Free Baby Shower Ideas for You

A baby shower is held during the last stage of pregnancy. However, it can be celebrated as soon as the confirmation of pregnancy if the host wishes. Adoptive parents usually wait until the baby arrives before throwing a baby shower.

In case you're in charge with planning the baby shower, here are some tips to help you along:

Consider your Budget

The point of a baby shower is to help the new mom with some of the essentials, as well as some of the extravagances, for her new baby. Don't break the bank planning the shower. Skip the expensive wine and cheeses and go with an inexpensive buffet. For a rally nice shower that stays within a tight budget, why not consider a tea party? Just supply some cookies, sandwiches, salads and other tea party fare, and you have yourself an inexpensive, but classy, baby shower. Be sure to have some other beverages on hand for those who don't like tea.

If a tight budget is a consideration, be sure to have the baby shower between meals. If you have your shower during lunch or dinner, people might expect a full meal.

Baby Shower Invitations

Formal invitations are not required; however they do lend a nice touch to a baby shower. Invitations don't need to expensive, and can even be handmade with store-bought stationery. Don't forget to include all the important information in your baby shower invitations: date; time; name of the baby (if the parents have one already); location; RSVP details; whether it's a surprise party and any theme you may have chosen.

Get the invitations out early enough so people can plan to attend, but not so early that people will have forgotten the date by the time it arrives. Three weeks ahead of the baby shower is a good time frame.

One clever baby shower invitation idea is to make your announcement in the form of a poem. Here's an example:

Do you wanna see one lovely sight?
You have to make it to Ellen's baby shower this night.
Where will it be you might ask.
It's at a small cafe called the Cask
What time, what time?
Come at 8pm, right on the dime.

Okay, really bad, but, you get the idea.

Baby Shower Decorations

Your baby shower decoration depend in part on whether you're having a formal baby shower or something that's a little more casual. You can help yourself tremendously by choosing a theme for the baby shower. Whether it's a color theme like blue or pink or if it's centered around a theme such as dolls or trucks, you can narrow down your decorating choices by choosing a theme.

Below are some general baby shower decorating ideas:

Baby bottles used as centerpieces with candies, flowers or candles. They can also be used to serve your condiments (mustard and ketchup)

Baby potty chairs can also be used to make a floral arrangement

A "baby clothesline" is a good way to display baby gift items and decorate at the same time. You tie a string across a room, then hang baby clothes, bibs and diapers with clothespins.

Baby Shower Themes

Having a theme adds more life to the baby shower. The theme could be incorporated into the invitations, the food and drinks as well as the decorations. Again, decorations need not be expensive, just use your imagination. You can narrow on a baby shower theme by:

• Asking the expectant mother what theme she would enjoy the most.
• Going with the nursery theme (if any) the prospective parents have chosen for the baby. This benefits the guests as well as the new mother by giving them direction on what gifts to buy (gifts that complement the theme).

Baby Shower Cakes

Since so many bakeries have gotten creative with cakes, choosing one can be a challenge for any couple with a new born child. Below are some details of different styles of cakes if your are having a baby shower soon.

Toy Blocks Cake: Why not select one that is shaped to look like toy blocks? If you want to you can even make this cake yourself. Normally the cake will look like lots of small blocks that would have the letters of the alphabet on them or it will just be one large one.

Pregnant Belly Cake: If the baby has not yet been born, you could go for a cake that is shaped like a pregnant woman's belly. Again this actually be very simple to make yourself. To do this shape of cake, one circular and one rectangular cake are needed. Place the circular cake on top of the rectangular one and then cover it in frosting until such time that it resembles and takes on the appearance of a pregnant woman's stomach.

An Autograph Cake: If you want to produce a cake that is something a little more special, consider making an autographed cake. This is probably the easiest and quickest of all baby shower cakes. All is needed is a rectangular cake onto which you have written in icing "Congratulations" and then get yourself and those who have been invited to the party to sign it (again in icing) before presenting to the mom-to-be.

Theme Cake: If the baby shower has a theme, design the cake around it. If the theme is a baby animals them, then a cake in the shape of an animal, or baby animals decorated on top of the cake would complement the theme nicely.

Baby Shower Games

While all baby showers don't necessarily have to incorporate games, they are great ice-breakers, especially if the guests don't all know each other. Typically, you would play two to four games at a baby shower, depending on how much time it takes. The winner of the game is usually given a small gift from the hostess as a prize. You may also consider lesser prizes, such as

• Potpourri
• Candles
• Bath Soaps
• Picture Frames
• Food Goodies
• Flowers or other items that were decorations for the shower

Remember to have enough pens and paper for all your guests.

Briefly, here are some baby shower games you might consider:

Name Game - forming words with letters in baby names
Rice Bowl - while blind-folded try to find safety pins in rice
Baby Guests - try to match each guest to their baby photo
Baby Bingo - bingo with baby words instead of numbers
Round the Tummy - guests estimate size of mom's tummy
It's in the Bag - guess what items are only by touch
Baby Word Scramble - unscrambling baby-related words

And, Finally...

It would be nice if the host could provide a book for guests to write messages to the mother-to-be. Another alternative is to have little cards for guests to write the well wishes to the expecting mother. The cards could then be inserted into a special photo album together with photographs taken on that day as a special memento for the mother (and a great keepsake as the child gets older).

Synonyms:  Aby, abby, bbaby, bby, bbay, baaby, bay, bayb, babby, bab, and babyy are typos and mispells for the word "baby."  Hower, hsower, sshower, sower, sohwer, shhower, shwer, shwoer, shoower, shoer, shoewr, showwer, showr, showre, showeer, showe, and showerr are typos and mispells for "shower."