With any luck there will be heaps of presents to open at your baby shower. A good way to keep the gift-opening entertaining for guests is to create one or two games around the process. Here are a few ideas.
Baby-gift bingo
Make up a set of blank bingo cards so that you have one for each guest. (You can find printable versions online.) Give them out to guests before the presents are opened. Ask them to fill in the squares with the kinds of gifts they think the mom-to-be and dad-to-be will receive.
Make sure they know it's important to be specific. For example, they shouldn't just write "one-piece pjs", but "light blue pyjamas" or "floral onesie". Each square must have a different item in it.
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As each present is opened, if a guest has that particular item in one of their squares, he or she puts an X over it. Whenever a guest has filled a whole row with X's, he or she calls out "baby bingo!" and wins a small prize.
This helps to keep all eyes on the mom-to-be and dad-to-be as they open gifts, as well as being lots of fun.
That's what she said
Without her knowing, ask someone to note down things the mom-to-be says as she's opening her presents. These could be exclamations, such as "Isn't that cute!", "I never thought I'd get so excited over bath toys!" or "That'll come in handy".
After all the presents have been opened, tell everyone there's a little-known fact you'd like to share. It's this: what a pregnant woman says as she's opening baby gifts is identical to what she said when the baby was conceived.
Then read the quotations aloud and enjoy the laughs. (Although, if the dad-to-be is there, he may not be the first to chuckle when he hears "Look how tiny it is!")
The gift of advice
As each guest arrives, ask them to write down their name and a bit of parenting advice for the new mom. If a guest doesn't have children, she or he can share something their own parents did that was helpful.
Later, when the mom-to-be opens her presents, read aloud the advice offered by the person whose gift is being opened.
When the alarm goes
While the presents are being opened, set your phone alarm to go off every 10 minutes. When it rings, the person whose gift is being opened gets a small prize.
If it's a present from more than one person, all the givers could get prizes. Alternatively, you could flip a coin or make them draw straws to decide who wins.
Pick a number
Before opening the presents, count them and ask the mom-to-be to pick a number. Tell her it can be anything between one and the total number of gifts she'll be opening.
If she picks nine, for example, whoever brought the ninth present she opens will be the winner.
Guess who gave it
When the mom-to-be is handed a present to open, don't tell her who it's from. Once she's opened the gift and holds it up for everyone to see, ask guests to shout out who they think it's from. This is just for fun. There's no need to give prizes for the right answers.
Swift-gift opening
This is a good way to allow the mom-to-be to relax, especially if she's uncomfortable or overwhelmed with all the attention.
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It's also ideal if there are loads of presents to open, as guests can speed through them and get back to eating, drinking and socializing. But be warned: not everyone will be happy with this method of gift opening, so be sure to run it past the mom-to-be beforehand.
Distribute the presents so each guest has one. When the mom-to-be gives the command, everyone opens their gift simultaneously. Then each guest takes it in turn to hold up the gift he or she opened and say who it came from.
Alternatively, the mom-to-be can walk around the room and hold up each present herself. She may want to do this anyway so that she can look at everything in detail and enjoy making a fuss over it.
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