Try by serving petite sized foods that can be ready as soon as a guest walks through the door, no waiting for everyone to arrive before eating. As each guest arrives, ask them to get a plate. Allow people to eat and socialize in the beginning. Set a time to start the next item on the list, whatever it may be presents/games. People can still eat as these activities are going on. Actually guests enjoy this. Keep reminding them as the party goes on to keep eating and to help themselves as needed. Have a host or anyone helping out walk around and offer to get drinks or more food. You could even let them walk around with an assorted tray of food. Sometimes people feel emmbaraced if they keep getting out of their seat.
Every baby shower needs games but keep them to a minimum. Two or three good games are better than four or five. No one wants to sit and play games for an hour. There are so many different games available, just try to mix it up. Maybe, one or two quick paper games like a word search, word scramble, a maze or scratch off card. Then one continuous game like the clothespin or dirty diaper pin game. Finally, maybe one fun game like the ¡°sweet mess¡± game where you smell the ¡°stuff¡± in the diaper and guess what it is or baby food tasting. This way everyone gets a giggle out of the games but aren¡¯t overwhelmed at the time it takes up.
Since opening presents sometimes becomes a little tedious, try a game that interacts with the opening of gifts. Try setting a timer randomly and when the timer goes off, the persons¡¯ present that is being opened at that moment gets a prize. There is also gift bingo where you mark off your sheet as the guest of honor unwraps gifts. Another really cool game is ¡°my water broke¡± where there are little babies in the ice cube and the first one ¡°to give birth¡±-when your baby is completely free from the ice cube-wins This way you can take a moment give the rightful guest a prize then continue with presents.
I prefer to save the cake for last. That way everyone is there, people can begin to leave as they wish. Same as in the beginning of the shower. If the present opening seems to be taking too long, you could stop for a cake break and then resume opening presents. That way the people that want to leave a little early won¡¯t miss out on cake. Don¡¯t forget the favor as the guest leave. This is very important. With such a cute and more practical array of baby shower favors, everyone looks forward to seeing their thank you gift.