Games for Neutral Baby Shower Themes
There are many reasons you might choose neutral baby shower themes. Mom and Dad don’t know the baby’s gender, or the idea of a totally frilly, princess of a girl or a masculine and macho boy is just too much for mom to handle or this is not mom’s first baby and so the shower is more about pampering her than helping stock up for baby.
What can the hostess do about baby shower games at a neutral themed shower? This is no problem at all. Most baby shower games are not all that gender specific and go equally well with pink or blue.
Games at a neutral shower can function to push more of the focus onto mom or pull it back to the impending arrival of baby. Keeping this in mind here are a few fun and easy games to highlight mom, baby or both!
Baby Bingo
Baby bingo is great, because it can be played so many ways, is easy to prepare and does not take an extraordinary amount of time to enjoy at the shower.
When guests arrive, hand each a piece of paper with a blank grid printed on one side. The grid should have 5 rows and 5 columns so it is a 5×5 block of squares. The center square can be labeled as a ‘free’ space if you wish. To make this paper cuter, you can decorate it with clip art focusing on your theme and print the title ‘baby Bingo’ at the top.
Each player is instructed to fill in the blank squares with something they expect mom to receive as one of the gifts at the shower; tell them to be specific.
Play begins as mom opens her gifts and each player marks off the appropriate squares. This game is especially fun when the host has assigned specific gifts such as basic baby items, onsies, pacifiers, bath time items or blankets as part of the invitation.
Matters of Maternal Pampering
To bring the full spotlight to bear on mom have a complete pampering mom theme right down to no baby gifts at all. Instead shower mom with indulgent treats like bubble bath, lip gloss, chocolates and other fun trinkets.
This can easily be converted into a game of ‘Name that Item’.
This is an ideal game if you have some attendees who don’t usually enjoy participating actively in “cutsie” games. Capitalize on this reality by asking guests to volunteer for the game. Have them sit in the front of the room where others can watch, like a game show.
Give them a list of items such as lotion, baby wipes, chocolate candies, bubble bath, and lip gloss and so on. To play, have each player smell, handle or other wise explore these items one at a time while blindfolded. They then need to guess which items was which.
The player with the most correct answers wins. (Limiting interaction to smell only, generally works best)
Mom and Baby
The baby animals game is a great one to bring mothers and their oven bun into the spotlight together. This game works with nearly all shower themes no matter how neutral and is a snap for the host to prepare.
Simply clip a list of the adult (mother) animal’s name next to a list of baby animal’s names. To play, each player must correctly match mother to baby. For example the mother is a deer while her baby is a fawn. To make this game even more exciting bring dad into the mix; then the answers would be a three way match of doe, fawn and buck or goose, gosling and gander.
Gender Neutral Baby Shower Themes
To help you get started listed here are several baby animal names already matched with their parents (use this as your key):
Animal Family Name Mom Baby Dad
Goose goose gosling gander
Deer doe fawn buck
Chicken hen chick rooster
Lions lioness cub lion
Bovine cow calf bull
Cat queen kitten tom
Pig sow piglet boar
Donkey jenny foal jack
Horse mare foal stallion
Kangaroo flyer joey boomer
Leopard leopardess cub leopard
Llama hembra cria macho
Mallard hen duckling drake
Mouse doe pinkie buck
Mule molly foal john
Peafowl peahen peachick peacock
Rabbit jill bunny jack
Lemur princess infant dictator
Sheep ewe lamb ram
Red Deer hind calf stag
Ant queen larva drone
Swan pen cygnet cob
Tiger tigress cub tiger
Chimpanzee empress infant blackback
Turkey hen poult tom/gobbler
Falcon falcon eyass tiercel
Wolf shewolf whelp dog
This list is by no means complete, and if you find it wanting it can easily be rounded out with a quick Internet search using the keywords male vs. female animal names or animal family names.
To play, simply print off the list without the Animal Family Name and fill in the blanks. One of the best things about this game is that there is so much you can do to modify it to fit your needs. If you only want mom and baby, change the hand out to reflect that, want matching instead of fill in the blank? You can do that too, it is all just a matter of formatting.
Neutral baby shower themes do not have to mean run of the mill and boring. With these unique crowd pleasing games at the ready, you are one step closer to hosting the best baby shower ever!