Printable baby shower games are sheets you print before the party and hand out on the day: a word search, a bingo card, a prediction card, a short quiz. They need no equipment, no explaining twice, and no one has to stand up in front of anybody.
That last point is the whole reason they work. A baby shower is usually a room of people who do not all know each other — the mother's friends, her colleagues, her mother, her partner's aunt. A sheet of paper and a pencil gives everyone something to do while that room warms up.
Two or three games, not eight
The most common planning mistake is treating the shower as a schedule of activities. Eight games in three hours leaves no time for the thing guests actually came for, which is talking to each other and to the mother.
The shape that works across almost any shower:
- One quiet game on arrival. A word search or emoji game on each seat. Guests arrive over forty minutes; this covers the gap and gives early arrivals something to do that is not standing awkwardly.
- One group game after food. Bingo during the gifts, or a quiz. This is the high-energy point of the afternoon and there should only be one.
- One keepsake card, circulating all day. Predictions, wishes, advice. Not a game at all — it is the thing the parents keep, and it works best left on a table with pens rather than announced.
Three sheets, roughly forty-five minutes of the party. Everything else is conversation.
The running order
- Arrival, 30-45 minutes. Quiet game on the seats, keepsake cards on a side table. No announcements.
- Food. No games at all. People eating cannot hold a pencil, and interrupting food is how a shower starts running late.
- The group game, once everyone is seated and fed. Explain the rules and the prize before starting, in under thirty seconds.
- Gifts, with bingo running alongside if you are using it. This is what bingo is for — gift-opening is the longest passive stretch of the day.
- Cake, and the keepsake cards collected in. Ask once, at the end, rather than chasing people.
The games worth leaving out
Some traditional baby shower games are widely disliked, and the person most likely to be uncomfortable is usually the guest of honour. Worth deciding against these deliberately rather than including them by default:
Measuring the bump. Guests cut a length of string to guess the mother's waist. It is an entire game about the size of a pregnant woman's body, played in front of her.
Melted chocolate in a nappy. Guests identify chocolate bars smeared in clean nappies. Reliably one or two guests will not touch it, and it tends to be served near food.
Anything involving a timed race with a doll, which puts older or less mobile guests in an awkward position for a laugh.
Anything about labour and birth. Quizzes and horror stories are not neutral for a first-time mother, and there is often someone in the room who has had a hard time of it.
A quiet rule that avoids most of this: ask the mother which games she would rather not have before planning. She will have an opinion, and she will almost never volunteer it unprompted.
Prizes and practicalities
Small and quick. A candle, a bar of decent chocolate, a small plant, a bag of coffee. One prize per game is enough, and a tie is solved by a coin rather than a tiebreak round.
Three details that cause problems at real showers:
Pens, not pencils, and one per person. Guests will not share, and a passed-around pot of four biros stalls a game of twenty people.
Print ten per cent extra of everything. Late arrivals, mistakes, and a guest who brings someone.
Print a test sheet a week early. Margins and font size look different on paper, and this is the only way to find out before the morning.
When guests cannot be there
Most showers now have someone joining from another country, or a grandmother who cannot travel. Printables handle this better than any other part of a party.
Email the keepsake card — predictions, wishes, advice — to anyone who cannot attend, a fortnight ahead, and ask them to send a photograph of it back. Print those and add them to the pile on the day. The parents end up with a complete set, and nobody's absence is a gap in the album.
The same works for a fully virtual shower: send the sheets as a PDF the day before, play the quiet game while people join, and keep the call to an hour.
Making the printables look like one set
The difference between a shower that looks planned and one that looks assembled is usually just consistency: one palette, one typeface, the same small motif on every sheet.
For a gender-neutral shower, warm neutrals — cream, sage, soft beige — carry every theme and photograph well. If the shower has a theme, match the games to the invitation rather than to each other; the invitation is what guests saw first.
Explore more printable celebration inspiration at TheDigitaLegacy on Etsy, including Halloween baby shower invitations, a pumpkin theme and boho autumn designs. If you are still writing the invitations, see baby shower invitation wording.
Frequently asked questions
How many games should a baby shower have?
Two or three. One quiet game on arrival, one group game after food, and one keepsake card left out all day.
What is the easiest game for mixed-age guests?
A word search or gift bingo. Both are played at each guest's own pace and neither requires standing up.
Should every guest get their own sheet?
Yes for individual games, with ten per cent extra printed. Put a pen with each one.
Which baby shower games should I avoid?
Anything measuring the mother's body, anything involving nappies near food, and anything about labour. Ask the guest of honour first.
How long should the games take?
About forty-five minutes across the whole event. The rest of the time belongs to conversation and food.
What do I receive when I buy printable games?
PDF files, downloaded instantly and printed as many times as you need. Nothing physical is shipped.
Every printable baby shower game
This is the main guide in our baby shower printables collection. Each page below covers one game in detail.
- Baby Shower Word Search — for arrivals
- Baby Shower Bingo — during gift opening
- Baby Shower Trivia
- Baby Shower Emoji Game
- Co-Ed Baby Shower Games
- Baby Shower Prediction Cards — the keepsake
- Wishes for Baby Cards