Bridal Shower Games
Putting the Fun in the Shower
If you are hosting a shower, why not make the bridal shower games spectacular!
Categories Available
Classic Shower Games
Love Themed Games
From the Kitchen
Wedding Dress-Up Games
Printable Shower Games
The Complete List of Bridal Shower Games
If you just want to browse around at all the bridal shower games available, have I got a list for you! The games are not in any particular order, not even alphabetical. Some are competitive, and some are just activities that make the event that much funner. Pick and choose to meet your needs and make a very special day for the bride-to-be. Go to Bridal Shower Ideas for the complete list.
Why do we have showers?
Many, many years ago ~ so as the tradition runs ~ a beautiful young Dutch maiden gave her heart to the village miller who was so good to the poor and the needy that he himself had but few worldly goods. He gave his bread and his flour free to those who could not pay, and because of his goodness everyone loved him. Everyone but the girl’s father. She must not marry him, he said. She must marry the man he had selected ~ a fat, horrid, wealthy man with a farm and a hundred pigs! ~ or she would lose her dowry.
The miller was sad, and the girl wept on his shoulder. The people who had eaten of the good miller’s bread were sad, too. Couldn’t something be done about it? Couldn’t they give the girl a dowry so that she could marry their kind miller and make him happy? They didn’t have much money, it is true, but each one thought of a gift that he or she could contribute.
And they came to the girl in a gay procession: one with an old Dutch vase; one with some fine blue plates for the kitchen shelf; one with strong linens made on the hand looms at home; one with a great shiny pot. They showered her with gifts and gave her a finer dowry than ever her father could! There was a solemn wedding ceremony and a jolly wedding feast, and even the father came at last to wish them happiness.
A good many years later, an Englishwoman heard of a friend who was about to be married and decided that the only gift she could afford was too slight an expression of her good wishes. Remembering the story of the Dutch ‘shower’ and knowing that there were other friends who felt precisely as she did, she called them together and suggested that they present their gifts all at the same time. The ‘shower’ that they gave was so successful that fashionable society adopted the custom, and it has remained ever since.
Source: Eichler, Lillian. The New Book of Etiquette. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Co., 1924.
~ pp. 82-83 ~
Another tradition is said to have grown out of earlier dowry practices, when a poor woman's family might not have the money to provide a dowry for her, or when a father refused to give his daughter her dowry because he did not approve of the marriage. In such situations, friends of the woman would gather together and bring gifts that would compensate for the dowry and allow her to marry the man of her choice.
My favorite explanation of why we hold showers is that it may have been derived from the custom in Victorian times for the presents to be put inside a parasol, which when opened would "shower" the recipient with gifts.
Themes to Consider
Hungry for more ideas? Check out 5 Unique Ideas from RealSimple.
Not done looking? Here are 100 More Things To Do for the shower.
Comments, Variations and Stories
Do you have a great story about playing a game listed on this site? Are there variations of the game you would like to share? Tell us!
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