Trendy party ideas, but I came out of my four showers with car seats, a high chair, a portacrib, a baby swing, and I can't remember what else because it's been a while. Stuff I really needed and used for all my children. We do most of our showers with group gifts ($20). I do like the book shower idea and have hosted them for a couple of friends.
Build a Better Baby Shower
Photo: Ⅿeagan
I’m going to reveal something that isn’t exactly a secret to those who know me well. I have an intense dislike for hokey showers, (baby, bridal, or otherwise) and the hokey themes and games that traditionally go with them. There are so many ways to be a bit hipper about it these days that I decided to compile a list of suggestions to...well...build a better baby shower.
1. The Safety Shower
Have everyone sign up for a set of specific items like the cupboard door latches, toilet bowl locks, window alarms, and more. Make it co-ed and have the handy folks install everything under the instruction of the parents to be, and bring pizza. Casual, conversational and no fuss.
2. Photo Shoot Shower
Make this one for the Mom and Dad-to-be both. Have a background or two set up and bring in a photographer to take some tender photographs of the couple. If you have a close enough relationship with enough trust between the couple and the folks throwing the shower, have a private part of the shower where you can take a striking black and white nude series. I’ve never forgotten how long and often a close friend of mine commented on the pregnancy photo of her doctor’s wife he had hanging in his office. It was taken somewhere on a mountain or plateau in the Holy Land with nature all around her and the wind in her hair. She was completely nude and very pregnant.
3. Spa Day Shower
Send Mom and Dad out for a couple’s massage or hire someone to come and provide spa services at the house. Great for when nobody can get their schedules to coordinate. Just have everyone chip in, sign the card, and send the parents to be on their spa adventure.
4. Cleaning and Casserole Shower
Do a little assembly cooking featuring meals the couple likes to eat and stock their freezer. Then, let them relax while you clean their house from top to bottom. I can assure you, any pregnant woman I’ve ever talked with was stressed about the cleaning situation just before delivery.
5. Art Shower
Throw a really funky art themed shower. The kids can even get involved here. Make black and white ceiling mobiles or collages for the stage in the baby’s development where visual stimulation in this area is critical. Paint the baby bump to match a season or theme. I’ve seen some really cute ones done — Jack-o-lanterns, Easter eggs, fish bowls, nature scenes...you name it. Painting the baby bump and taking some cool pictures for posterity is a super fun way to go.
Another artsy idea is to organize one of those body cast moldings, although you’ll want someone who really knows what they are doing here, so you don’t go to the emergency room to have plaster casting removed from the mom-to-be’s skin. The kids can put hand prints or glue little treasures on the inside with messages. If you’re talking about people who are already into modern art, this type of shower should go over well.
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6. Music Shower
Any baby themed music is a go here. Appropriate children’s development music, pregnancy relaxation CDs, or even baby lyric dance tunes from the seventies. Get creative and serve some fun food.
7. Decorate the Nursery Shower
This takes trust between all parties, and makes the assumption that you have someone involved with some decorating and renovating talent. However, you can have a real “Trading Spaces” type of event with the right crowd. Think about it.
8. Custom Wardrobe and Linens Shower
Have fun with potato printing, appliqués, fabric markers for writing messages on quilt squares from the older brothers and sisters...all kinds of things would be fun to do here.
9. Classic Kiddy Lit Shower
Give the parents a jump on their classic children’s literature library with this shower theme where everybody brings a different title. Got a teacher in your family? Enlist them in the list of recommendations effort.
10. Back Yard BBQ and Supplies Shower
This one is particularly good if the couple has had children before and consequently is all set on most of the other items. Just have everyone bring consumable supply items such as diaper supplies, lotions, powders, rash ointments, baby shampoos, etc. Go green with the product selections if you feel it is appropriate to the couple. It also falls into the low stress/can put it together on the fly party planning list.
11. Theme with Attitude
Instead of the traditional booties hanging from the chandelier, go with something like a luau theme where all the gifts are in a backyard hammock, people can bring their kids and have a limbo contest, and mom-to-be can enjoy frozen tropical mocktails. Don’t forget the tiki torches!
12. The Mix and Match Shower
Great if you want the nursery decorating or the casserole and cleaning shower ideas to be a surprise. Send them for a couples massage and then have them arrive home to a spotless house and a casserole stocked freezer.
These are just a few I came up with or found on the web. Please feel free to chime in with your cool shower ideas, as usual.
Best of Wise Bread
I had everyone buy a pack of diapers, plus a gift for a friend's shower. She swears saved her boatloads of money, plus she didn't end up with 80 pink onesies.
Also, a favorite for any shower, have the guest write their name and address on stamped envelope at the door. It saves the mom to be the trouble of looking for their husband's great aunt's address.
Great Ideas!
I appreciate your both taking the time to comment. Diapers are definitely high on the "consumable" items list in my book, particularly if you are not going cloth. Chip in showers, where everybody contributes a set amount to go towards a higher end item are also a good idea, particularly for first time parents. And that addressed envelope idea is a great thank you card hack!
Love the ideas! My mother is throwing me a baby shower next month. She is such a traditionalist but I'm going to gently hint a few of your suggestions to her :)
Hi - the last baby shower I hosted was for a wonderful mother from a wealthy family on the other side of the country. As her west coast "Mom" I knew she would be getting everything she needed for her new baby from her family back east, so I had a book and toy party. This was a huge hit - everyone enjoyed bringing their favorite board book and picking out a fun toy for baby's first year. Since the mom was planning to stay home for the first couple of years, she really appreciated the books and toys.
Thanks for the great suggestions!
Susan
I did a baby shower with a theme "little monster" that turned out pretty well...
http://sarabrumfield.blogspot.com/2007/05/its-showering-babies-part-ii.html
Another one later (sorry, no writeup) with a Pirate theme.
I've had tons of fun doing non traditional showers...
I agree with your distaste for hokey showers and really like the first alternative suggested (for those who absolutely must have a shower) but a lot of these still seem pretty cutsey. Most of the women I know who don't appreciate traditional showers would also appreciate it if people would leave their "baby bumps" alone!
I guess it's all in the eye of the recipient, but yes, any of these ideas could be considered cutesy or hip, depending on how they were implemented. As for the baby bump thing, I guess that is one of those individul decisions as well. You either want to feel like a goddess / warrior / powerful chick about it or you don't. For those who enjoy the shower thing but not the super traditional style these are just some suggestions.
As for the tweak factor, here's an example of what I mean (and you certainly are under no obligation to agree with me). For the backyard luau, don't worry about it having lots of plastic decorations or anything. Think of it as a Jimmy Buffet style party that grown adults of both sexes to can show up to and enjoy. (Let's face it, guys get left out of the wedding and baby festivities quite a bit and it's their party too after all.) Tiki torches, frozen drinks , some cool tunes and a hammock instead of a gift table make it more of a dinner party where gifts are delivered.
The other contributed shower ideas seem workable too. The long distance idea is one I've seen video taped before where people send messages with their gift before it goes in the box so the recipient can know what thoughts were behind their choice.
Keep the feedback coming, everybody.
I think that baby showers are a great way for first time mothers to get a lot of nice things for the baby that they otherwise may not be able to afford. I have no problem spending money on a friend or family member for this occasion. The problem I have is actually sitting through the entire baby/bridal shower watching the recipient open present after present for hours on end. So I completely agree with the idea of making it a party where people can bring presents, but the presents are not the focus of the party.
I just have to say I really, really dislike when the hostess asks me to do that (Address my own envelope). Honestly, if you're too darn busy to write the addresses out yourself maybe you shouldn't be having a shower. Or getting married or having kids. You obviously had my address to send me an invite so you should still have it. To me, that's one of those things that makes a shower feel "gimme gimme". I really don't like how writing thank you notes is considered such a burden to people, or annoyance on the path to "getting stuff".
I would never take that that way, and I've found it's especially nice when your in-laws are the ones throwing the shower. I didn't know half of the people at my bridal shower, and I certainly didn't have their addresses. As an exhausted, working mom-to-be, it's even more of a blessing to have those already done for me. That being said, I make the thank you cards and address and stamp them all myself for every shower I throw, rather than having the guests do it themselves. I just make out all of the thank you envelopes when I'm addressing the invites. You still write a nice thank you note - you just don't have to search for the addresses.
You know, I wasn't thinking of that before. I was just thinking of how exhausted the mother is. Perhaps it might be something that the person throwing the shower could do for the mother ahead of time or help her do. Since it had never been something I had to do, I hadn't been in a position where I knew what it felt like to have to write it out.
Regardless, what you say is food for thought. Thanks.
especially for the second-time, third-time or beyond mom. lord, how i would have loved a cleaning shower!
best shower I ever had was a diaper shower given by my closest friends for the impending birth of our 4th child. I had already removed the stuff I never used for the first 3 kids and the last thing we needed was clothes or more stuff!
That's what I was thinking. Since there's no stress about which gifts to get and having to open them while everybody waits and watches (I always feel that's awkward for any shower), the focus can be on getting together, helping out with the hard stuff and wishing the couple well. Hence, the backyard BBQ.
And Carrie, I 'm thinking I would love a cleaning present any time of the year . . . birthday, anniversary . .. whattaya say?
One of my absolute favorite wedding gifts was from my sister - who took all our invitation addresses (and corrections from the RSVPs) and copied them into a nice address book for us.
Of course, now it's hopelessly buried in a box somewhere under all our other stuff while we're moving. But I still love the idea.
So, possibly tacky if the guests do it themselves. Positively sweet if someone does it for them.
-C
When I threw my sister's shower, I had the guests adress the envelopes and put them in a pretty basket. Towards the end of the shower, my sister drew one and that person won a very nice prize.
I love throwing baby showers! I really enjoy coming up with theme and decorating without using tacky party store decorations.
Here are a couple of showers that I threw for my cousins:
this one was a tea party in January
http://www.strattonlife.com/2008/01/another-baby-shower.html
and this one had an really cute rubber ducky theme for twins
http://www.strattonlife.com/2007/09/twins-baby-shower.html
The website www.hostesswiththemostess.com has some great ideas for nontraditional baby shower themes.
I once went to a baby shower where the mother said she didn't need anything. The alternative gift was that everyone chipped in for a really nice tree for the family's yard. On it, everyone hung a paper ornament. One side of the ornament had the person's baby picture, and the other side words of wisdom for the new parents. The game was for the mom to figure out whose baby photo was whose.
Love the article! I know most people, if they're honest, get a shower invitation in the mail and immediately groan or cringe. Heck, I have three kids, and I didn't like going to my OWN showers. The ideas presented sound infinitely more fun than the norm.
Next time I get a shower invitation, though, I think I'm going to simply have the gift delivered (wrapped and with a note, of course). It saves having to endure the 'party' (read: torture device for introverts like me), but conveys my gift and warm wishes.
My FAVORITE baby shower game (thanks to my kickass sisters who hosted my baby shower) - baby bottle beer chugging. Fill a baby bottle w/ a light, cheap beer & have 3-4 people race to see who could finish it first. (we opened the hole for easier/faster flow - didn't want people passing out midway thru). It was hilarious, and really engaged the guys (and others who weren't digging the whole shower thing)
On a different note - I like it when the mother/bride-to-be shares a story about the gift giver while opening the present (or the gift giver gives advice to mother-to-be at the time). I think it's classy & takes the focus away from the whole "oh, I love it! Thanks for buying me that thing I registered for!"
I just hosted an EcoFriendly Baby Shower for my friend and i ordered a centerpiece from http://www.GrowInStyle.com. The 100% organic ecofriendly diaper cake was the hit of the party! It was the most unique and creative gifts the mom to be has ever recieved, and it looked beautiful as a decoration! It contained a bunch of useful things the mom will get to use on her baby, including a blanket, recieveing blanket, onesies, burp cloths, dipaer cream , 2 natural teethers, sophie the giraffe and chan pie gnon teether as well as the all natural Natursutten pacifier- the coolest pacifier ever! the cake was very cheap and of the best quality that i came across.. the mom absolutely loved it! I highly recommend it to anyone considering an ecofriendly baby shower gift.
I have a friend that is really not a people person. However, people really like her. I can't see her sitting in room with people watching her open presents, so , I am throwing her a surprise scavenger hunt (her husband will be in on it). The invitations explain what is going on and instructs people to leave their gifts at my house by a certain time. The clues will lead my friend and her husband to my house to find their "treasures" later on that day.
I think that baby showers are a great way for first time mothers to get a lot of nice things for the baby that they otherwise may not be able to afford. I have no problem spending money on a friend or family member for this occasion. The problem I have is actually sitting through the entire baby/bridal shower watching the recipient open present after present for hours on end. So I completely agree with the idea of making it a party where people can bring presents, but the presents are not the focus of the party
What should I do--the mother will be 6 months along in Dec and 7 in January? When should I do it---also consider the holiday season!
How about a holiday themed shower between Thanksgiving and the beginning of December? Or go earlier, like after Halloween and have a harvest theme for food and decorations?
Check out the Baby Shower Invitations I had made. They were perfect for the occasion.
