Fillable Printable Baby Shower Planning Guide

Baby Shower Planning Guide

Planning a Baby Shower

When it comes to life’s big events they don’t get much bigger

than the birth of a baby, it’s a very exciting time and one that

should be memorable, so what better way to make an expect-

ant mum feel special than a Baby Shower, it’s a great way for

friends and family to get together per-birth to celebrate with

mum-to-be.

The baby shower as a concept originated in America but its

fast been growing in popularity in the UK. It’s essentially a

celebration of baby’s imminent arrival and a chance for mum-

to-be to be centre of attention, before baby becomes the

focus, and its a time to celebrate new life and share advice on

parenting with her friends and family.

To help you organise a successful event we written a few helpful hints and tips to help you plan

your party and host a special day.

The Baby shower Host

Traditionally it’s always been close friends who throw the baby shower, not close family, this

rule was meant to avoid the appearance that the family was simply on a mission to collect

gifts,however these days the etiquette is a little more relaxed and it can be anyone from a close

family member, such as a mother or sister to a co-worker. Basically anyone can host a baby

shower, a relative, best friend or colleague, as long as the person hosting the party is comfort-

able about planning it.

Who Should be Invited?

Close friends and family members are a natural for the guest list. If you're thinking of adding

others to the list, consider whether it would be appropriate for that person to buy a gift for the

guest of honour, since that's the norm at a baby shower. If the mum-to-be isn’t comfortable

with the idea of everyone having to bring gifts, you can always make it optional, and use the

shower as an excuse to spend an enjoyable afternoon together before the birth, a "female-

bonding ritual," with lots of oohing and aahing over all things babies and exchanging of labour

tales.

As with bridal showers, baby showers today can certainly be

coed, so the father-to-be and his friends can join in the

celebration as well, but it will change the chemistry of the

party so decide what format your mum to be would like, she

might appreciate a chance to hang out with all her girlfriends,

before she has other demands on her precious time.

Setting A Date For The Baby Shower

Generally speaking most mums-to-be appreciate a shower

later in pregnancy, and a party can be a welcome distraction

towards the end. Before setting a date for the party, talk to

guests you really want to be there, they may be able to warn

you about any prior commitments. There’s nothing is worse

than planning a party, sending out invitations, only to ﬁnd that

the most important people can't make it. Alternatively you

could decide to hold a baby shower after the baby is born.

That way guests can bring gifts speciﬁc to your baby's gender.

People generally buy a present for baby once they arrive so if

you didn’t like the idea of a shower and gifts before the baby is

here, then a later shower could be perfect, and with a new-

born baby to fuss over, there’ll be lots to talk about too.

Consider the time too, an afternoon event is possible better

for the expectant mum, that night time, as she could be feeling

tired especially in the later stages of pregnancy.

Where should we hold the baby shower?

Anywhere you can comfortable entertain a group of people

will ﬁt the bill, a home, local restaurant or hired room. Ideally,

the party shouldn’t be at mum’s-to-be, you don’t want her

worrying about cleaning up before everyone arrives or after

they leave. If the mum-to-be would prefer to have the event at

home, then why not ask a few of the invitees if they'll stay

behind to help clear up. What should we do at the baby

shower?

There aren’t set guidelines for what happens at a baby

shower, but you may wish to choose a theme to tie everything

together, although it's not necessary. Should you wish to set a

theme it can be simple, from a simple colour choice to an

afternoon tea, the important thing is to consider mum-to-be

after all this is her day, so consider her likes and dislikes and

make sure to pick a theme that will suit her.

You'll probably want to serve some kind of refreshments. You

may prefer to skip alcohol, in support of mum’s abstinence,

but there are some lovely non-alcoholic, fruity cocktail recipes

available, or an afternoon tea would suit.

Set the right tone for an event celebrating the start of a rich, full life with delightful, healthy

tasty bites, with a few sinful options through in. Keep last-minute preparations to a minimum

by choosing foods that are easy to prepare, there's no shame in asking guests to bring some-

thing either, share the load amongst mum-to-be friends, just make sure they don’t mind

helping out.

If mum-to-be and her guests are down for a little silliness, you could break the ice with a few

silly games, There are lots of ideas available on the internet but we especially like the follow-

ing ones:

My Gorgeous Baby

Give guests some Play-Doh in a variety of colors. Set a timer for ﬁve minutes and have them

sculpt a baby to the best or worst of their ability. Then have mum-to-be judge which one she

likes best in diﬀerent categories, such as most realistic, most creative and most disturbing.

It's a great game to kick oﬀ the shower, and it will get guests laughing and talking.

Baby Charades

If there are quite a few guests then a team game can be fun. Split the guests up into two

teams and enjoy a game of charades, one player from the team acts out a word or phrase

and her team mates trying to guess

what it is. To theme the game, all the words being

acted could be related to pregnancy, babies,

parenthood, or the parents-to-be.

You can have the two teams write down words for

each other on slips of paper and have the person

whose turn it is has to draw one of the slips then

act it out to try to earn points for her own team.

Guess Who?

Everyone loves a guessing game. Before the

shower, ask all the guests to bring a picture

of themselves as a baby. Then for the shower,

assemble all the photos on a board or post them

on a wall and give each one a number. Then

during the shower, pass out sheets of paper

to the guests so they can write down which

grown-up they think matches which baby picture.

If the guests don't know each other well, name

tags can help the process. The person who gets

the most correct answers wins.

If you don’t think mum-to-be or guests would

enjoy games why not keep guests entertained

by asking them to add a wish, quote or piece

of advise to a guest book, for mum to keep

as a reminder of this special day.