Once again I need some help so I’m turning to our fabulous readers!
I’m hosting a baby shower for a friend and my goal is to make it not lame. I know, I have high aspirations, but “not lame” is really about as much as I can hope!
I hosted a small shower for Jenny when she was pregnant with Sophie, and in an attempt to make it not lame, I came up with the idea (ok I googled it) to have each guest decorate a onesie for Sophie. After the guests got over their confusion and stopped looking at me like I had three heads, they actually got into it and created some pretty designs. However, the iron-on crayons didn’t stand up to the washings that onesies require, so that whole project ended up being lame.
I will also not subject my friend to the string/toilet paper/ribbon game – that is just not right. Very lame.
So give me some ideas! I am open to anything – ideas about games, food, decorations… whatever will make this shower be, say it with me, NOT LAME!
(As an aside, yesterday at King’s Island, Kate was on a ride that she didn’t feel was exciting enough for her adrenaline-loving self, so she yelled “This is so lame!” the entire time. Andy asked me where she got that and I totally played dumb. Pretty sure he didn’t buy it.)
I love the onesies, even though I now have to guess what the design is… 🙂 at a birthday party for Joshua’s friend, the kids decorated aprons with permanent fabric markers….maybe you could look for those? i can find out where she got them.
P.S. the shower was very fun and not lame!
I hosted a baby shower a few years back and some of the games I did were:
– Guess the Baby Food! Peel off the labels and pass them around for the guest to guess what each flavor is by color. Just make sure to number the lids and write down the flavor of each number. Then the mom got the basket of baby food and master list. This worked great for me because I grew up in Babyfood Town USA (Fremont, MI home of Gerbers) so I could lay my hands on lots of flavors
– Guess the Expectant Mother! I found a celeb magazine or pictures of expectant mother celebs and had everyone guess who they were. Also works well with pics of celebs and small kids. Surprisingly Grandma kicked butt on this one…didn’t know she was on top of the celeb gossip:) I attached the pictures to pieces of card stock and passed them around.
– Guess the Baby Product! Like above but with baby prouducts. I blacked out the brand/name and attached to pieces of cardstock and had people guess the name/brand of the product.
So…these might be lame but I was 17 at the time, I tried and it was for my boyfriends sister-in-law. My boyfriend’s mom did the food (don’t remember what) and the decorations…oh wait…there were no decorations.
Well, I was 32 when I was pregnant and I didn’t want any games at my shower. My all-time least favorite shower game: the melted candy bars in diapers game where you have to guess the candy. I just think it’s so tacky.
Anyways, I wanted a party where people enjoyed themselves – not just sit around and stare at me while I open presents… So two very fabulous friends of mine threw me a fabulous not-lame-at-all party with a Mexican theme (I got knocked up on accident in Mexico “s” … What can I say? There was lots of drinking and hammocks and illicit behaviors… and then Bam! Beautiful baby girl!).
But back to the shower…. It was outdoors in my friends beautiful backyard, with many prettty tables set up. There were 42 guests, a delicious buffet of food, and an open bar. Now this was key – just because I couldn’t drink didn’t mena my grown-up friends couldn’t enjoy themselves! It was more like a sophisticated luncheon than a shower, and everyone mingled and talked and laughed – it was great. Good music, excellent food, a bar, and a pretty setting are key.
Now I did sit down & open gifts and everyone watched me, but it didn’t feel like that was the only purpose of them being there. I just hate the showers I go to where I’m sitting there, in an uncomfortable chair situated in a circle around nothing, with the nervous mom-to-be at the head of the circle trying to make sure everyone is having fun (which we’re not), playing lame games and wondering – how old are we, again? Why should witty, fun, adult friends be forced to have a child’s party when it comes to showers?
I hope this isn’t as bi.tch.y as it sounds and that it helps a bit 🙂 – Good luck!
This is exactly how I want my shower to be, thanks for the advice!!!! I also agree about the candy bar in the diaper being EXTREMELY lame.
Sing it sister! That is exactly what I am going for. I just wasn’t sure if we *needed* to have some activities, but I guess when you think about it – how often do you have planned activities at a normal party? It should just be a fun, pretty, heart-warming get together where people feel free to mingle and talk, and don’t have to smell candy bars on diapers. Gross.
I think you should google a diaper cake. They are cute, easy to make, and a great decoration and gift that can be used by the mother.
Other than that, most of the people are there to give gifts to the mother, eat some finger foods, and don’t really care about the games. So don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
If you really want to have a game, suggest that each guest bring a baby picture of themselves and then have a “Guess Who” game, where you have to guess which baby is who.
i have done a game where everyone decorates cupcakes… i got little plastic naked babies and all kinds of sprinkles and icing… and the mommy picks her favorite.
i have also used baby toys as decorations and the mom gets to keep them..
I went to a shower where the host sent t-shirts and onesies out with the invite and asked you to decorate it and bring it to the shower unwrapped. At the shower she had them hung up on a clothes line for everybody to see. That way people had time to think of what they wanted to do, shop, and put it together.
I happened to take pics of each and threw them up on a website because some of the ladies weren’t very pc savvy so I figured it would be easier to send them a link so they could look at all the t-shirts.
http://www.freewebs.com/herezkeegan/
I went to a baby shower last year where the hostess set up a scrapbook table and had a digital camera set up to a printer. Each guest had her picture taken with the mom to be and made a simple but meaningful page for the new baby’s scrapbook. It was fun, even for me, the non scrapbooker!
oh, and of course, there was tons of food. Feed people, and they’ll be happy!
Baby Shower Bingo is nice for the fact that people have something else to do while mom-to-be is opening presents. You give out an empty Bingo board and then the guests fill in one baby item that they think the mom-to-be might get in each square. Then use M&M’s or something for bingo chips. You probably have to have several prizes for this one, if you do prizes, so the game can last through all the gift giving. And you might want to make a rule that they can’t put down what they brought in the boxes.
Another one I personally love is where you freeze the little plastic naked babies in an ice cube and then give the guests a baby washcloth to use to try to be the first one to get the baby out. I don’t know why I love it, I guess I just think the little plastic naked babies are cute. Make a rule that people can’t put the ice cubes in their mouths or sit on them or put them in their cleavage. (all of those happened and the game was over very fast)
The last shower I had I split people up into teams and gave them several baby magazines. Each team had to make a picture of what mom-to-be’s baby will look like. If everyone knows each other in the group, it is fun cause people get a little silly. Then the mom-to-be chooses the winner. (Also need several prizes for this game, if you do prizes.)
Sorry no advice, but I’m keeping an eye on this since I will be throwing a baby shower in less than 3 weeks! Yikes!
We played lots of games at my baby shower. My two favorite one were:
Pin the pacifier on the baby’s mouth ( obviously like pin the tail on the donkey, except draw a babys mouth on poster board, and make huge pacifiers..) The next one was, guess what’s in the diaper. ( Get all different kinds of candy, at least 5, melt them and pour gooey-ness in diaper. Pass diapers around circle of people and they guess what kind of candy it is. Whoever gets the most correct, they win. this was so much fun!) Good luck!
okay, no offense but I was TOTALLY going to say DON”T do the Guess What’s In The Diaper thing. It is gross. especially to people without kids. It may not smell like poop, but the whole idea of sniffing a diaper that looks like poop… no thanks.
I like the idea of the celebrity moms… maybe show the moms and their kids, then say, can you guess the baby’s name?
Or maybe celebrity moms/kids grown up. Like show a picture of Kate Hudson and ask, who’s her mommy? Or show a picture of Emilio Estevez and ask, who’s his daddy?
Or, if your crowd is religious, you could do Who’s in the family tree from the Bible, Like who is the son of Abraham and Sarah?
One thing I did at a shower once that I really liked, was the mom had index cards and each shower guest wrote a bit of advice for the expectant mom and then later she read them all in front of the group.
Another idea, is, get very cute little note cards and have each guest write a note to the baby. Like, “Dear Abby, your mommy and me met when we were 6 years old. I hope you have a friend as wonderful as your mommy has been to me. Love, Gina”
Hope those ideas help!
For my shower for my firstborn my guests did the onesie decorating and loved it – they used puffy paint, and I still use those onesies after 2 kids worth of washing – they are fine! They could write or draw with them or use stencils (that my sister printed offline and laminated). Just an idea if you still like that activity.
I went to a shower one time where everyone was to bring a baby picture of themselves. They were randomly posted/assigned a number. Then everyone had to determine which guest went with which baby picture. It was fun, because my mom had a black and white photo of me from when I was about 2, and I used it. Not many people got it right, assuming it was an older guest.
We have played the Baby Shower Bingo before. Easy, keeps guests in tune when the gifts are being opened.
We have done book themed showers (you can google some prose for the invite) where everyone brings their favorite book for the baby to be and signs it instead of a card. Great way to build a collection of books for the baby.
I have been asked at the start of the shower to share my number one new mom tip (and this was fun to hear from those women that weren’t yet moms). They were read periodically through out the shower and everyone voted on their favorite and the winners got a prize.
I have been to letter themed and time themed showers. You are assigned a letter of the alphabet and your gift should fit that letter – there are some creative people out there to make gifts fit letters you wouldn’t count on. Or, you are given a time of day – morning, noon, night or more specifically, 12 am, 3 am, 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm – and your gift is supposed to be something that the new mom/baby would use at that time of the day.
Some of these are set up with the invite, I don’t recall if you said you had already sent invites or not. Hope these ideas help.
Baby Shower Bingo is a staple at our showers. You can find the blank board online (for a price) of just make your own. I always write an “idea bank” down the side to give older guests or people without kids ideas to write on their boards. Otherwise, the game is off to a slow start.
The baby picture game was a HUGE hit at the last shower I went to. Remind people to bring a picture in the invitation and tell them to put it in an envelope (we forgot this part and had a lot of people showing each other their pictures before the game started). Assign someone the task of taping the pictures to a poster board after everyone has arrived. Hang it on a wall and let people fill in the board while everyone is mingling. It is good because it gives shy people a chance to become engaged in an activity and also gives people as much time as they want to fill it in. This game got a lot of laughs!
Have fun! Don’t do the one where you rip the toilet paper to match the waistline of the mother-to-be!
For my shower, a lot of people didn’t really know one another at all so my mom made grids with different things in them like: “owns a horse,” “doesn’t drink caffine,” etc and the guests went around and filled in the boxes with other guests name’s. It was a great ice breaker and people didn’t want to stop chatting.
I also thought it would be fun to have all the refreshments be items I had craved during pregnancy but that required too much co-ordination at the time.
We did the decorate the onsie thing but my hostess used fabric paint instead of crayons. They held up through my son and are now being used by my daughter.
I am planning a baby shower for my sister in law. Since this will be her fourth child, we have done the baby bingo, guess whats in the diaper, etc. Because we are a family that likes a good laugh and a good challenge, we decided that we are going to play minute to win it games. There are several to pick from and they are really funny to watch lol.
I’ll apologize in advance for the long post below! I’ve been to waaaay to many showers in the past year and also am in super baby mode!
I went to a babyshower a while back which was quite different from any other babyshower I’ve been to. Most of “the games” were set up like stations around the house/area of the party. So throughout the party, people could walk around, participate in whatever games they wanted to, mingle with guests and snack on foods, all at the same time. It took the pressure off the mother-to-be (people not staring at her the whole time) and everyone wasn’t stuck in the same seat/room forever. Towards the end of the party, they gathered everyone in the main room and read out the answers to each station (opening gifts followed).
As part of the stations, one game was a questionaire. The game was a little confusing to some people, but eventually everyone figured it out. Here’s how it worked: Overall the game is about the guests guessing what the mom-to-be and the dad-to-be would say if they were asked questions about the baby.. For example, Who’s nose will mom think baby will have?… . The options are : it will look like mommy’s, look like daddy”s or both (for all questions). They had this all laid out in an excel format sheet, but to make this less confusing, you could have two sides to the paper, on one side you have “what mommy thinks….” and the questions would be like… who’s eyes will baby have, who’s personality, etc… on the other side have “what daddy thinks”… with the same questions. It’s a nice way to incorporate daddy, whether he is there or not (you’d have to get the answers from him ahead of time if he’s not there), and it’s actually funny to hear what both of them think.
Another station was the baby picture guessing game, as people have described in other comments.
One station had cut out stars where guests could write “wishes for the baby”, then the wishes were placed in a jar. You could have the cut-outs match your babyshower theme or the babyroom theme. I forget what they were doing with the stars afterwards…maybe making a mobile, hanging them in the room off the ceiling or sticking them on the wall… or placing them in a scrapbook… but it was cute because people wrote actual messages for the baby…something one day as a child he/she can read and cherish.
Another station had a list of baby items/products and you had to guess the price. You could have the items sitting there if you want, or just type them out on paper so guests can just pick up the sheet and fill it out wherever/whenever they like. Having it be mutiple choice is a good idea.
One thing about the “stations”, if you have a lot of guests, this can take a while, because people will take their sweet time going to each station, and will be distracted by food and talking with other guests. So important things to note/share with the guests before you start, is 1) give a time limit-an actual time will help and 2) when times up, if people aren’t finished with each station…it’s ok! They can try to finish up as you are reading off answers to other games, or they just don’t participate in that particular game. 3) don’t have too many stations where it requires you to read off answers at the end… people will get tired. Also don’t have all your games be “fill out the paper/mult choice” format… Having some craft like decorating bibs/onesies, scrapbook page, wishes for baby, etc., will give the overall “party vibe” more dimension AKA… Not Lame!
I think the type of games you choose should also reflect the population of your guests… The old babyshower games: smell the diaper, draw what the baby may look like on a paper plate on your head, measure mommy-to-be with string, etc… I have to say are more tolerable if the guests are more family members and the grandparents friends (older guests). They like the old …what I call “slap stick” games. Or if there are younger teens/ children there they like those too… So maybe add one or two of these types of games if you have a mix group . Being east indian… we typically have to have two baby showers because one is thrown by the grandparents/siblings and the guests are basically all of the grandparents friends. Lots of older ladies…and the guest size is quite large. Then most people have a separate friends babyshower which is just the mom-to-be’s friends (or co-ed). So there you can try a more modern style shower. If your guests are more friends of the mom-to-be, then I’d try staying away from the older style games!
Back to the shower I went to …During the gift opening they did the bingo gift opening game.
Also, in the invitation they asked guests to bring their favorite childhood book to help create baby’s library… if you do this, I think having them not wrap the book and having a place where they can sign the book/write a message in it would be real sweet (but you’d have to make sure you didn’t have doubles!
Another idea that might be fun is to do a baby poll (guess the height, weight etc.) . This is fun especially if the baby’s sex is going to be a surprise. Then once the baby arrives you can announce the winner/send them a gift … Maybe on a baby website if you have one, or on facebook/twitter.
Hope these ideas are not too lame for you!
Mia
I’ve been scouring the web for days because, of course, I’m a last-minute planner and I was told to come up with non-lame baby shower games. I wish I had found your post from the beginning! Yours is exactly what I needed to read.
Along with a few other ideas I found, I’m ready to get started. Now I can get on to my planning, thanks!
Barb
So… oddly, my name is Emily and I’m trying to help the ladies a t church plan a “not lame” shower for my friend Jenny. I’m on “games” committee, which consists of me and one of the older ladies at church. I suspect she’s there to reign me in.
I’m throwing a baby shower for my sister and she is not big on games
any other nice ideas I need help
I threw a baby shower for my best friend at the time, we played a game called ‘Things in your Purse’. I made a list of items on a sheet, under a point system. Common items like Pen, Tissue, Gum, got 1 point. Some other items like Paper Clip, Something Red, a $1 bill, got 2 points. Harder items like Band Aid, Breath Mints, Reading Glasses, got 5 points. Stranger items like Deodorant, a Rock, Ear Plugs, got 10 points. Then a BONUS 20 points for: Curling Iron, Picture of Mother-To-Be, or Flash Drive for Computer got 20 points!
You can give a small gift to either the person with the most points in the room, or even the one with the most points at each table.
Hand it out in the beginning of the shower, whille people are sitting and before they eat. Its fun for women at each table to laugh and mingle a little, especially if not everyone knows each other very well. And the older ladies dont have to feel silly, the younger ladies can participate and not think it is corny, and Everyone has a good time. They dont have to pay attention or be creative, not too much thought involved, and pretty much every lady will have brought a handbag!