Baby shower ideas and games
A lot of published baby shower games are about the pregnant person’s body, and a lot of people quietly dread them. These are twelve ideas with the honest catch of each — including the ones we would skip, and why.
Ask the guest of honour two questions before you plan anything
How much attention do you want, and is there anything you would rather not do? Almost every baby shower that goes wrong goes wrong because nobody asked. Some people want the party and the games; others want six friends, cake, and no circle of chairs looking at them. Both are a baby shower. Only one of them is the one you are planning.
Twelve ideas, and the catch with each
Roughly ordered from smallest to largest gathering. Every entry has a real drawback, and three of them we would actively steer you away from.
Six people and good cake
No games, no theme, no schedule. Close friends, an afternoon, and something worth eating. It is the version most often described afterwards as the one they actually wanted.
Ask for one practical thing each
A pack of nappies, a frozen meal, an hour of ironing, a lift to an appointment. Spread across fifteen people it is the most useful thing a shower produces, and it costs each of them very little.
One card of advice per guest
Everyone writes one thing they wish they had known, or one thing that helped at three in the morning. Kept in a box, they get read in the weeks when reading anything feels impossible.
Write on the nappies
Guests write a short message on the inside of a nappy, to be found at three in the morning weeks later. It costs nothing, takes two minutes, and is the one game people reliably remember.
Set up the meal rota at the party
A shared calendar for the first three weeks, filled in on the day while everyone is in the same room. It is the single most useful thing to come out of a baby shower and it takes ten minutes.
Baby photos of the guests
Everyone sends a baby photo of themselves beforehand; the game is matching them to the adults in the room. It is about the guests rather than the mother-to-be, which is exactly why it works.
Skip the games about the belly
Guessing the bump measurement with a length of string, guessing the weight, the ones where people comment on someone’s size out loud. They are the most widely published baby shower games and among the most widely disliked.
A letter to the child at eighteen
Guests write to a person who does not exist yet, to be opened in eighteen years. It goes quiet in the room, in a good way, and it is the only part of the afternoon that gets better with time.
Hold it after the birth
A sip-and-see instead of a shower: everyone meets the baby, brings food, stays an hour. It sidesteps the superstition about celebrating early, and it lands when help is actually needed rather than a month before.
Invite the other parent — and everyone else
A mixed gathering rather than a women-only afternoon. It changes the shape of the day, usually towards food and conversation and away from structured games.
One shared album instead of a group chat
At the end everyone has three photos and the parents have none of the good ones. An album everybody can add to — a QR code on the table, no app, no account — collects the afternoon in one place, including the pictures the parents were in and never saw.
How the shared album worksDrop the theme entirely
No colour scheme, no balloon arch, no matching anything. The budget goes on food people actually want and a room with enough chairs. Nobody has ever left a baby shower disappointed by the absence of bunting.
How to plan it
Five steps, in the order that stops the afternoon being about the wrong person.
Ask first
How much attention, and what is off the list. Everything below depends on that answer, and it is the step most often skipped.
Pick the date early
Commonly a few weeks before the due date — late enough to feel close, early enough that travel is still comfortable. Ask what feels right rather than assuming.
Settle the guest list with the parents
Not for you to decide. A surprise shower with the wrong list is the most common way this goes wrong.
Choose two activities, not five
One that involves everyone and one that produces something to keep. An afternoon of scheduled games is exhausting for the person it is about.
Agree who takes over afterwards
The meal rota, the box of letters, the photos. Name a person on the day, or all three quietly evaporate.
The four things that actually go wrong
None of them are about the games. They are the same at almost every shower.
Nobody asked the guest of honour
A surprise shower for someone who did not want one is not a lovely gesture, it is an afternoon they have to perform through while heavily pregnant. Ask. It does not spoil anything worth keeping.
Too long
Two hours is plenty and three is too many, for reasons that have nothing to do with the party. Put a finish time on the invitation so leaving early does not have to be a decision anyone announces.
Everything is about the bump
Games about the body, questions about the birth plan, strangers with opinions. A shower where the pregnant person is the subject of every activity is a long afternoon. Let some of it just be a party with friends.
The help stops at the door
The gifts arrive on the day and the useful part — food, laundry, an hour of company — is needed three weeks later, when everyone has gone quiet. That is what the meal rota is for, and it has to be set up while people are still in the room.
Questions
Commonly a few weeks before the due date, but the honest answer is: when the person it is for wants it. Late enough that it feels close, early enough that travelling and sitting for two hours is still comfortable — and if they would rather do it after the birth, that is a real option, not a compromise.
Traditionally a friend or relative rather than the parents, and traditions differ sharply by country on this point. What matters more than the tradition is that whoever organises it agrees the guest list with the parents rather than deciding it.
The ones about the pregnant person’s body — guessing the bump measurement, guessing the weight, anything that has people commenting on somebody’s size out loud. They are the most published and among the most disliked. Games about the guests work far better than games about the guest of honour.
It is a genuinely held belief in several countries, and if the parents hold it, that settles it — a gathering after the birth is a real alternative rather than a consolation prize. It also has a practical advantage: it lands when help is actually needed.
Agree one place before the day and mention it during. A shared album with a QR code on the table works because nobody has to install anything or make an account. And check first that the parents want photos of the day shared at all — that decision is theirs, not the guests’.
Ideas for other occasions
- Company Christmas party ideasFor teams
- Hen and stag party ideasBefore the wedding
- Kids’ birthday party ideasBy age
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