesn’t smell so great BEFORE you hand them out to your guests. You can even pick the prank poop you get in stores.

Give each guest a diaper, don’t let on it’s already filled with yucky “poop”. Place a bowl of “poop” (left over baby food or pudding) in the center of a table and tell your guests that have to place as much poop in the diaper as they think a baby would do. Get ready with your camera; this is the prank part. When guests undo the diaper to ‘place’ the poop in their “clean” diaper they will already discover something terrible & smelly there and they are going to react as though it’s real baby poop! The guests without a baby are the one’s to really watch out for.

“Scratch This” Scratch Card Game

Draw baby related items like diaper pins, bottles, rattles, bibs, teats, blocks and cradles on 3×5 cards or colored card stock with a dark pen or marker. Make three matching items on as many scratch cards as you want winners, the rest of the cards should have 3 unmatched symbols. Using a silver wax crayon color over the drawings in a thick coating. You should be able to use a coin or fingernail to scratch the crayon color away to reveal the prize symbols below. Make sure to do a test copy before creating them all.

When the guests arrive hand each one a scratch card and ask them to hold them until everyone arrives. Give each guest a coin (a diaper pin works, too!) and ask her to scratch the silver off. The guest who gets the three matching items wins!

Diaper The Baby Boy Game

This is more of a joke on the new mommy-to-be then an actual game, but well worth the photo op if the new mommy is a fun loving and easy going gal.

Draw a large baby boy on a paper and tape it to the wall. Tell everyone that the object of the game is to pin the diaper on the baby boy blindfolded. Everyone thinks this is a spin off on the ‘Pin the tale on the donkey’ game. However, this time round get the mother to be to go first. As soon as she is blindfolded, whip out a bunch of water guns and spray her with water. She’ll be shrieking for mercy before you know it but tell her with baby boys you have to be careful else you get sprayed!

Baby Belly Pillowcase Relay

Get 4-5 pillowcases and stuff them with heavy items so that they weigh a good 15-20 pounds. You can use anything heavy that will fit, heavy books or bags of rice or beans work very well. Divide your guests into groups of 4 each and create racing lanes for them to have a relay. In each lane drop 4 baby objects like bottles, pacifiers and bibs randomly from start to finish.

Each team will gather at one end of their racing lane. Tie a filled pillowcase around the waist of the person who will start for each team. The objective of the game is for each team member to tie the pillowcase around his or her waist, run down the lane and on the way back, bend and pick up one item. When back at the start the first person will then pass the pillowcase to the second team member who will tie it on and run down the racing lane, picking up one item on the way back. All team members must take a turn until all the items have been cleared off the floor. The team that collects all the baby items first wins.

While running with the extra 15 pounds may not be so difficult (especially since the guests wont be worried about hurting the books!), bending is going to be tougher than they imagined. This game can be a little bit of a workout so make sure your guests are up to the extra weight and action.

Don’t Say Baby – Tokens & Taboo Game

Select a word that is considered “Taboo” for the duration of the baby shower. “Baby” is the most widely used, but “pregnancy”, “mommy”, or even “labor” are all possible taboo words. As soon as a guest arrives at the baby shower, tell her what the taboo word(s) are and give her 1-3 “tokens”. The bigger the party the less tokens you need to give. Give a few more tokens per person for smaller groups to help the game be a bit more fun. Safety pins, clothes pins, plastic bracelets, even a small ribbon, anything that can be passed around easily makes a perfect “token”.

If a guest hears another guest using the taboo word, she can take a token from her. The guest with the most number of tokens at the end of the baby shower wins the game.

For a themed shower you can use a “token” that is related to it. So if you are having a Hawaiian baby shower theme, get leis to use as tokens. For a garden theme baby shower you can use flowers as tokens and so on.

This is a great ice breaker game as it gets guests who do not even know each other talking and trying to get token from people they have never met.

Baby Bottle Relay Race

You will need two baby bottles, four buckets, and two teams.

Place two buckets near each other and the other two approximately 6-10 feet in front of them. Divide players into two teams, and then divide each team in half. Place each half of the team at a bucket.

When the relay race begins, a player from each team puts a baby bottle between their legs and runs as fast as they can to the bucket that is 6-10 feet away. When they get to the bucket they must drop the bottle into the bucket without using their hands. If they drop the bottle at anytime they must take the bottle back to the start and try again. If they get the bottle in the bucket, then next player on their team gets the bottle out of the bucket, places it between their legs, and races across to the other bucket. You keep going until all player on one team have finished successfully. Which ever team finishes first are the winners! — Submitted by Jennifer B.

Diaper Changing Relay Race

You will need one baby doll and one diaper for each team, and a table for “changing the baby.”

Break your guests into teams of at least 3 or 4. Bigger parties can have more teams to make the game go faster, smaller parties may need to have less teams.

When the relay race begins, each team will stand on one end of the room. The first person on the team takes the baby doll and runs as fast as they can to the “changing table” on the other side of the room. When they get to the table they must change the baby using the diaper provided. You should have either a cloth diaper and 2 diaper pins, or to make the game easier, a disposable diaper with the reusable straps. To make it a bit more funny you can also add a bottle of baby powder to the game and require each baby’s bottom to be powdered before diapering. Be warned, the chance for a big white mess increases dramatically with this option.

Once they get the baby diapered they must run back to the starting area and pass the baby off to the next teammate. The “baby” must be diapered properly. If the diaper falls off as the player is running back they must go back and re-diaper. The next player on their team takes the baby, runs to the changing table, removes the diaper, and then diapers the baby again the same way. You keep going until all player on one team have finished successfully.

Which ever team finishes first are the winners!

You will be surprised how many people can not diaper a baby with a cloth diaper, and I promise you, one player will, in a frantic rush, diaper the baby’s head (or start to before blushing and stopping herself hoping no one saw her!) If you use disposable make sure to give the left overs to the mommy-to-be, she’ll be needed tons soon, and if you use cloth diapers in the game make sure she takes those, too, since they make great for burp cloths… and we all know she will be needing TONS of those as well.

Baby Belly Girth Guess

Get a spool of thread or ribbon and ask each guest to cut off as much ribbon as they think is required to go around the belly of the mother to be. Some of the guests cut off ribbon that could go around the mother to be twice! Of course the mother to be may be offended if she is sensitive about her weight so tread carefully. The person closest to the actual girth wins.

As a variation you can use toilet paper and have the guests pull off how many sheets around they think mommy’s belly is.

Dress The Baby

This game can be played individually or in teams of 2 or 3 players. Get a toy baby or baby doll for each guest or team of players. Give each group one baby doll, a set of clothes for the baby, a cloth diaper with diaper pins, a bib. The set of clothes should be a complicated piece of baby clothing like a full button down romper and little baby socks. Now each group must dress the baby as fast as possible. However, each guest is only allowed to use one hand.

If your guests are playing the game single it can become very tricky. In groups too you’ll be surprised at how much co-ordination a simple task as this can require! This game is great fun and really gets your guests working together and interacting.

Keepsake “Letter From Me To You”

Get some good quality letter writing paper, envelopes and pens. Give each guest a sheet of paper and ask her to write a letter to the baby to be born. Let each guest talk about her relationship with the mother, her feelings about the baby and what she thinks the baby would love as a 5 year, 10 year and 15 year old birthday gift. It is great fun for the baby to see years later what his or her aunt’s and uncles thought would make great gifts. In all likelihood the gifts will all be passé! Put all the letters in a scrapbook and present as a keepsake to mommy to be.

Baby’s The Word

Give all your guests a pen and a paper. Set a timer for a five-minute limit. Ask the guests to list as many movie names as they can with the word “Baby” in the title. The name can include variations of the word “Baby” like babies or baby’s. The guest who lists the most number of movies wins!

You can also play a variation where you ask your guests to list songs that have the word “Baby” in the chorus. This list is likely to be much longer than the movies list.

In another variation, you can create a set of categories like “Movies titles with the word baby in them”, “Song with the word baby in the chorus”, “Nursery rhymes with the word baby in them” and the like. Give the guests 1 minute per category to list down as many items as they can. The guest with the maximum number of items wins.

Name That Tune

Get a cd (or setup your ipod with them) of baby nursery rhymes, lullubys and popular songs that has only the music or tunes on it, no lyrics. Set up your music player so that all your guests can hear the tunes.

Give each player a sheet of paper and a pen. Play each song for a short period of time and ask the guests to guess which nursery rhyme or song it is and have them write it down on their sheet of paper. The guest who gets the most correct answers wins.

You can also play it as a “shout it out” type game and let your guests just call out the names until someone is correct, then give an extra point if they can “sing a few lines”. Just make sure you have someone keep track of the score.

The Speedy Diaper Game

Get a toy baby doll, some diapers, a stopwatch, and a blindfold. Once all your guests have arrived tell them that the baby needs his midnight diaper change but the lights are out. So you are going to have to diaper the baby in the dark! Let each guest have a go at diapering the baby blindfolded.

The trick is to hand the guest the diaper upside down or inside out so they spend precious time figuring out which side is the right side up. Some of them might not even bother to do that and put on the diaper all wrong! The guests who does it correctly in the fastest time wins. It is great fun to see each guest fumbling in the dark with the baby and the diaper, and a nice photo op, too!

Puffy Paints Keepsake

This activity is loads of fun and can get messy too! Buy lots of plain white baby tees, onesie outfits, rompers, or bibs. Any baby clothing in plain white will do. Get them in small and larger sizes so they can be worn for the first year is a great idea, as well. It is best to get lots of onesies since those are the most used piece of clothing by newborns.

Get different colored puffy paints for the guests and cover a table or floor area with a cloth or sheet so your guests can use the paints without getting things dirty. Ask the guests to get creative and paint tees and onesie outfits for the baby to wear. They can draw or write special sayings or just sign the outfit with love…. let them use their imaginations, or set a theme and have each person use that.

At the end of the baby shower present the mother to be with all the hand painted clothes. This makes a great baby shower activity and is practical too!

Baby Bottle Ring Toss

Get about 12 – 15 inexpensive baby bottles with nipples on them, the tall kind works best. Fill each bottle with water to weigh them down, then place the bottles in rows forming a square. Give each guest 5-10 “rings” and have them stand 5-7 feet from the bottles, the further away the more difficult the game so judge accordingly. You can use any type of ring, “jelly” bracelets you buy at the dollar store work well, but any ring that fits over the bottle easily will work, just make sure they have enough weight to them to be tossed.

Each guest takes a turn tossing the rings at the bottles and trying to get them over the top of the bottle or nipple part. After the player has tossed his rings collect them up and it is the next player’s turn. You can play just 1 turn each, or if you want to make it last longer, let your guests go 2 or 3 turns each. The person who gets the most rings over the most bottles wins.