PULTEVENT
Christening party games: 6 gentle games for a christening or naming day
Half past twelve on a Sunday in May, a village hall across the lane from the church. The christening cake, the top tier of the parents' wedding cake kept in a tin for two years, is on a trestle table under a lace cloth. The baby, in a gown that three generations of the family have now worn, is asleep in her grandmother's arms. Forty guests are holding paper plates of sandwiches and looking for something to do until the speeches.
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A christening party is one of the quietest parties you will ever host, and it should be. There is a baby who needs to nap, great-aunts who came a long way, young cousins in their best clothes, and godparents who have just made promises in front of everyone. Loud games are wrong for it. But two hours of standing around with a cup of tea is long, and the parents often want something that makes the day feel like theirs.
Gentle games on a screen do that. I use PULTEVENT: a laptop connected to the hall's projector or a telly, with guests answering on their own phones after scanning a QR code. There is no app to install and no account to create. Phones need internet, through the hall's Wi-Fi if it has any, or mobile data, which in a village is worth checking in advance.
6 christening party games that suit a quiet room
1 Who does she take after
The baby's photo next to baby photos of her mum and dad at the same age. Guests vote on their phones for which parent she looks more like, then you show the result.
How to run it. Ask both grandmothers for baby photos of the parents. They will have them, and they will enjoy being asked.
It is the question every guest has been asking quietly since the service. Now they can argue about it out loud.
2 The first months quiz
Questions about the baby and the new parents: her birth weight, the time she was born, the first song that stopped her crying, how many hours of sleep her dad had in week three.
How to run it. Write it with the parents, not about them behind their backs. They will want to add a couple of honest ones.
Relatives who have not seen much of the new family catch up on six months of stories in ten minutes.
3 Predictions
Guests vote on the baby's future from their phones: first word, age she will walk, which grandparent she will wrap round her finger first, what she will be when she grows up.
How to run it. Take a photo of each result on screen. The parents can put them in the baby book and check them in a few years.
It makes everyone in the room part of the baby's story, which is roughly the point of the day.
4 Messages from far away
Short video clips from relatives and godparents who could not travel: an uncle in New Zealand, a great-grandmother in a care home, a friend on a ship somewhere.
How to run it. Ask for thirty seconds each, in landscape, and ask them to address the baby by name.
Years from now, the child can watch these. Not many people get a recording of their great-grandmother speaking to them.
5 The baby's first months in order
Milestones on cards: first smile, first bath, first trip to the grandparents, first night through. Guests put them in order on their phones.
How to run it. Keep it short. Six months of a baby's life fits in five cards.
Everyone gets it slightly wrong, which gives the parents a reason to tell the real stories.
6 The welcome screen
As guests come in from the church, the screen shows a slideshow of the baby's first months with her full name and the date of the christening. Confetti on screen when the parents walk in.
How to run it. Pick your favourite photos and let them loop slowly. Keep the sound off near the baby.
It gives guests something to look at and talk about while the kettle boils.
Quiet enough for a sleeping baby
Phones answer silently. The only noise is laughter.
Built around the family
Baby photos of the parents, messages from godparents, the story of the first months.
For church and humanist ceremonies
The same games suit a christening, a baptism or a naming day.
Short blocks
Fifteen minutes here and there, fitted around feeds and the cake.
Working around the baby
The baby runs the timetable, not the host. Plan the games for when she is most likely to be asleep or content, often straight after a feed. Keep each block to fifteen minutes. If she wakes up and wants her mum, stop the game and pick it up later; nobody minds.
Keep the laptop's volume low. The quizzes and the votes happen on phones, so the room stays calm.
The godparents
Godparents, or guideparents at a naming day, often want a role at the party as well as at the ceremony. Give them one. They can read the quiz questions aloud, announce the predictions, or introduce the video messages. It is a small job, and it lets the rest of the room see who they are.
A running order for a two-hour party
Guests arrive from the ceremony to the slideshow and a cup of tea. Food first, because people have been sitting in a cold church for an hour. After twenty minutes, the photo round and the predictions, while the baby naps in the pram in the corner. Then the cake, cut by the parents with the godparents beside them. The first months quiz and the timeline go after the cake. The video messages come last, with a short thank-you from the parents, and guests start drifting home around three.
If the baby has other plans, swap the order. Every part of it works on its own.
Church christening or naming day
A christening after a Sunday service tends to go to a pub, a village hall or someone's home, with older relatives and a few people from the parish. A humanist naming day may be in a garden, a hotel room or a barn, with a celebrant who has just read out the parents' promises. The games work in both. Choose the quieter ones for a church crowd, add a louder round for the barn.
Children at a christening
Cousins and friends' children usually make up a good part of the guest list, and they get bored of sandwiches fast. Give them a job: they can hold the phone for a grandparent, or be in charge of tapping the answers for a table. Older children often take the whole quiz very seriously.
"Nana, it's the blue one."
"I know it's the blue one, darling. I was there."
Setting up in a hall or a pub
Ask about a projector or a telly with an HDMI input when you book. Village halls often have one for the film club or the parish meetings. Check the Wi-Fi and whether mobile signal reaches inside. Phones without a connection cannot join the phone games; the slideshow and video messages still play from the laptop.
Trying before the day
Take the free 3-day demo a few days before, which asks for no card. Load the photos, build the quiz with your partner one evening, and test the slideshow on your own telly. For later birthdays and family gatherings, you can keep it by buying a licence once, with no subscription. Price at pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to plan games for a christening party
- 1
Collect photos of the baby and the parents' own baby photos from the grandparents.
- 2
Ask absent relatives and godparents for short video messages.
- 3
Build the slideshow, quiz, predictions and timeline together with your partner.
- 4
At the venue, connect the laptop and check the Wi-Fi and signal.
- 5
Loop the slideshow as guests arrive from the ceremony.
- 6
Play short rounds around the baby's naps, and finish with the messages before the cake.
FAQ
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See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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