Hosting a perfect baby shower

Hosting a Perfect baby Shower

Whether you are hosting one for your friend, sister or relative or you prefer to organise a baby shower for yourself it is a fab break from a pregnant women’s daily struggle with nausea, acidity and swollen feet. There is nothing more wonderful for an expecting mum than the feeling that people around her are just as excited about the forthcoming big event in her life. So here are some ideas to host a delish baby shower. You can do it yourself or hire someone to plan it for you, there are some things to think about:

Theme Scheme: A suitable theme is an important decision to take. You can either go for a classic pink or blue theme based on the sex of the baby, nursery rhymes or even baby utilities as theme where you use things like diapers, rattles, feeding bottles to decorate the place. A shower for twins can have “peas in a pod” theme. Spa theme where the whole place is decorated like a spa with incense, flowers, bamboo shoots, towels. Guests can be in spa robes, masseuse, beauticians can be called to pamper the mother and the guests.

Logistics etc: Once the theme is decided, the rest will follow suit. For example the cake, the decor, the return favours, balloons, invites and even the games should reflect the theme. Make the shopping list and menu accordingly. Freeze the place where you want to have the shower whether it is a restaurant, friends’ house or your own. Make the guest list and start with the invites (either simple or ones reflecting the theme). Get the perfect music and ambience for the shower and get going.

Fun and games : It is a really well planned shower where the prizes for the games are also as per the selected theme. Here are a few games you can organise:

a)      Passing the pacifier: Instruct each guest to hold a pencil in their mouth and hang a pacifier  on one of the pencils. The idea is to pass the pacifier around from pencil to pencil without dropping it. If the player drops it, she’s out and the last one remaining is the winner.

b)      Celebrity Babies: Get photographs of some celebrity babies like babies of Tom cruise, Madonna, Jennifer Garner etc. and ask the guests to guess the celebrity baby and their parent.

c)      Guessing the belly: Each guest guesses the expecting mum’s waist size and the one whose guess is closest to the correct size is the winner.

d)      Guess the contents: Put a few baby items in a pouch and let each guest feel them and list them out on a piece of paper. The one who gets the maximum correct ones is the winner. This can also be used for a memory games where the guests will memorise the contents of the pouch and then  write down the names of the goodies they had seen.

e)    Smell the diaper: Put different types of chocolates or alcohol into different diapers and get the guests to identify which chocolate is in which diaper just by smelling them.

f)   Passing  the parcel with a twist: The punishment chits can have innovative punishments like ‘Burp like a baby’, ‘crawl on all fours’ etc.

Food and drinks

After the games, it is time for refreshments. The spread can consist of little bite sized items like mini muffins, mini tarts etc, Salads, a live pasta counter, and mouth watering desserts. A shower cake is also important, some ideas for the shower cake are pacifier-shaped cakes, stroller shaped cakes, rattle shaped cakes etc. A naughty cake like one with 3D figure of a naked pregnant woman in the centre can also be used.

Shower Gift ideas:

The most interesting part is the opening of the gifts. So here are some ideas for shower gifts:

a)      Essential baby accessories like baby monitors, high chairs, baby bath, car seats etc.

b)      A baby portfolio session with a good photographer

c)       Subscription to a good parenting magazine

d)      Belly or hand casting kit

The end of the shower can be marked with all the friends handing out a list of baby names to the mother to be. I am sure such a memorable shower will always be a shower of dreams for any pregnant woman.