Games That Are Gifts, Too!

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.

Get a baby bathtub and fill it with water. Place a dozen or so pacifiers in the water. The guests have to retrieve as many pacifiers as possible using their mouths with their hands behind their backs in a given amount of time. Generally 1 minute is good enough to create competition. Two minutes may make it far too easy. The guest who retrieves the most pacifiers wins!

To make the game tougher or yuckier, replace water with a food like applesauce or pudding. You could even make lemonade or some nice drink and bob the pacifiers in that. Your guests might actually enjoy all the dunking they have to do.

Buy “Thank you” cards for mommy-to-be to use after the baby shower. Set up a small table or area where you can place the stack of “postage paid” envelopes from the cards. Supply some pens and a large bowl or bucket as well. As each guests arrive have them put their name and address on one of the stamped envelopes and place it in the bowl.

During the event (or at the end) mix up all the envelopes in the bowl and pull a winner for a door prize.

After the party present the guest-of-honor with the thank you cards and the stamped, addressed envelopes. This is a great way to have a door prize raffle that also give a gift that is much more appreciated than you would think.

Note: You can place stamps on the envelopes after the raffle in case a guest messes up while writing you won’t lose the stamp. Just make sure to place the stamps on the envelopes before presenting them to the mother-to-be as a gift.

For this you will need to get buy or create a keepsake box. It could be a wooden box, a good-sized photo box, a large can (like the empty paint cans they sell in stores), or any other container that will hold a good amount of items. Just remember, whatever you choose will need to withstand the rigors of time, so don’t make it something that will fall apart easily.

Decorate the container for the baby, adding the baby’s name (if known), maybe the year, anything that will mark that this is for him or her. You could even add photos of the family on the outside, wrap with ribbon, use paints or markers. Get creative!

With the invitations to the baby shower, ask each guest to bring something for the baby’s time capsule. It could be a photograph with the mother to be, a letter to the baby, a relevant clipping from a newspaper or anything else that they want to share. You can even ask each guest to write a short note to go with the item telling why the item they added is important or noteworthy to them, this way when the capsule is opened years later the child will understand the thoughts that went into the item.

At the baby shower ask each guest to show their contribution, speak about it and wish the mother and baby lots of joy and happiness. Place all the items in the time capsule and present it to the mother to be with instructions that it is not to be opened until a certain date in the future with the child. You can even instruct the mom to keep the capsule sealed until the baby is 16 or 18 and then presenting it to them as a gift on their birthday, that would really bring this activity full circle.

Keep a pack of tissues on hand. We can guarantee you will need them!

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!

This game is a little expensive to play since you need to buy multiple packs of diapers, but can also be a great “donation” to the mom-to-be to take them home to use after the game so it’s a nice addition to the event.

Directions

You will need lots of disposable diapers for this game, but if make sure your guests aren’t too crazy with them while playing the mommy-to-be can use them after the shower (she’ll need tons soon so she will appreciate it).

Give each player a large amount of diapers and a table to work on. Set a timer for 3 minutes and have your guests stack the diapers as high as they can in the time allowed without the stack falling over. If their tower of diapers falls and they have enough time they can keep trying to stack. The tallest diaper tower standing at the end of the time wins. We’ve measured tallest in the number of diapers stacked so there is no need for a ruler, but it can also be tallest measured with a measuring tape (which could get funny as people try to stack the diapers sideways for more height!).

Tip: For large groups you can have your guests play in teams, or in turns, this will cut down on the diapers you need to buy. Have 5 or 6 people playing at a time, while others cheer them on. Then just write down the highest stacking diapers each turn and the tallest diaper tower after everyone has gone is the winner.

It’s really a simple game idea with a lot of options to get creative. You could add to the rules that each player must top their stack with a bottle, or a binkie, or have players stack other multiple objects in as a requirement (such as: 1 rattle, 1 bib, and 1 pair of baby socks). Any way you play you will have tons of laughs watching these “Tower of Babbles” being built… and more fun watching them fall down!