Baby Shower Ideas

A Time For Togetherness

If you're planning a baby shower, then you're probably not the mother-to-be. You may be a good friend, her sister, mother, or another family member who wants to do something special for someone special in your life. What is most important to remember is that the primary thing about a baby shower is that it is an opportunity for good friends and family to get together, have a good time, and celebrate the soon arrival of a new member of the growing community of family and friends.

The Evolution of Baby Showers

Years ago, baby showers were quite formal affairs where only a handful of women came together to give gifts and share horror stories about their birth experiences. As time went on, things began to change. From pinwheel sandwiches, punch and cake, which were standard baby shower foods, things progressed to veggie platters, cheese, coffee, and cake. The attire was more relaxed and eventually wine was added to the menu as baby shower food went gourmet. Today, since we all know that alcohol and pregnancy don't mix, the wine is gone. Men are welcome at showers these days, when in the past it was only women, and baby shower food is basically anything anyone wants to bring, unless you're following a theme. The cake can be replaced by individual squares decorated as baby blocks, or parfaits in the colors chosen for the shower.

Choosing A Baby Shower Theme

Themes are popular, and they really do make planning a baby shower a lot easier. You can pick a color theme, or a motif, like a French garden, and build your shower around it. Have a "baby bath time" shower and focus on gifts for bath and bedtime. A toy shower is also a great way to help a new mom out, especially since baby learning toys can be quite expensive. When you pick a theme, then the baby shower decorations are all complementary to that theme. The baby shower games can be random or geared to the theme as well. There really is no end to the things you can do for a baby shower.

If the mother-to-be knows the sex of her baby, then the shower can be constructed with that in mind. When a baby boy is on the way, baby shower decorations for a boy's shower might be cars, trucks, airplanes, boats and rockets. Favorite nursery rhymes or Toy Story characters might be center stage. Colors can be bright and bold or soft and muted.

What About a Gift?

Gift giving for baby showers runs the gamut from the most practical, like the New Parent DVD and Manual that includes the most recent information for new parents, to multicolored baby bottles and baby slinky toys. As the shower organizer, you can assign each guest a time of day in the baby's life - such as bath time, or bed time, feeding time, diaper change...you get the idea. Then, the person brings a gift that is specific for that time period in baby's day. It's a great way to get some variety and to help ensure there aren't six of the same thing given as gifts. The mother-to-be will be grateful.

Baby shower gift ideas for boys include such wonderful things as gift baskets for the bath, with little guy designs on the towels and wash cloths, handmade baby soaps (pure, of course) in boy colors and bathtub toys in the shape of cars, trucks, and airplanes. Wall hangings with wonderful baby shower poems for boys, like Why God Made Little Boys or, My Daddy's Hand, are items that will stay in the child's room for years.