Traditionality and Baby Showers

The traditional baby shower was thrown in order to shower the baby with gifts, and it was generally only accepted to be thrown for the first born child, I’m sure we all remember having plenty of clothes handed down! The baby shower would also be an opportunity for the parents and family members of the parent-to-be, to pass on knowledge that they had gained through the various pregnancies they had been through. While this probably still happens, there is no doubt that the original premise has been hijacked. Today parents throw a variety of different showers, both with friends and family, and it is generally expected that guests bring presents for the baby. There is no doubt that someone who had a baby shower in the US in the early 1900s would be extremely shocked by the kind of baby showers we experience today!

A “Modern” Baby Shower Nightmare

Although we’ve reached a point where baby showers are more about the gifts and the company you have, rather than passing on advice, the modern baby shower does not necessarily run smoothly; much like some pregnancies! Sometimes the baby shower is ‘organised’ by parents, and they seem to forget that the baby shower is for your own baby, not theirs. This might lead to some very awkward games being played with people you barely know, when all you wanted was to share a few drinks (strictly non-alcoholic!) with your friends. That being said, people have experiences baby showers where one too many drinks have been consumed by Auntie Mabel who you haven’t seen for 10 years, and she regales you with all the horror stories of her pregnancy.

Perhaps a pointer would be making sure you control the guest list! If you want the baby shower to be as successful as you would like it to be then organise it yourself, the last thing you want to happen is your baby shower to be one to forget. At the end of they day, your pregnancy is your pregnancy, and your baby shower should be your baby shower – whilst remembering your soon to be born baby as well.

The whole event is organized using themes that best describes how the parents see their new born. The theme is what puts life into the event; it ensures that the held party is fun, entertaining and a very memorable experience for both the parents and the guests.

Before selecting a theme, it is really important to jolt down points about the baby shower theme that you are going to use. Important points such as where is the event supposed to be held, what will be the food, what will be the location decorated with and whom to invite.

Many women like the idea of a theme that surrounds around a tea party; there are gift baskets that go along with the tea party. Gift baskets are ideal for any theme as they provide life to any theme that is decided.

You can make a special bouquet and present them with unique decorations. You can put pacifiers in the middle of the bouquet to give it a unique look.  Take some small red and green silk flowers; wrap them around to form a cone. Cover the cone with gold foils and tie it with a ribbon which would wound itself around the pacifier’s base and comes out of the loop of it.  In addition to this, you can add a diaper pin on one side of the foil with a pearl in the middle.

You could also make a cot using origami. Make dozens of these and wrap them with red and yellow ribbons around their tops to give a feel of quilt. In the middle, you can attach a pacifier with small silk flowers on them. These unique baby shower theme ideas can really bring out your love for the new born.

You can start by making mint bags out of mesh. The requirements for these bags are two yards of netting for 15 bags each. After knitting the bags together, you can put chocolates or mints in them and cover them with a colorful ribbon. The next step is to make floating candles, which are easily made in home and adds up to the overall theme. The requirements for making these are wine glasses in the shape of a goblet. You can decorate their stem with flowers and ribbons. You can then purchase a set of candle molds and melt the wax and put it into the mold.  When the wax gets hard, you can carefully remove it.

Another popular idea amongst many mothers is a diaper cake. These cakes are easily made and can be decorated with diaper rash cream, spoon set or any items you would like.

For a girl, a theme can be as simple as putting up the color pink. Start with invitations, color your cards with bright pink and make cute little hearts on it. Choose pink blankets, pink banners and any other items that match the color of the theme. You can also highlight the theme as a shower for the cute little princess. Pink baby booties can be perfect for a sprinkle theme, where the invited guests are only asked to bring basic gifts for the parents. You can make a diaper cake with pink bibs and decorate it with cute toys.

A theme consisting of cute animals can also be a good idea for a girly theme; girls generally tend to love cute animals. You can decorate your theme by animal paintings that represent farm animals or jungle animals. Disney’s Pooh is a great idea to go with if you decide on going with the animal theme.

Regardless of age, any boy enjoys comics. Comic themed showers are very popular for parents expecting a boy. There are various superhero movies and comics available, and almost everyone enjoys a comic themed party. It doesn’t necessarily means that you have to make your guests wear costumes on the event.  You can simply start the idea by making invitation cards with speech bubbles and drawings of characters in a comic strip.  For the decorations of the theme, you can simply put logos of famous super heroes around the location, such as Spiderman’s web around the corners; batman’s logo on the walls and chairs, Superman’s logo on the table cloths, etc. To make it even more interesting, you can put up a menu on the dinner table with speech bubbles on them.

Harry Potter

Of course the Harry Potter series became almost a classic from when it was first written. The books start off as fun with lots of lovely magic and imagination. The series does darken as it goes on and the age that they are suitable tends to rise with each book. The later books are also very thick and so would only appeal to those children that really like reading. However, if you can master this series then you are capable of reading anything really. The books are exciting and do appeal to boys and girls and they do have a great moral line running through them as well as managing to capture the imagination. Of course, there are always the films to fall back on if the books just become too tedious.

Narnia series

The Narnia series have been popular for generations and so are likely to continue to do so. Many people have read or are familiar with ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ but this is not the first book. The very first book focuses around a different set of children visiting Narnia and the later books have different children in as well. However, one good thing about the books is that you do not have to read them in order for them to make sense, although it does help. Which means that if you like certain stories more than others, you can just reread those.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is the precursor to the Lord of the Rings and is far easier and shorter. It is more aimed at children with some fun songs and a happy ending. It does have a fight but it is nothing like as nasty as the one in the other series of books. It is a great book for boys and girls, especially those ith a good imagination.

Heidi

This is one for the girls. It is a lovely story about a girl who is dumped by her mother to live with her Grandfather while she goes away to work. The grand father is miserable but the girl melts his heart and then learn to love each other. The girl is then sent to live in the house her mother is housekeeping at and she hates living in the town after living on the hillside with her grandfather and running freely in the meadows. It has a lovely ending and shows how a happy child can really help to soften an old man’s heart.

The Famous Five

Enid Blyton is always going to be a classic author. Some of her fairy books do not really appeal to everyone but her Famous Five series is great for boys and girls because it has boys and girls in the story and includes an element of problem solving and excitement. There are a lot of books in the series which means that there is plenty to keep children quiet and they can be read in any order.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the story of a caterpillar by Eric Carlewho starts off by being an egg which hatches in to a tiny caterpillar. He then eats lots of food on each day of the week and then grows bigger, turns in to a cocoon and eventually turns in to a butterfly. The metamorphosis teaches children about the life cycle of a caterpillar and the days of the week. The story is simple and as children grow they can read it to themselves. It is a gentle tale with a lovely ending.

Each, Peach, Pear, Plum

This book was written by Allan Ahlberg and illustrated by his late wife Janet Ahlberg and it is a lovely rhyming book. The pictures are fantastic too, with lovely details in a pastel colour. On each page you have to try to find a nursery rhyme character and the children can have great fun spotting them all in the picture. The characters eventually all get together at the end for a slice of plum pie – yum!

The Gruffalo

The team of Julia Donaldson with her lovely rhyming stories and Axel Scheffler with his beautiful illustrations is amazing. The story is about a clever mouse, who to avoid being eaten makes up a story about a scary Gruffalo who he says will be with him soon. The other animals are scared but when the mouse really does meet the Gruffalo the mouse is frightened but is clever enough to scare off the nasty monster. The book is  delightful tale of how cleverness can beat strength and despite the fact that it is a bout a monster, it makes a great bedtime story. It is also lovely to read as there are lots of opportunity for expression.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

This is the tale of a family that pass through interesting areas to get to a bears cave. They are looking for a bear but when they find him they get scared and run back again. It is a lovely story because the words make wonderful sounds and everyone can do the actions and imagine what it might really be like to hunt for bears. Michael Rosen has written it in a clever way which means that it is not scary but fun and the illustrations by Helen Oxenbury really bring it all alive.

Guess How Much I Love You

This is a book which many parents like to read to their children to illustrate how much they care for them. It is especially good for those who are from broken homes or not living with their parents because the two characters in the story are not a parent and child but just an older and a younger character, one who looks after the other. Sam McBratney has written a lovely story and the illustrations by Anita Jeram are charming and fun.

It is nice, of course to come up with something but it need not be traditional such as balloons and it need not be commercially bought. It could be a lovely touch if you have some bunting but ask each guest to design one of the flags or write a message on it so they then have a lovely memento of the occasion. If someone is good at embroidery then it could be fabric and then someone could sew over the messages. Another nice touch could be to use baby bunting made of fabric, knitted or crocheted which has been hand made and then this can also act as a lovely decoration for the new babies room.

Making a decoration which can then be a gift is also a great way of reusing something and is therefore also great if you have an environmental theme for your baby shower. It is possible to have lovely and heart felt decorations without costing a fortune and which will be much more appreciated than something expensive which is disposable. Putting lots of thought in to something, rather than lots of money is not only a lovely gesture, but people will probably not even notice that less money has been spent. Just make sure you use your planning time carefully and you should easily be able to come up with something spectacular, unique and well appreciated.

It could be a better idea for the hostess to just introduce all of the guests or ask them to introduce themselves to the group. If this is difficult or not appropriate then maybe provide guests with a name badge. It is amazing how much this can help people to get talking as they at least know one thing about each other. A good plan could be to have some games ready but only use them if you think it is necessary. If things go a bit quiet then maybe suggest a game and see what sort of response you get. It could be a great way to liven things up but if people are not keen then leave it.

Do not spend too long planning the games and then you will not be disappointed if the games are not played. If you have made something up, then you can always leave it with the mother afterwards so that she can play it if she wants to (of course depending on the type of game). The choice of whether to play games may also depend on the age of the guests. It may be that younger people would prefer to play games and older people may just prefer to have a slice of cake, cup of tea and a chat. It could be worth chatting to some of the people invited to find out what they think.