✍️ Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team · Updated May 2026

Baby's First Year Bingo

Hand every guest a bingo card stacked with first-year milestones — first smile, first tooth, sleeping through the night — and ask them to guess the month each one will land. The card travels home with the parents and gets checked off in real time over the next twelve months. A year later, the closest guesser gets a prize in the mail. It's part baby shower game, part time capsule.

💝 Sentimental
🤝 Low-pressure
📹 Works on Zoom
🍷 Coed-friendly

⏱ Prep: 15 min
👥 Best for: 6–30 guests
🍷 Coed: Yes
📹 Virtual: Works on Zoom

What you'll need

Printed bingo cards — one per guest, 12 to 25 milestones each, printed on 65-lb cardstock from Staples or Office Depot (about $8 for 50 sheets)
Black gel pens or fine-tip Sharpies from Target (12-pack runs around $9)
A small wooden ballot box or galvanized bucket from Hobby Lobby for collecting cards at the end
An optional milestone-tracking app like Huckleberry or Glow Baby — free on the App Store
One mailable prize for year-one: a $25 Target gift card, a Yankee Candle, or a Trader Joe's gift card all travel well

Before the shower (setup)

Build the bingo card a week before the shower. Open Canva or Google Docs and lay out a single page with 12 to 25 first-year milestones down the left side, plus a blank line next to each one for the guest's month guess (1 through 12). The sweet spot is around 16 milestones — fewer than 12 feels skimpy and more than 25 makes the parents miserable to track. Common picks that work well: first smile, first laugh, rolls over, sits up, first tooth, first solid food, first word, sleeps through the night, first plane ride, first daycare day, first steps, first haircut, first cold, first "mama" or "dada," first family vacation. Add the parents' names and a tiny photo at the top so it doesn't feel like a worksheet.
Print one card per guest plus 4 spares on cardstock — regular printer paper feels flimsy, and these cards are meant to last a year on the fridge. Office Depot or Staples will print 50 cards from your PDF for around $15, or you can run them through a home printer if you've got cardstock on hand. Include a small "mailing address" line at the bottom of each card so the parents can find the winner without chasing people down in a year. Skip rare milestones ("first marathon") — they make the game feel like a joke instead of a keepsake.
On the day of the shower, set out the cards and a small cup of pens on a side table near the seating area. Stick the bucket or ballot box right next to it so guests know where the cards go after they're filled. Pull the mom-to-be aside and tell her the tracking system you've picked — a baby tracking app, a Google Doc, a wall calendar — so it doesn't fall on her sleep-deprived brain to invent one later.

Front-door setup for Baby's First Year Bingo — basket of clothespins and a chalkboard rule sign by the entryway — Set up at the front door so the game starts the second guests walk in.

How to play

About halfway through the baby shower — usually after food and gifts but before cake — hand each guest a card and a pen. Say it out loud so even the late arrivals catch it: "Predict the month each milestone happens. Sign your card and drop it in the bucket on your way out. The parents will check things off over the year, and the closest combined guess gets a prize at the baby's first birthday." Most guests finish in 5 to 7 minutes. The math teachers and stat-nerds in the room will take 15 — let them.

While guests fill in their cards, the host's job is to walk around and answer questions. Some guests will ask about the parents' family history ("did mom walk early?") — that's fine, it makes the game more competitive. Others will ask if they can skip milestones they don't want to guess — say yes, missing predictions just don't score. The card has to be signed and have a mailing address or the prize can't be sent later. Remind guests of this once near the end.

Collect cards into the bucket and snap a quick phone photo of the stack before sealing them into a manila envelope. The photo is insurance against the cards getting lost in the first six months of newborn chaos. Hand the envelope to the parents at the end of the shower. A year later, the parents tally each card against what actually happened, pick the closest combined guess, and mail the winner the prize. Most parents text the winner the night of the first birthday — it's a small ritual that closes the loop.

A hand lifting a clothespin off another guest's shirt — the steal moment in Baby's First Year Bingo — The moment of the steal — someone slipped, someone caught it, pin changes hands.

Variations to try

Live first-year tracker. Frame one master card and hang it in the nursery. The parents check off milestones in real time as they happen — it becomes a piece of decor and a conversation starter for grandparents who visit. Pair with [[baby-first-year-bingo]]-style individual cards or run it solo.
Quarterly version. Predict by quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) instead of month. Way easier to win and easier for the parents to track — they don't have to remember exact weeks. Best for shower groups where most guests don't have kids yet and would be lost on monthly milestones.
Zoom version. Email a fillable PDF a day before the virtual baby shower. Guests fill it on their laptop during the call and submit it via a shared Google Form. Take a screenshot of every guest holding their card on camera — it's the closest a Zoom shower gets to a real keepsake.
Photo album version. Each milestone gets a photo space on the card. The parents print and paste a small photo as each one happens. By year-end the card is a full mini-album. Costs more in printing (8x10 cards), but the result lives on a shelf instead of in a drawer.
Pair with [[predict-the-birth-stats]]. Run them back-to-back as a prediction block. One guesses birth-day details, the other guesses the year that follows. Together they take about 15 minutes and feel like a coordinated keepsake set.

Pro tips from hosts who've actually run this

Collect a mailing address on every single card — without one, the prize sits in the parents' closet for three years. Drill this into the room verbally before guests start writing.
Pre-print the most common, trackable milestones. Skip the ones that are vague or rarely happen in year one ("first sentence," "first temper tantrum") — they'll just clutter the card and the parents won't know how to score them.
Recommend Huckleberry as the tracking app. It's free, US-based, and lets the parents tag milestones with one tap. Glow Baby works too. Without an app, the cards quietly die around month four.
Set a calendar reminder on the parents' phones for the baby's first birthday week — "mail the bingo prize." Sleep-deprived new parents forget every promise that isn't on a calendar.
Photograph all the cards before sealing the envelope. If the originals get lost in a move (and many do), the photo is a perfectly fine backup.
If two guests tie at year one, use the baby's actual birth weight or birth length as a tiebreaker pulled from another card. Keeps the resolution clean instead of awkward.
Include a single funny milestone like "first time the dog gives up on the baby" or "first family argument over a baby photo." One light line keeps the card from reading like a parenting workbook.

Common mistakes to avoid

Skipping the mailing address line. You'll have a clean winning card a year later and no way to send the prize. Roughly half of hosts forget this in their card design.
Listing too many milestones. 25-plus and the parents quietly stop tracking by month three. The card stops being fun and starts feeling like homework.
Forgetting to plan how the parents will track milestones. "They'll remember" — no, they won't. Pick the app or doc on shower day and tell them.
Using regular printer paper. The cards bend, smudge, and crinkle after a few months on the fridge. Cardstock or thicker is the only version that survives a year.
Leaving the cards loose in the parents' bag at the end of the shower. They end up scattered between gift wrap and onesies. Seal them in a marked manila envelope or a labeled folder before handing over.

Best prize for this game

Pick something that mails easily and ages well — the prize won't be claimed for a full year. A $25 Target or Trader Joe's gift card is the safest bet (it's still worth $25 in twelve months, unlike a candle or wine that might feel dated). For something nicer, a Yankee Candle three-wick, a Bath & Body Works gift set, or a $30 Amazon gift card all work. Skip anything perishable, fragile, or wine for crowds with non-drinkers. Tell the winner the prize is coming when the baby turns one, so they have something to look forward to.

→ More baby shower prize ideas, by budget

Our verdict

Doubles as a keepsake and a guessing game — the parents check off milestones as they happen, then mail a prize to the closest guesser at year one. Easily the most thoughtful baby shower game on this list.

Baby's First Year Bingo — FAQ

How do I play Baby's First Year Bingo at a baby shower?

Print a card with 12 to 25 first-year milestones per guest. Each guest predicts what month every milestone will happen and signs the card. The parents track milestones over the year using a baby app like Huckleberry, then mail a prize to the closest combined guesser around the baby's first birthday.

How many milestones should the bingo card have?

Sixteen is the sweet spot. Twelve feels too easy and the card looks empty. More than 25 and the parents stop tracking by month three. Pick milestones that are common (first tooth, first steps, sleeps through the night) and skip rare ones.

Who decides the winner and when?

The parents do. Right around the baby's first birthday, they pull out the envelope, compare every card to what actually happened, and add up the difference between guess-month and actual-month for each card. The lowest total wins.

What's the best prize for Baby's First Year Bingo?

A $25 Target or Trader Joe's gift card travels through the mail easily and still feels valuable a year later. Avoid anything perishable, fragile, or hard to wrap. Tell the winner in advance the prize ships at year one — it builds anticipation.

Can Baby's First Year Bingo work on Zoom?

Yes. Email a fillable PDF the day before the call. Guests fill it out live on camera and submit through a Google Form. Snap screenshots of guests holding their card up to the webcam — it doubles as the keepsake photo you'd normally collect in person.

Is Baby's First Year Bingo good for a coed baby shower?

Yes. Dads, brothers, and grandfathers tend to enjoy this one because the predictions feel like sports betting. The trick is to include 2 or 3 milestones men can actually weigh in on confidently — first solid food, first plane ride, first daycare day — instead of leaning entirely on subtle developmental ones.

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About the author

Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team — Party planners, parents & writers. We’re a small team of party planners and parents who’ve hosted — and been guests at — dozens of baby showers. Every game here is sorted by what actually lands in a real room, not by what just looks cute on a Pinterest board.