Throwing a baby shower for someone can be a source of stress. But, if you want to be a good friend or relative, you have to do it, right? You’ve probably had a shower thrown for you… and it’s great to return the favor! I’ve helped in throwing THREE baby showers, so let me impart some of what I learned.
1. The Thank You Card Tip
This is the one I’ve gotten the most compliments about. Buy thank you cards for the mom-to-be and have the guests fill out their addresses on the envelopes when they arrive at the shower. Then, the thank you cards are already bought and everyone’s addresses are filled out and ready to go. No need for the mom-to-be to track down everyone’s addresses when writing her thank you’s… she’s got enough on her plate. Like trying to figure out how to take care of a baby human.
2. Baby Shower Games
Guests (from what I hear) hate games, although I feel like they like the prizes that come with winning… so I do them. At a shower I was just at, I did a “name that tune”. Make a playlist full of songs containing words like “baby”, “child”, “girl” or “boy”. Play a snippet of each song for the guests and then have them… name that tune! One point for the song title and another point if they can guess the artist. And if you’re a pop culture junkie like me, I also like the game where you have to match the celebrity with the correct children. So, in one column you have a list of celebrities and in the other you have a list of baby names and guests have to connect who goes with who. You could also print out photos of the kids of famous parents and then see if the guests can guess who the parents are.
3. Baby Shower Favors
My number one favor idea is chocolate bars from WHCandy. You can personalize them, do full size bars or minis… I love it. You can also order personalized banners on this site to hang up as decoration at your event. I’m also a big fan of mini wine bottles and getting personalized wine bottle labels to go over the ones that come on the bottle. I once helped with a shower where I got four full size bottles of wine and four labels each with one letter so that the four bottles put next to each other spelled out BABY. It was a great decoration and then I gave the bottles of wine away as prizes. Also check out Oriental Trading for inexpensive favors and decorations.
4. Baby Shower Invitations
This is just my opinion, but I think we’ve gotten to the point where we should be able to do invites through a site like Paperless Post when throwing a baby shower. Our Earth is struggling, let’s help her out by not buying paper invites that are just going to get thrown out after the party. And speaking of helping out the Earth – have guests bring a book for the baby (used if possible) in lieu of a card for baby. Babies don’t read cards, but they will eventually read a book. My son brings books to bed. I haven’t yet seen him carrying around a card from Aunt Susan.
5. Random addition
This clever activity was done at a shower that I went to and I loved it so much that I did it for my sister’s shower. Gather a handful or more of baby/childhood photos of the mom-to-be. Then get buttons made out of the photos for your guests to wear around! It’s slightly embarrassing, but really more fun than anything else.
In the end, I like baby showers and I like throwing baby showers. I’ve never really been one to moan and groan about them. It’s food, mimosas, and a little time away from the kids and time with your girlfriends!
Do you have any baby shower tips? Please share them below!
