Baby shower themes are one of the most important parts of planning a baby shower. You want your theme to not only reflect the mother-to-be but also to provide a fun and relatable environment for your guests. Of course, if you happen to know the baby’s gender, you can plan accordingly. But for those times when mom and dad are keeping the baby’s gender a surprise, or if you just want to go with a less obvious approach, gender-neutral baby shower themes are a nice fallback. The following ideas will give you a great jumping off point for planning your shower whether a baby girl or boy is on the way.
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Baby Shower Themes:
Around the Clock
If you’ve ever had a baby, then you know that babies aren’t respecters of time. An around-the-clock shower is a great way to help your mom-to-be get prepared for the adventure that awaits with time-themed presents for all hours of the day – and night.
Start with a fun clock-themed invitation and assign each of your guests an hour of the day. Have them shop for gifts that the new parents might find useful at that particular time. Keep in mind that not all of your guests have been up with a newborn at 3am, so be prepared to offer suggestions if they need some help.
Decorate with clocks, stars, suns or moons. Don’t be afraid to get creative for this one. You may even find hourglasses or sundials to add to the mix.
To keep the theme going, put alarm clocks around the room set to go off at different times. Whenever an alarm sounds, the person closest to that clock wins a prize!
Family Tree
From decorations to games, a family tree shower gets your guests involved from start to finish. Start by asking your mom and dad-to-be for baby pictures. You can use them on the invitations or go with a simple, tree-themed invite announcing the latest “branch.” Use the pictures to decorate for your shower and watch how much fun everyone has trying to figure out if the new baby will look more like mom or dad.
If you are including family members on your guest list, then be sure to ask for other pictures of aunts, uncles, and grandparents for even more decoration.
Use branches and sticks (available at most craft stores) as a centerpiece and hang gift items such as pacifiers and small toys from the ends with a clear fishing line or ribbon.
For a fun game that’s true to the baby shower theme, ask each of the guests ahead of time to send in a baby picture of themselves. Put the picture on a poster board or in frames with a number assigned to each. Have your guests try to guess who each of the babies are and award a prize to the one with the most correct answers.
Go Green
We all have that one friend or family member that likes to keep it green. So if the Mother Nature in your life is expecting, give her the shower that matches her personality best. With a “keeping it green” shower, you can start by avoiding paper invitations. Use email invites or a website to send out invites and ask guests to bring environmentally friendly gifts. Sites like Amazon, Baby Earth and Etsy are great places to shop for gifts that are eco-friendly, organic or fair trade. You may even want to ask guests to skip the wrapping paper and use brown bags or recycled paper to wrap their gifts.
For decorations, use potted plants or saplings that the guests (or your mom-to-be) can take home to replant. For an activity, have a crafting session. Have guests write advice, wishes, hopes or prayers for the new baby and parents on a piece of paper and decorate small boxes to hold each of the items. The boxes can be saved for the baby to unwrap at special occasions like birthday or Christmas throughout their childhood
Ready to Pop
For that mom-to-be that feels like she might pop at any moment, a Ready to Pop shower is sure to bring a smile to her face. This shower is every bit as fun as it sounds with countless ideas for decorations, food, and games.
Balloons are a must when it comes to decorations. But you can also use cut-out circles to add some “pop” to the décor. Use a metallic marker to write baby-themed quotes on colorful circles and post them around the room or use them as cake or cupcake toppers. You can also fill a basket with small circles for guests to write advice or well wishes for the new parents.
When it comes to food, popcorn is a fun – and a creative – way to follow through with your theme. Find recipes for sweet and savory popcorn on your favorite recipe website and create a popcorn bar or send home bags of popcorn home with your guests as favors. For a sweet treat, serve cake pops in your chosen colors. And, of course, don’t forget the bubbly! Champagne or a non-alcoholic fizzy drink, like sparkling cider or Italian soda, makes a perfect addition to the party.
For games, get your guests moving with a balloon pop relay. Fill two garbage bags with an equal number of blown up balloons and divide into two teams. Have the teams compete to see who can pop all of the balloons in their bag first with a relay-style competition. Or give each guest a balloon and have them blow it up to match the mom-to-be’s belly. Whoever gets the closest to the actual size wins a prize.
Feeding Frenzy
There are a few things no one ever tells you about pregnancy and newborns. At the top of that list? The feeding frenzy. From crazy pregnancy cravings to newborns that seem to want to eat all of the time, food plays a central role in the baby process. So why not celebrate it?
While few people actually crave pickles and ice cream, pregnancy cravings are CRAZY. Check with mom first to find out what her biggest cravings have been and make them part of your theme. Go for fun, food-themed invites that reflect mom’s taste and, of course, be sure to serve her favorites at the shower!
For a fun feeding frenzy themed game, stick with a classic. Pass around jars of baby food with the labels removed. Have guests taste each of them and write down their best guess for each one. The person with the most correct guesses wins.
Last, but absolutely not least, make this shower extra special by asking your guest to bring a freezer meal for mom to take home. Simple things like chili or lasagna that can be pulled out of the freezer are a lifesaver when a newborn makes meal prep a bit more challenging.
