Coed Baby Shower Games Everyone Will Actually Play

The short version At a coed shower, the games that land are team games and hands-on stations, with nothing that puts one guest on the spot. Pick four or five from the list below, start the passive ones at the door, and play the group ones in a single ten to thirty minute block.

When the guest list includes partners, dads, brothers and friends who have never been to a baby shower, the old format (a circle of chairs, a quiz about the mom-to-be) loses the room. The games below come from what hosts and parents say worked at their own coed showers, written out with rules you can follow.

Pick your games with this chooser

Use the table to pick a mix. “Passive” means guests play on their own time; “group” means everyone stops for it.

How to run games at a coed shower

A few choices up front decide whether the games feel easy or forced.

1. Pick four or five games, not a full program Choose one or two passive games that run all afternoon and two or three short group games. That fills a two to three hour party without a schedule anyone has to follow.
2. Start the passive games at the door Put the sign-up sheets, the guessing jar and the onesie table near the entrance so people can join as they arrive. Late guests can still play.
3. Mix the teams on purpose Count off around the room so her friends, his friends and the relatives end up together. Team games are where people who have never met start talking.
4. Run the group games in one block Call everyone in once, play two or three games back to back, then let people go back to eating. Keep each game to about ten minutes.
5. Make sitting out easy Never pull a reluctant guest into the middle of the room. Anyone who wants to watch can keep score or judge.
6. Have small prizes ready Wrap prizes before the party and hand them out right after each game, while people still care who won.

Team games for the whole room

These are the ones to play in your group block. Each needs teams of three to six.

Baby food label guessing

Peel or cover the labels on eight to ten jars of baby food and number them. Teams look, smell and (if they want) taste, then write down the flavor for each number. Most correct answers wins. One host on r/BabyBumps described a version where a blindfolded player fed a teammate through a cardboard face cutout, which is messier and louder.

Price guessing from real receipts

The host (or the parents) pulls ten baby items from their own receipts or order history: a pack of diapers, a car seat, wipes, a bottle set. Read each item aloud or list them on a sheet, and teams write their guess. Closest total wins, or score each item and add up. Using your own receipts keeps the numbers real for where you live and shop.

Diaper changing race

Two dolls, two packs of diapers, a stack of wipes. Pairs race to take off the old diaper, wipe and put on a fresh one, tabs closed. For a harder round, blindfold the person changing and let the partner give directions.

Team baby trivia

Write fifteen questions about babies in general (how many diapers a newborn goes through in a day is a classic) or about the parents (where they met, what they named their first pet). Teams answer on paper and swap sheets to mark. Keep the questions friendly; nobody wants a quiz that only one side of the room can answer.

Balloon belly sock race

Each player blows up a balloon and puts it under their shirt. On “go,” they take off their shoes, swap their socks for a new pair and put their shoes back on. First one done wins. A round takes a couple of minutes, and watching people try to reach their feet is half the fun.

Quiet games guests play on their own

Set these up on side tables so people can drift over between conversations.

Don’t say “baby”

Every guest gets a clothespin at the door. If someone hears another guest say “baby,” they take that person’s clothespin. Whoever holds the most at the end wins. It runs for the whole party with no one in charge.

Diaper pong

Lay out a pyramid of open diapers and give players ping pong balls. Smaller diaper sizes in the back can be worth more points. Kids and competitive adults will keep coming back to it.

Guess the belly

Guests cut a length of ribbon or string they think will fit around the mom-to-be’s belly and tag it with their name. Measure at the end; closest wins. Skip this one if she would rather not be measured in front of everyone.

Hidden sock hunt

Before guests arrive, hide twenty to thirty pairs of baby socks around the room. Whoever finds the most by gift time wins, and the parents keep the socks.

Baby predictions

Hand out a card where guests guess the birth date, weight, hair color, who the baby will look like and the first word. The parents open them after the birth. Our free baby shower games printable includes a predictions card, plus bingo cards guests can fill in while gifts are opened.

Games that work on a sheet of paper

These two run at tables, in pairs, or as a short group game.

Who’s more likely

A few weeks before the party, ask both parents the same set of questions on their own: who will do the 3 a.m. feeding, who will cry first at day care drop-off, who will be stricter. Guests guess which parent answered which way. Read the answers aloud at the end.

Dad joke punchlines

Print a page of dad joke setups with the punchlines missing. Couples or pairs fill them in, and the parents read the best (or worst) answers aloud. Give a prize for the closest to the real punchline and another for the funniest wrong one.

The onesie decorating table

A decorating table came up in nearly every coed shower thread we read, and more than one host said the men got the most into it. Buy plain white bodysuits in a few sizes, put out fabric markers and a stack of paper or cardboard to slide inside so the ink does not bleed through, and let people make whatever they want. The parents leave with clothes the baby will wear.

What people actually say

On r/BabyBumps, a parent asking for coed shower activities got lists from people who had been to several. Measuring the mom’s belly, baby food guessing, block and onesie decorating and advice sheets all came up. One commenter said a price-guessing game in the style of The Price Is Right started strategy talk at every table, and another mentioned that dad jokes went over well.

In a coed games thread on r/beyondthebump, one parent said “Don’t say baby” was a hit because people can play casually all party, and that her brother and dad kept trying to trick each other. Another described diaper pong, with dollar store diapers and smaller sizes worth more points, as popular with kids and the men.

A host in an older coed ideas thread said the people who got most into onesie decorating were the guys. In the same thread, a parent called the balloon-belly sock change her favorite, saying everyone was laughing. Another reply suggested sticking with backyard games like cornhole and ladderball.

From a thread on coed shower experiences: one host hid a couple dozen baby socks around the apartment and gave a prize to whoever found the most, which she called passive and very fun. Another shower had guests guess which parent gave which answer to questions asked in advance. Team relays worked for a bigger group, with a separate craft corner for kids. In a thread on engaging coed games, a mom said she chose games guests could play at their own pace so nobody felt obligated, including a jar to guess and a station for writing notes on diapers.

Plenty of people in these threads also said their favorite coed showers had few games or none, with food and time to talk. If your crowd leans that way, set up the onesie table and the predictions cards and leave it there.

Where to go next

If the shower is for a couple who are also planning a wedding, our bridal shower games guide has rules for that party too. For a printable game you can hand out at the door, see baby shower bingo and our printable baby shower games.