Baby Shower Ideas

Gifts

–submitted by Wendy Mirbod
Ask guest to e-mail you a special poem, thought, or advice for the newparents. The host takes all of these and puts each on special coloredpaper, rolls them up like scrolls and then puts them in a cute bag, basketor box for the new parents to read at home in private. It is good for the dads that dont always get to be part of the baby shower.

–submitted by Heather Streeter
The best gift I received at my baby shower was a Baby Shower Book where each of the baby shower guests mailed in advance to the hostess a creative page: could include advice, poems, pictures, anything special they wanted to share about becoming a mother…All pages were done creatively and compiled into a special binder and was delivered to me at our shower…the book is such a treasure…it also allowed guests that couldnt come to mail theirs in and share in spirit. The book takes some work on the hostess part to collect them in advance, but it by far the most special and meaningful gift to have so many special memories and beautiful thoughts about motherhood from my closest friends and family all wrapped up in one binder. So many babyproducts come and go but this bookis priceless and timeless and even my daughter loves looking at all the creative crafts and stickers, poems, etc included.

Second Child: Books are great gifts especially for a second baby when parents may not need as many baby items. Have all your guests bring their childs favorite book and write a message on the inside. Put all the books in a basket to give to the mother.

Sibling Gifts: It is nice when doing a shower for a mom who already has a child at home to do a little sibling basket. It helps that child to feel included and it can also be a great distraction for the mom to dip into when she is trying to nurse, put the baby to bed, etc. This can be inexpensive by having everyone bring something age appropriate and interactive.

Games & Activities

–submitted by J. Tangel
Opening Gifts: The best thing that happened at my baby shower… was that each guest picked a present and after introducing themself, opened it and describing it they held up the gift to display it. My grandma nearly 90 years old put a cute strawberry cap on her head and we all laughed. It is a photo I will treasure always. There were nearly 50 guests at my shower and even more presents than people. Thats a lot of presents to to sit through and watch the opening of. I think sharing the opening of the gifts gave me a break and kept the guests more involved.

–submitted by N. Martz
Baby food tasting contest: We’ve all *looked* at baby food and tried to guess the contents…how about tasting the food?! Using 7 – 10 baby foods -with some similar colors (carrots, sweet potatoes) to confuse the guests — put a small dallop of each on paper plates, and number each one. (So each guest will have their own plate with 10 dallops). The person who guesses the most flavors wins a prize (not baby food!!)

Memory game: How many baby products can you remember in 10 seconds? The hostess puts about 15 baby products on a tray. She shows it to each guest for 10 seconds. Then the guests try to write down as many items as they can remember. Some of the items should be tough for non-moms to recognize or name — medicine spoon, door handle cover, etc.

–submitted by Melanie Pearlman
Game: I have compiled a timeline of fetal development along the 40-week gestation time. The timeline is posted and party-goers (in teams) have a list of 12 or so events/developments that need to be placed in the correct order and close to the right time. Whoever gets closest wins.

–submitted by H. Eubank
Activity: Using a sheet of paper or card, each person writes a birthday card to the child to open on a different birthday. Can include encouragement, a blessing or prayer, what is popular today, or fun information about the babys parents. Really cute idea!

–submitted by P. Morales
Baby Charades: All guests must pick a new baby item topic out of a hat, then act out the item to the mom-to-be. Items can be anything from diapers, to rattles, to hemroid cream, anything she may use, and everyone but the expecting mom knows what the item is. It is hilarious to see the women pretend to bathe an imaginary baby or pack a diaper bag, but it is even FUNNIER to see the mom-to-be frantically trying to guess what the item is.

–submitted by J. Ambrose
Charades: My friend and I made up cardswith baby/pregnancy related words on them (i.e. baby jogger, obgyn, epidural, labor, highchair, bottle, etc.) and we rated them from 1 to 3 points. Then we made up teams of two and they had to act them out for their partner (one card from each point group) in one minute. It was a really fun and different baby shower game – lots of laughs guaranteed!

–submitted by J. Gonzalez
Activity/Gift: We took onesies, socks and hats and hung them up on a clothesline. Then asked the guest to pick an item to decorate. We had a large table with a wipe-able tablecloth an lots of fabric pants, stamps, fabric and iron on glue paper to put the fabric on. Everyone loved getting creative and it was also a good mixer. People got ideas from one another and came up with the cutest ideas. When they were done, they hung up their lil masterpiece on the clothesline to dry. The mommy to be got to take them home and use them for the new baby.